Three Came Home (1950) – full review!

Directed by Jean Negulesco (Johnny Belinda (1948)) with a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson (The Grapes of Wrath (1940)) this true story drama was adapted from author Agnes Newton Keith’s autobiographical account of her family’s experience as P.O.W.’s (prisoners of war) of the Japanese Army in Borneo during World War II. Though there’s no mystery to the outcome given its title the film is compelling non-fiction giving the viewer a sense of the trials faced from a woman’s perspective (Keith is played by Claudette Colbert). One unique and noteworthy aspect is the portrayal of a Japanese Colonel played by Sessue Hayakawa (The Bridge of the River Kwai (1957)) which gives a more human & sensitive view of the enemy than most other WW II films.

American author Agnes Keith (Colbert) and her British official husband Harry (Patric Knowles) lived with their son George (Mark Keuning) on the island of Borneo in the years leading up to the United States involvement in World War II. When the inevitable occurred on December 7 1941 the few (less than 100) non-natives on the island prepared for the worst. After several weeks they learned that the British government would be unable to evacuate or otherwise help them. In May 1942 the Japanese arrived to occupy the island. Mrs. Keith was singled out and brought to the new office of the man now in charge Colonel Suga (Hayakawa). Evidently he was familiar with the author because of a book she’d written about Borneo and wanted to meet her. Though he is polite to her requesting that she autograph a copy of her book for him his manner towards her is professional and could not be considered friendly. When she misinterprets it and asks a favor for information from him in return he refuses to provide it and she is abruptly dismissed to join the others.

Soon the Japanese separate the men from the women who are allowed to keep their children to ship them to different work camps on a different nearby (?) island. The men are occasionally marched past the women’s prison such that at the risk of a beating a note may be passed between husband and wife. Florence Desmond plays the most significant of the other women imprisoned with Mrs. Keith Sylvia Andrew plays another. One night Mrs. Keith whose son is suffering from malaria sneaks out of the camp to meet her husband Harry under a palm tree. Infected with malaria as well she is barely able to make the rendezvous & return without being detected. Sometime later the women are given a chance to say their final goodbyes to the men who are being relocated to yet another island. The women themselves are relocated to another camp run by a rather cruel Lieutenant Nekata (Howard Chuman).

The rest of the story is told through a series of small episodes over a two year period in which Mrs. Keith doesn’t know whether her husband is still alive or not. Rumors of the death of some of the husbands reach their wives. There are a few memorable scenes I’ll mention: one involves the women’s interaction with some Australian men who are P.O.W.’s at neighboring camp that sneak out to visit the only females they’ve seen in years with tragic results; another involves Mrs. Keith’s mistake of reporting an attempted rape of her by one of the guards and the methods that her captors led by Lieutenant Nekata use to get her to recount it; the last one involves Colonel Suga and the Keith’s son George which contributes to the sympathetic portrayal of at least this one Japanese officer which I’d mentioned previously.

Purchase this DVD now at