BATTLE HYMN (1957) C widescreen 108m dir: Douglas Sirk

w/Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don de Fore, Martha Hyer, Jock Mahoney, Alan Hale, James Edwards, Philip Ahn, Carl Benton Reid, and 25 children from The Orphans Home of Korea as themselves; the film is presented by General Earle C. Partridge who commanded the 5th Air Force in Korea

The true story of Army Colonel Dean Hess, who was both a chaplain and a flyer during the Korean War and tried to help Korean war orphans. This is certainly not a typical Sirk film, but it's an interesting failure because of what it shows about his attraction for the "split" character of Hess.

Sirk comments on Hess in Sirk on Sirk: "A flyer, and a preacher; a man trying to come to terms with having killed. There's a book by Ward L. Miner [The World of William Faulkner , Durham, N.C., 1952] on Faulkner, in which he quotes a passage from Light in August : 'Their escape is in violence, in drinking, and fighting and praying.' And in praying : note the place of religion. The juxtaposition of violence and praying forms Battle Hymn also. The whole saving of children comes out of killing children. Because, you remember, he's bombed that orphanage in Germany and felt guilty.

"I had a lot of problems because he was on the set, hanging around, supervising every scene. I couldn't bring out the ambiguity of the character as I would have liked. ...

"[Hess] is dancing his rondo [when he leaves the church and goes to Korea] --- going back to the other thing he could do well: being a flyer. It is an almost cynical move, an escape --- in the way Faulkner uses this word --- an escape into patriotism, into fighting for his country. Dying maybe, as well as dishing out death. A confused decision --- as confused a decision as people would make in such a mental condition. It is full of precise logic. But in Korea he never quite came back to complete the circle. He saw a chance to make good in flying, in bucking danger, but through the saving of children. He never flew another bombing mission after this had dawned on his goddam mind, and from then on he was preaching with his aeroplane, saving children. I've been talking about dancing a rondo --- look at him going back to finish the circle now, at the beginning of which stands the destruction of a children's orphanage, and killing children, at the end there is saving children's lives and building an orphanage on the island of Cheju."

And Sirk also comments on Hudson: "Rock Hudson's talent made him cut out for an immovable role. But here I had to cast him --- and unfortunately gave him the part of a split character. An actor like [Robert] Stack would have been much more fitting, I'm sure. ...

"I ... didn't succeed in bending Rock's talent to this type of broken personage. The ... reason being his straight goodness of heart and uncomplicated directness. Before the camera you just can't cheat. The camera has X-ray eyes. It penetrates into your soul. You can't hide from the camera what you are --- which I think is the great thing about cinematography ...."

From the Turner Classic Movies website, www.tcm.com, this article about the film by Glenn Erickson: "The Korean conflict provided little upbeat material for war movies. Hollywood seized on the curious story of Col. Dean Hess, a church minister who had been a bomber pilot over Germany. Returned to active service in Korea, Hess was credited with evacuating more than a thousand war orphans to safety in a highly publicized airlift dubbed 'Operation Kiddy Car.' Hess then became Director of Air Force Information Services, where the idea of an inspirational film seems to have been hatched: Battle Hymn was a screenplay before it became Hess's inspirational autobiography. Universal handed the film project to director Douglas Sirk, who had recently broken box office records with his remake of John M. Stahl's spiritually-themed soap opera Magnificent Obsession.

"The screenplay by Charles Grayson and Vincent B. Evans makes Hess seem a cross between Sergeant York and Oskar Schindler. Wracked with guilt over his accidental bombing of a German orphanage, Col. Hess is troubled by air support missions in Korea that put civilians at risk. At first helping a Korean woman (Anna Kashfi) take care of a few orphans, he establishes a large care center, and then makes a monumental effort to safeguard the children from the communist onslaught. Director Sirk broke his leg on location early in the picture, and complained that he had to deal with Col. Hess, who was on the set supervising at all times. The Colonel was pleased to see himself portrayed by the glamorous Rock Hudson, but Sirk felt the star was unsuited for the contradictory role of a devout flying parson, whose combat nickname was, 'Killer.' With American airmen portrayed as paternal babysitters, the real-life effort to save the orphans comes off as an attempt to put a happy face on a miserable war.

"Hudson's Hess finds spiritual optimism in almost every scene, as when he assures a dying comrade (Don DeFore) that he is taking 'a wonderful step from darkness to light.' Adding racial discomfort to the film's arguments, Hess counsels gospel-singing Lt. Maples (James Edwards) after the black flier accidentally strafes a column of civilian refugees. Anna Kashfi's character falls in love with Hess, only to discover that he has a wife back home (Martha Hyer). The New York Times' Bosley Crowther was quick to note that mixed-race relationships still end badly for the non-white love interest. Perhaps discouraged by the wall of sanctimony around the real Col. Hess, historical critics waited over forty years to charge that he falsified his role in the evacuation of the orphans. Yet it is reported that Hess used his Hollywood fees to fund more charity work in South Korea. Filmed in CinemaScope and Technicolor, Battle Hymn is still remembered for its impressive aerial combat scenes featuring shiny P-51 Mustang aircraft. The Korean pictograms on Hess's plane read, 'By Faith I Fly.' Director Sirk would film another remake of a John M. Stahl weepie, Interlude (1957), and then return with Rock Hudson and even more impressive aviation thrills in The Tarnished Angels (1957).