Back to Bataan (1945; USA; B&W; 95m) *** d. Edward Dmytryk; w. Ben Barzman, Richard H. Landau; ph. Nicholas Musuraca; m. Roy Webb. Cast: John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli, Lawrence Tierney, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn, Alex Havier, ‘Ducky’ Louie, Leonard Strong, Paul Fix. After the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese in World War II, a U.S. Army Colonel stays on to organise guerrilla fighters against the conquerors. Well photographed story with expertly directed action sequences. Flag-waving approach has to be considered in the context of the time it was filmed. Wayne and Quinn are strong leads. Script tries to cram a lot in and the editing at times makes the story progression a little too neat, resulting in a lack of depth of characterisation. Based on a story by Æneas MacKenzie and William Gordon. As the script was being written, the battle for Bataan was still being fought, leading to constant rewrites. [PG]