The Proud and Profane
Encyclopedia
The Proud and Profane is a 1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

 dramatic war romance made by William Perlberg-George Seaton Productions for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It was directed by George Seaton
George Seaton
George Seaton was an American screenwriter, playwright, film director and producer, and theatre director.Born George Stenius in South Bend, Indiana, Seaton moved to Detroit after graduating from college to work as an actor on radio station WXYZ. John L...

 and produced by William Perlberg
William Perlberg
William Perlberg was an American film producer.William Perlberg was born Wolf Perelberg, son of Israel Jakob Perelberg , a fur manufacturer, and Tajbe Markus. Seven months after his father, he came to the U.S.A...

, from a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by George Seaton, based on the novel The Magnificent Bastards by Lucy Herndon Crockett.

It starred William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

 and Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr
Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...

, with Thelma Ritter
Thelma Ritter
Thelma Ritter was an American supporting and character actress from the 1940s until her death in 1969.-Early life:...

, Dewey Martin
Dewey Martin (actor)
-Career:Martin was born December 8, 1923 in Katemcy, Texas. His film debut was an uncredited part in Knock on Any Door . He also appeared in The Thing from Another World , co-starred with Kirk Douglas in The Big Sky , played younger brother of Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours , and was...

 and William Redfield
William Redfield (actor)
William Redfield was an American actor and author who appeared in numerous theatrical, film, radio, and television roles.-Acting career:...

.

It was nominated for two Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

, for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

 (Hal Pereira
Hal Pereira
Hal Pereira was an American art director and production designer....

, A. Earl Hedrick
A. Earl Hedrick
A. Earl Hedrick was an American art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The Proud and Profane.-External links:...

, Samuel M. Comer
Samuel M. Comer
Sam Comer was a set decorator who worked on almost 300 films during a career spanning four decades. He won four Academy Awards and was nominated for another 22 in the category Best Art Direction...

, Frank R. McKelvy
Frank R. McKelvy
Frank R. McKelvy was an American set decorator. He was nominated for seven Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...

) and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...

).

Plot

In Noumea
Nouméa
Nouméa is the capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island, Grande Terre, and is home to the majority of the island's European, Polynesian , Indonesian, and Vietnamese populations, as well as many Melanesians,...

, New Caledonia
New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a special collectivity of France located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, east of Australia and about from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of...

 1943, Lee Ashley (Kerr), the widow of a Paramarine Lieutenant killed on the Battle of Bloody Ridge
Battle of Edson's Ridge
The Battle of Edson's Ridge, also known as the Battle of the Bloody Ridge, Battle of Raiders Ridge, and Battle of the Ridge, was a land battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Imperial Japanese Army and Allied ground forces...

 on Guadalcanal has joined the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

 on the island to entertain American servicemen. Her leader at the service club, Kate Connors (Ritter) had initially been reluctant to have her assigned to New Caledonia lest she use her position as a pilgrimage to find out about her late husband. In addition to entertaining, serving the soldiers and giving French lessons, the Red Cross women are expected to help with the wounded that Lee initially refuses to do.

A Marine Raider battalion comes to New Caledonia after fighting in the South Pacific. Their commander, Lt Col
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

 Black (Holden) is
against the Red Cross women treating his men softly; he states that the only place for women in war are "skirts" that the men chase and the "sweethearts" that wait for them back home. He changes his mind when he tries to seduce the attractive Lee who initially refuses his advances. Lt Col Black decides to gain her interest by pretending he knew Lee's late husband and was with him shortly before he died. Though Lee despises the Colonel's arrogance and demands, she is fascinated by him and falls in love with him.

Another member of the battalion is the Navy Chaplain
Chaplain
Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

, Lieutenant Junior Grade Holmes (William Redfield) whom Kate notices is a changed, silent, and saddened man since she last knew him. During a battle the Chaplain had gathered some Marines together in prayer that a supposedly dead Japanese soldier used as a target for his hand grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...

 killing several, and wounding their sergeant with a spinal injury. Lt Col Black demotes the wounded sergeant in rank because he should have known better than to let his men gather in the open. Black constantly harasses the Chaplain by never letting him forget that his presence caused their deaths, with the bodies of the Marines shielding the Chaplain from any injury. Holmes's guilt is compounded by a tropical fever and exhaustion from working that has left its toll.

Another man in the battalion is Private Eddie Wodcik (Dewey Martin
Dewey Martin (actor)
-Career:Martin was born December 8, 1923 in Katemcy, Texas. His film debut was an uncredited part in Knock on Any Door . He also appeared in The Thing from Another World , co-starred with Kirk Douglas in The Big Sky , played younger brother of Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours , and was...

