Review of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) by Tim S — 07 Mar 2015

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison was released in 1957 by 20th Century Fox in the CinemaScope format. Based upon a novel by Charles Shaw. the film stars Robert Mitchum as Mr. Allison, a marooned marine, and Deborah Kerr as Sister Angela, a sweet but cautious nun.

The two meet on an island during World War II and must stick together in order to stay hidden from the Japanese. The film was directed by John Huston, who also directed The African Queen. Heaven Knows, Mr.

Allison feels sort of like a companion piece to The African Queen as they have similar aspects, most notably the notion of two unlikely people coming together during overwhelming times. Whereas The African Queen focused on an eventually blossoming romance, Heaven Knows, Mr.

Allison charts a different path for itself. Both Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum give terrific performances as their unlikely relationship blossoms into something more. The score for the film is perhaps its greatest flaw.

It comes off as out of place at times, especially during any scenes involving Mitchum's character hiding from Japanese soldiers. At times it drives the lightheartedness of the story home, but at other times it just feels plain unnecessary.

A better example of this would be during the opening credits. We see Mitchum's character in a raft floating aimlessly at sea as the credits fade in and out, signifying that he has been at sea for quite some time.

Unfortunately, the score also fades in and out, and it's very unsettling, to say the least. It's effective at grabbing one's attention, but I don't think that it's what the director had in mind at the time.

Despite the film drawing strong comparisons to Huston's other unconventional love story The African Queen or, to a lesser degree, Black Narcissus, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is its own entity. Huston's strong direction and Kerr and Mitchum's excellent performances make the film one of the cinema's most unlikely minimalist love stories.