Main Cast: Claudette Colbert, Patric Knowles, Sessue Hayakawa, Florence Desmond, Sylvia Andrew
Release Year: 1950
Country: US
Run Time: 106 minutes
Plot
Based on the autobiographical book by Agnes Newton Keith, Three Came Home stars Claudette Colbert as Mrs. Keith. Trapped in Borneo during the Japanese invasion, Mrs. Keith and her British husband (Patric Knowles) are penned up in a prison camp along with several other subjects. Despite the humanitarian views of camp commander Col. Suga (Sessue Hayakawa), Mrs. Keith is subject to torture, starvation, and humiliation at the hands of the guards, with Suga helpless to intervene lest he incur the wrath of his own superiors. Three Came Home contains several unforgettable moments, including a comic interlude between the male and female prisoners that ends abruptly with a barrage of Japanese bullets, and the heartwrenching scene wherein Suga learns that his family has been killed in a bombing raid. Since lapsing into the public domain in 1977, Three Came Home has popped up innumerable times on cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Phyllis Morris - Sister Rose; Howard Chuman - Lieutenant Nekata; Drue Mallory - Women Prisoner; Mimi Heyworth - Woman prisoner; Helen Westcott - Women Prisoner; John Burton - Elderly resident; Campbell Copelin - English radio announcer; Leslie Denison - English Radio Announcer; Alex Frazer - Dr. Bandy; Clarke Gordon - Australian POW; Robin Hughes - Australian POW; Virginia Kelly; Mark Kenning - George; George Leigh - Australian Prisoner of War; James Logan - Australian POW; Lee MacGregor - Sailor; Harry Martin - Australian POW; Pat O'Moore - Australian POW; Melinda Plowman - English girl; Duncan Richardson - English boy; Douglas Walton - Australian POW; Patrick Whyte - Englishman; Leonard Willey - Governor General; John Mantley - Australian POW; Li Sun - Wilfred
Adapted and produced by Nunnally Johnson, directed by Jean Negulesco, the film starred Claudette Colbert in the lead role. The New York Times reviewer said, "It will shock you, disturb you, tear your heart out. But it will fill you fully with a great respect for a heroic soul."
The film is now in the public domain and so is available to watch in its entirety online at no charge.[1][2][3][4][5]
American-born Agnes Keith (Colbert) and her British husband (portrayed by Patric Knowles) live a cushioned colonial life in North Borneo with their young son in 1942. After the Japanese invasion, they are interned and then taken to separate prison camps, one for men, the other for women and children. Amid the brutality of the internment camp, the camp commander Lieutenant-Colonel Suga (played by Sessue Hayakawa, who in 1958 was nominated for an Oscar for a similar role in The Bridge on the River Kwai) is respectful to Mrs Keith because he is familiar with her work, and is shown to be kind to the children even when his own family has died in Hiroshima.
