Review of Three Came Home

A two - hander,really,with Miss Colbert and Mr Hayakawa striking ostensibly unlikely sparks off each other as the prisoner and the Commandant who find a rather shaky common ground,pragmatists both. It should be understood that in Japanese military culture prisoners of war were regarded as objects of contempt,almost "untermenschen",in a fashion not far removed from our respected European neighbour's attitude towards Jews,Russians,Gypsies,homosexuals and just about anyone who couldn't prove 100 years of Aryan ancestry. Few ordinary Japanese soldiers were cosmopolitan sophisticates with a taste for Western ways,but,fortunately for Miss Colbert she comes under the patronage of Mr Hayakawa as an American - educated officer who is familiar with her work as an author and a certain mutual tolerance is engendered. Undoubtedly this makes life easier for both her and her son during a difficult time. Virtually the only other sizeable part is played by Miss Florence Desmond,a popular cabaret performer of the time whose material was regarded as rather "risque".She sometimes appeared on the BBC in "Cafe Continentale",which,unfortunately,was way past my bedtime. By 1950 Japan was on the way to becoming "Americanised" and therefore no longer considered a pariah.As a recognition of this,movies were allowed to show the Japanese (or at least a small proportion of them) in a more positive light."Three came home" benefited from this more positive attitude and Mr Hayakawa was allowed to portray the commandant if not as an Oscar Schindler then at least as a decent man torn between the historic military code his uniform represents and his humanitarian instincts.Indeed some might think he regains the moral high ground with the bombing of Hiroshima. A few years later the virtually forgotten "Teahouse of the August moon" completed Hollywood's "re - education" of the Japanese people and they were welcomed back into the wonderful world of Cary Grant,Rock Hudson and Doris Day.I hope they have forgiven us. So "Three came home" is an important film historically as it marks the start of a softening of post Pearl Harbour attitudes.Unfortunately,the performances of the two leads always excepted,it is in every other way unremarkable.