In the South Pacific in 1944, U.S. Marine Corporal Allison and his reconnaissance party are disembarking from a U.S. Navy submarine when they are discovered and fired upon by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The submarine's captain is forced to dive and leave the scouting team behind. Allison reaches a rubber raft and, after days adrift, reaches an island. He finds an abandoned settlement and a chapel with one occupant: Sister Angela, a novice Irish nun who has not yet taken her final vows. She has been on the island for only four days, having come with an elderly priest to evacuate another clergyman only to find that the Japanese had arrived first. The frightened natives who had brought them to the island left the pair without warning, and the priest died soon after.
For a while, they have the island to themselves, but then a detachment of Japanese troops arrives to set up a meteorological camp, forcing them to hide in a cave. When Sister Angela is unable to stomach the raw fish that Allison has caught, he sneaks into the Japanese camp for supplies, narrowly avoiding detection. That night, they watch flashes from naval guns being fired in a sea battle over the horizon.
The Japanese unexpectedly leave the island and Allison professes his love for Sister Angela, proposing marriage. But she shows him her engagement ring and explains that it is a symbol of her forthcoming final holy vows. Later both in celebration and frustration, Allison gets drunk on sake. He blurts out that he considers her devotion to her vows to be pointless since they are stuck on the island "like Adam and Eve." She runs out into a tropical rain and falls ill as a result. Allison, now sober and contrite, finds her shivering. He carries her back, but the Japanese have returned, forcing them to retreat to the cave. Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to get blankets. He kills a soldier who discovers him, alerting the enemy. To force him into the open, the Japanese set fire to the vegetation.
When a Japanese soldier discovers the cave, Allison and Sister Angela have two options: surrender or die from a hand grenade thrown inside. An ensuing explosion is not a grenade, but a bomb; the Americans have begun attacking the island in preparation for a landing. Allison comments that the landing will not be easy because when they returned, the Japanese brought four artillerypieces and concealed them well on the island.
Responding to what he attributes to a message from God, Allison disables the artillery during the barrage that will precede the American assault while the Japanese are still in their bunkers. He is wounded but sabotages all the guns by removing their breechblocks, saving many American lives. After the landing, the Marine officers are puzzled by the missing breechblocks.
Sister Angela and the wounded Allison then say their goodbyes as the Marines begin occupation. Allison has reconciled himself to Sister Angela's dedication to Jesus, but she reassures him that they will always be close "companions." After being found, Allison is transferred by the Marines to the ship, with Sister Angela walking beside him.
John Lee Mahin, who wrote the script, called the original novel "a very dirty book" and claims producer Gene Frenke kept pushing for more sex to be added. However this was resisted by Mahin and John Huston.[5]
Filming took place in Trinidad and Tobago, allowing Huston and Fox to use blocked funds in the UK, receive British film finance and qualify for the Eady Levy. The film was set later in the war than it was in the novel, which had Allison escaping from the Battle of Corregidor. In the film, the Allies are on the offensive and U.S. Marines capture the island.
The screenplay compares the rituals and commitment of the Catholic Church and the United States Marine Corps. The National Legion of Decency monitored the production of the film closely, sending a representative to watch the filming; Kerr and Mitchum ad-libbed a scene (not included in the final print) in which their characters wildly kissed and grabbed at each other.[6]: 306
The Marines provided troops for the invasion climax. Six Japanese persons living in Brazil played some of the leading Japanese characters, and Chinese people from some of the laundries and restaurants of Trinidad and Tobago played the rest of the Japanese soldiers.[6]
Screen Archives Entertainment released Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison on Blu-ray on June 10, 2014.
Reception
According to Kinematograph Weekly, the film was "in the money" at the British box office in 1957.[7]
The Chicago Tribune critic wrote, "Both stars' performances are excellent. However, I fail to see why Miss Kerr was hampered by the necessity to assume a brogue, which doesn't come naturally. Mr. Mitchum has the edge on her as far as being well cast, and will, I think, be most believeable to the average audience, altho I doubt that any veteran Marine would stand out and do a jig under shellfire—even if it comes from the guns of the United States Navy as a prelude to a welcome American invasion. The film, in script and direction, was obviously aimed at mass audience appeal. That it probably will have."[8]
The New York Times was complimentary: "That frequent and often popular story of a pious woman and an impious man cast together in circumstances that test the righteousness and fiber of each is tackled again by John Huston (he tackled it last in The African Queen)....And once more, Mr. Huston comes up with a film that is stirring and entertaining....with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum in the leading roles—indeed, the only real roles in the picture—he has got it buckled to solid characters....If there does seem to be some repetition, that is something that has to be blamed on the singleness of the location and the meagerness of the cast. There are not many variations to be wrung from the situation. However, the location is exciting...and it is drenched with atmosphere. And the cast, while small, is excellent."[9]
^Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p250
^"Top Grosses of 1957", Variety, 8 January 1958: 30
^McCarthy, Todd; McBride, Joseph (1986). "John Lee Mahin: Team Player". In Patrick McGilligan (ed.). Backstory: Interviews with Screenwriters of Hollywood's Golden Age. University of California Press. p. 263. ISBN9780520056893.
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