Review of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) by Dave J — 16 Aug 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2010.
(1957) Heaven Knows, Mr, Allison.
DRAMA/ WAR.
Deborah Kerr who played a nun for the 1947 "Black Narcissus" as Sister Clodagh is reprising the role again, but as Sister Angela stranded on an isolated island near Japan with a marine, Robert Mitchum as Mr Allison during WWII where they would build a rapport!
Although, based on a novel written by Charles Shaw, director John Huston has made a film similar to this before in 1951 starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn called "The African Queen", with the only difference that the setting was completely different! There is nothing else happening in the film than to see two people secluded on an island meaning that the war serves only as a backdrop and that the film solely relies on it's two veteran actors performances of Kerr (who can do this role on her sleep) and Mitchum whose been in previous war films other than this leaving the question whether viewers can identitfy with it's two characters- and the answer is an obvious yes! Upon seeing this , one would expect to see the "Hell In The Pacific" with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune, "The Black Stallion" the boy bonding with a stallion, and the terrible "The Blue Lagoon" sarring a younger Brooke Shields and of course "The African Queen"! The other plus I forgot to mention what this film did what "The Black Narcissus" didn't do ( or perhaps I didn't notice it) was to allow Deborah Kerr to speak her actual 'Irish' accent as a nun, and that was kind of refreshing as well!
Strong 3 out of 4.
This review of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) was written by Dave J on 16 Aug 2011.
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison has generally received very positive reviews.
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