) that Kate had adopted and raised in New York when his parents and sister were burned to death in a tenement fire. Kate loves him like her own child and he reciprocates when he is not being watched by his fellow Marines. Eddie feels that Lee looks exactly like his sister would have if she hadn't died and becomes her protector, promising violent retribution to anyone who doesn't show Lee respect. Eddie demonstrates his ability by giving a disrespectful sailor (Ross Bagdasarian) a jiu jitsu
Jujutsu
Jujutsu , also known as jujitsu, ju-jitsu, or Japanese jiu-jitsu, is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon....

 throw to the floor.

Lee and the Colonel have dinner on board an American warship. A former neighbour of Lee is now a naval officer (Peter Hanson
Peter Hansen (actor)
Peter Hansen is an American actor, best known for his role as a lawyer, Lee Baldwin, on the soap opera General Hospital. He played the role from 1965 to 1986 and again from 1992 to 2004...

) aboard and is present at dinner. Lee and the naval officer spend the evening talking about their pre-war civilian lives in a wealthy community. An angry Lt. Colonel Black later relates to Lee his life of childhood poverty as a half Indian
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 in Montana. When the Raiders are shipped out for a couple months, Lee discovers she is pregnant and the Colonel has a wife in Washington. She later learns things about her husband that she never knew. The hot headed Eddie also discovers what his Colonel has done to Lee.

Production

Lucy Herndon Crockett (born 4 April 1914 in Honolulu) was a Red Cross worker in the Pacific during World War II. She travelled with Basil O'Connor
Basil O'Connor
Basil O'Connor was an American lawyer. In co-operation with US-President Franklin D. Roosevelt he started two foundations for the rehabiltation of polio patients and the research on polio prevention and treatment...

 National Chairman of the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

 during the war as his secretary and speechwriter. An author of nine books, illustrator and designer, she wrote the 1954 book The Magnificent Bastards about her experiences with the U.S. Marine Corps and Popcorn on the Ginza about her service in occupied Japan.

The film was made with Defense Department cooperation in the United States Virgin Islands
United States Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands of the United States are a group of islands in the Caribbean that are an insular area of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.The U.S...

 and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 with production design reflecting New Caledonia in 1943. Technical advisor
Technical advisor
A technical advisor is an individual who is expert in a particular field of knowledge, hired to provide detailed information and advice to people working in that field...

s were Major John W. Antonelli former 1st Marine Raider Battalion and Mary Louise Dowling, Louise A. Wood and Margaret Hagan of the American Red Cross.

Paramount picked up the film rights for The Magnificent Bastards in 1954 and announced Deborah Kerr for the lead. Paramount also stated they would release the film under a different title.

Ross Bagdasarian wrote a tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...

 song The Ballad of Colin Black.

Cast

  • William Holden
    William Holden
    William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...

     - Lt. Col. Colin Black
  • Deborah Kerr
    Deborah Kerr
    Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...

     - Lee Ashley
  • Thelma Ritter
    Thelma Ritter
    Thelma Ritter was an American supporting and character actress from the 1940s until her death in 1969.-Early life:...

     - Kate Connors
  • Dewey Martin
    Dewey Martin (actor)
    -Career:Martin was born December 8, 1923 in Katemcy, Texas. His film debut was an uncredited part in Knock on Any Door . He also appeared in The Thing from Another World , co-starred with Kirk Douglas in The Big Sky , played younger brother of Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours , and was...

     - Eddie Wodcik
  • William Redfield
    William Redfield (actor)
    William Redfield was an American actor and author who appeared in numerous theatrical, film, radio, and television roles.-Acting career:...

     - Chaplain Lt. (jg) Holmes
  • Ross Bagdasarian - Louie
  • Adam Williams - Eustace Press
  • Marion Ross
    Marion Ross
    Marion Ross is an American actress best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the television series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.-Early life:...

     - Joan
  • Theodore Newton - Bob Kilpatrick
  • Richard Shannon - Major
  • Peter Hansen
    Peter Hansen (actor)
    Peter Hansen is an American actor, best known for his role as a lawyer, Lee Baldwin, on the soap opera General Hospital. He played the role from 1965 to 1986 and again from 1992 to 2004...

     - Lieutenant (jg) Hutchins
  • Ward Wood
    Ward Wood
    Ward Wood April 8, 1924 - November 3, 2001, was an American actor and television writer.Born in California, US, Ward Wood was known for his role as Lt...

     - Sergeant Chester Peckinpaugh
  • Geraldine Hall - Helen
  • Evelyn Cotton - Beth
  • Ann Morriss - Pat
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