“Romance” Never Looked So Ugly: ‘The Proud And Profane’ Reviewed
by Rachel Bellwoar
One would think it would be hard to join the Red Cross during WWII, get sent to a training center in the South Pacific, and not think you’d be expected or asked to work with wounded serviceman, but in George Seaton’s The Proud and Profane, that’s exactly what Lee (Deborah Kerr) thinks, and it’s a choice.
One of the things you realize when you watch a lot of Deborah Kerr movies, and what makes her such an exciting actress, is she often finds ways to subvert her prim and proper appearance, like playing a nun in Black Narciscus (which if you know, you know, but if you don’t: buy it in the next Criterion sale). While Lee is complicated, it’s a role that asks Kerr to play more to type than usual. It’s a fascinating movie and one that’s worth seeking out, but that doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable, and watching Lee act like she has the right to decline certain assignments is privilege at its most infuriating.
That in itself isn’t uninteresting – seeing how much the movie is willing to criticize it’s main character – but then it also gets sexist as well because, more than a war picture, The Proud and Profane is about an abusive relationship that develops between Lee and Colonel Black (William Holden sporting a Clark Gable mustache).
Going by the slipcover, The Proud and Profane seems like your traditional war movie. Kerr in a bathing suit is clearing meant to invoke From Here to Eternity, and for some reason a picture of Holden was chosen without a moustache, even though he never goes without one in the film. The title, on the other hand, could easily be mistaken for a horror film, and as film historian Steve Mitchell and author Steven Jay Rubin (Combat Films: American Realism) bring up in their commentary, there are no combat scenes.
It’s certainly not a propaganda film. Holden’s Colonel is not held up a model marine and the decision to go into his backstory has some racist undertones. The film is much more on point when it comes to class issues and the power dynamics at play, and the scenes where Lee talks about knowingly pursuing an unhealthy relationship give a peek at what this film could’ve been if allowed to fully unpack her state of mind as a grieving widow who mainly enlisted to learn more about her husband’s final days.
War films centered around female characters aren’t that common, either (So Proudly We Hail being one of the great exceptions and also available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber), which is why a film centered around Lee and the Red Cross could’ve been so great, but while that feels like the direction the film is going at first (with Thelma Ritter playing Lee’s boss), there is no female camaraderie in this movie and the whole middle section is dominated by Lee and the Colonel’s “romance.”
Lucy Herndon Crockett, who wrote the novel (The Magnificent Bastards) the film is based on, actually served in the Red Cross during WWII. There are definitely moments in Seaton’s adapted screenplay where the production code can be seen pulling the strings and I’d love to know how closely the film reflects Crockett’s book.
The Proud and Profane is available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
