Three Came Home

Infobox Film | name = Three Came Home


caption = Original poster
director = Jean Negulesco
producer = Nunnally Johnson
writer = Nunnally Johnson (Agnes Newton Keith, autobiography)
starring = Claudette Colbert Patric Knowles Florence Desmond Sessue Hayakawa
music = Hugo Friedhofer
cinematography = William H. Daniels Milton R. Krasner
editing = Dorothy Spencer
distributor = Twentieth Century-Fox
released = 20 February 1950
country = flagicon|USA USA
runtime = 106 min.
language = English
rating =
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:49650
imdb_id = 0043041

"Three Came Home" (1950) is a wartime film made by Twentieth Century-Fox, based on the memoirs of the same name by writer Agnes Newton Keith. It depicts Keith's attempt to flee Borneo during the Japanese invasion in 1942, her subsequent internment and suffering, separated from her husband, and with a young son to care for. Keith was initially interned at Berhala Island, but spent most of her captivity at Batu Lintang camp at Kuching, Sarawak.

Adapted and produced by Nunnally Johnson, directed by Jean Negulesco, the film starred Claudette Colbert in the lead role. The New York Times reviewer said, "It will shock you, disturb you, tear your heart out. But it will fill you fully with a great respect for a heroic soul."

Plot outline

American-born Agnes Keith (Colbert) and her British husband (Patric Knowles) attempt to flee Borneo with their young son in the wake of the Japanese invasion. They are interned and then taken to separate prison camps, one for men, the other for women and children. Amid the brutality of the internment camp, the camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga (played by Sessue Hayakawa who in 1958 was nominated for an Oscar for a similar role in The Bridge on the River Kwai) is respectful to Mrs Keith because he is familiar with her work, and is shown to be kind to the children even when his own family has been killed by the American bomb raids.

Cast

*Claudette Colbert ... Agnes Newton Keith
*Patric Knowles ... Harry Keith
*Florence Desmond ... Betty Sommers
*Sessue Hayakawa ... Colonel Suga
*Sylvia Andrew ... Henrietta
*Mark Keuning ... George Keith
*Phyllis Morris ... Sister Rose
*Howard Chuman ... Lieutenant Nekata

References

*Halliwell's Film Guide, 11th ed, 1995.

External links

* [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117795679?categoryid=31&cs=1&s=h&p=0 Variety review] (extract from Variety's contemporary review of the film)
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,797955-1,00.html Time] Contemporary review of the book