Review of Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) by Chris H — 30 May 2010

Not quite as compelling or touching as one could hope from such a setup. While its wounds aren't fatal, they are in most of the key places: Mitchum, Kerr, and Huston's screenplay.

The occasional nice moments from Mitchum and Kerr are too occasional and not nice enough to be memorable. Huston's direction is up to snuff with the intriguing opening sequence and and tense moments such as when Allison goes to scare up some real grub at the Japanese camp, but the screenplay seems to be lacking what surely must exist in the book, which is a genuine, progressive connection between Allison and Sister Angela that lead us to the hoped-for lump-in-the-throat ending.

Part of that lost spark between the two is the performances of Mitchum and Kerr, and probably, indeed, just the casting of both. This is not Kerr at her most fetching, indeed not fetching enough to convince that world-wise Marine Allison could be as smitten with her physical beauty as some of the dialogue suggests.

Mitchum's performance, like Kerr's, is serviceable enough but the role needed an Oscar-worthy turn. And the two generate no real chemistry on screen that is needed for the pair. A duo like Brando and Eva Marie Saint would have been more the order (had they not already done On The Waterfront).

In the end, it's a sweet enough movie, but unless you've seen the scores, even hundreds of other movies that your 2 hours would be better spent on, this one can be skipped.