Heaven Knows Mr. Allison

Starring:Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum
Director: John Huston
Studio: Fox Home Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

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If a war movie can be lovely, this is it. John Huston directed this touching World War II story about a Marine (Robert Mitchum) stranded with a nun (Deborah Kerr) on a Pacific island overrun by Japanese. After initial antagonism, the resulting kinship between the two characters is human and civil, even after Mitchum's grunt understandably falls in love with his unlikely companion. The action scenes, in which the pair works together to stay ahead of the enemy, are first-rate. The actors have never been better, and Huston's perennial theme about destiny's denial of our dreams is achingly clear in this essentially two-person drama. --Tom Keogh

Description

While hiding from a Japanese military offensive on a desolate Pacific Island, a marine sergeant (Mitchum) and his only fellow survivor, an Irish Roman Catholic novitiate on a humanitarian mission (Kerr), search for food, engage in philosophical sparring,

Customer Reviews:

Another Time Deborah Kerr plays a nun........2007-01-11

It fits to see Deborah Kerr as a nun. She looks like one should look. This is a very good movie and deals with faith and an enemy that makes you worry on behalf of the actors in this movie. I wanted to help them in some way. Isn't that silly of me? It was fun to watch and I have seen this movie when it was almost new, way back. The war wasn't fun, but, as long as we are not protecting our borders now, it's a slap in the face to every soldier who fought for and died for this nation! Every illegal should be sent back immediately! This is not why they died and fought so bravely for. This movie brings out what struggles people had to endure during these times of strife in our nation's battles with enemies. We need to change Ted Kennedy's Immigration Policy of 1965 to save our country and I only wish the spirits of all these departed servicemen would haunt our government of today until they did change it back the way it was. Our country's on the road to not being a country of the free soon enough. This movie is but one of many movies that show bravery and curage endured for our nation.

A Story of War and Faith.......2006-11-06

"Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is a film that explores the effect of war on the faith of two people. It is Faith that survives the evil of war to triump and become stronger than ever. Debrorah Karr and Robert Mitchum portray two people that find their faith on a Pacific Island.

From Heaven.......2006-06-26

Very few war films have a script with just two characters and all the lines in the movie are spoken by those two characters only. One wouldn't think this would be a war film, but it is. This classic WWII war film focuses on the pinacole of opposite human beings, thrust together and forced to survive on each other's individual strengths. Mr. Allison (R. Mitchum) is the marine who beaches on an island after being cast a drift in the Pacific Ocean for several days. There he searches the island and finds only one living person: a nun. Sister Angela (D. Kerr) is a dedicated nun who accompanied a priest to the island but got marooned there instead, and the priest dying a day or so later. Mr. Allison and Sister Angela work as a team on the island in order to sustain themselves. They do everything together: they gather island fruit, fish for turtles, build a sail, and have deep conversations about each other's contrary occupations and past.
The character of Mr. Allison is brilliantly developed and is easily likeable among viewers. He is portrayed as a big dumb guy, with a soft heart and top marine skills. He's clumsy with words and he's very open about his feelings, which at times puts Sister Angela in uncomfortable positions. Equally developed is Sister Angela, who is greatly sympathized by the many stresses she is forced to endure. She rarely speaks unless spoken to by Mr. Allison, as she is obviously uncomfortable around him half the time. But as the picture progresses, she becomes more and more accustomed with having him around and a mutual fondness for each other develops.
The film is highly original and thorougly entertaining. Although it's a movie about a man and woman, it is not a romance. Even though they are alone on an island together, there's no hint of carnal pleasure for each other. Instead, the movie shows how a man and woman can form a relationship of trust, not just in order to survive, but because they are alone together. It is a movie of friends, not lovers, which is very unusual of Hollywood. The results are phenominally entertaining and realistic.
Since it is a war film, there are explosions and guns and some action sequences, but most of it is toned down. Set in the Pacific Theatre during WWII, there are Japanese marines depicted in the film, but no characters are established amongst them. If any criticism is due for this film it is the need for a more satisfactory ending. There is quite a bit of silence throughout the movie, a lot of sounds from the ocean and exotic birds chirping. It's as relaxing as it is entertaining.
The film is rated G, there is no language (certainly not from Sister Angela!) and no indecency of any kind. Some blood, but it's not worth hiding a kid's eyes over. Only if one is offended by Catholicism or someone getting drunk on Japanese liquor would this film have any form of warnings at all.
To summarize, Heaven Knows Mr. Allison is an original kind of war movie with highly developed characters. It's an uncommon film in today's market of entertainment in regards to what a man and woman can do together. This film shows the sexes not at odds or in lust with each other, but shows them as a team working toward a common goal. It's easily a family film and a movie worth watching time and again.

So a Nun and a Marine are stranded on a beautiful tropical island..........2005-10-09

This wasn't a play? A two hander between a shipwrecked Marine and an abandoned Nun, on a small island in the Pacific, in 1944....No? It was a book. Oh...
I got this to see Mitchum, after reading his biography, and must admit, though he and Kerr are good, the story doesn't flow very energetically, and the vitality of the situation is not maintained throughout.
The two of them hit it off well, and then must contend with two instances of Japanese occupation of the island. All the while they hide in a cave, he taking care of her, she never leaving or removing her long, billowing habit, white-though gradually stained and muddied.
The best parts are Mitchum's gentle, then rough come-ons, clearly the crank of the action. Perhaps because this was made in 1957, to present 1944, my sensibilities are less wholesome. But watching with my girlfriend, she too wanted more to happen. Kerr's "Ma'am" never stops calling Mitchum "Mr. Allison," he never finding out her name. Kerr's "Ma'am" also never gets to express her strength of faith against the bounding masculinity of Mitchum (surely one of the reasons he had the part), and there is no visceral dilemma for her, which I missed.
Perhaps this is a sadder piece then it seems. Will they ever know each other's love? Is he just an unlucky clunk, imprisoned and unrequited? Is their being thrown together by the horrors of war a cruel joke of the universe, bad timing and an expression of the futility of people?
Though dated, the acting is good-Mitchum does love sake, and Kerr is very subtle, it also gets the claustrophobia and vulnerability of the situation...But still doesn't compell...By the way, this was directed by "man's man" John Huston....

One of the greatest films of all time!.......2005-10-03

Noone who loves films can miss this movie and these performances by Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum. A nun and a marine together on an atol in the Pacific Ocean during a part of WWII sounds like a romance and a rejection, or a romance and she decides to leave her order. No such thing occurs; but what does occur is a love relationship that lasts forever, even thouigh...I won't spoil it.

The cinematography buy Oswald Morris is superb, John Huston directs, and he considered this is favorite film, way over The African Queen.

See this film and be filled with the timeless wonder of love between two people in a shadowy world they illumine for you.

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