Three Came Home

An Underrated WWII Film Well Worth Your Time
I had never even heard of Three Came Home until I ran across it in a catalog. The description sounded interesting enough to get me to buy it, and I'm glad I did. Three Came Home is a riveting and moving film that grabs the viewer and never lets go. Focusing on what happened to many civilians in the Pacific the film covers a 4 year period from 1941 to 1945, and it shows what kind of hardships and trials many people had to endure in prison camps during the war, primarily focusing on womens camps. Claudette Colbert gives a fantastic performance, and Sessue Hayakawa is outstanding as the Colonel in charge of the prison camps. The script is intelligent and filled with great dialogue, and the acting is first rate throughout. The Alpha DVD is quite good - the print is VERY clean for a "bargain" (public domain) copy, and you should have no concerns as to the quality of this DVD. Highly recommended.

A Classic Comes Home.
One of the best World War Two era dramas ever. The fact that I had never heard of this movie is a testament to it's being under-rated. It's usually not shown in retrospectives of war movies, not enough testosterone displayed, I presume, which is a shame, as it is a powerful take on the "human" side of war, and the effects on the individual. Claudette Colbert, whose only starring role I was familiar with was in "It Happened One Night", is wonderfully touching and noble in this true- story based drama of an author forcefully seperated from her husband and placed, with her little boy, in a Japanese prison camp. As anyone who reads my reviews knows, I like strong womens roles, the good ones of which are few and far between. This is one of the best. Her portrayal is one of pathos, bravery, and perseverence in the face of overwhelming, spirit- breaking odds. This film also offers a rare for that time somewhat sympathetic view of the Japanese, in the role of Sessue...

Real Life Survival Story
Claudette Colbert gives a very strong performance as real life writer Agnes Keith, an American woman living on Borneo with her British husband and son during WWII. When the Japanese invade, she and her son are separated from her husband, Patric Knowles, and all are imprisoned in camps. A Japanese colonel, very well played by Sessue Hayakawa, takes an interest in Colbert since he has read her book, and they have a platonic relationship that is one of the most interesting features of the movie. He has been educated in America, and he reveals more about himself than a typical Japanese soldier would. Three Came Home illustrates the poor conditions of prison camps during WWII and the effect of the war on those who weren't soldiers but had to fight to survive. It's a dramatic story, well acted, and worth viewing.

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