HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON 157
Reel History Versus Real History
Because it recounts an actual battle and was painstakingly researched and written
by a Vietnam veteran, Hamburger Hill achieves a high degree of historical accuracy.
Indeed, Hamburger Hill has been lauded by historians and other Vietnam veterans
as one of the most accurate movies ever made about the Vietnam War.
HEAVEN KNOWS, MR. ALLISON (1957)
Synopsis
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison is a war film that tells the story of two people— a tough
U.S. Marine played by Robert Mitchum and a nun played by Deborah Kerr— stuck
on a Japanese- occupied island in the Pacific Ocean in the midst of World War II.
The movie was adapted by John Huston and John Lee Mahin from the novel by
Charles Shaw and directed by Huston.
Background
In 1952 an Australian writer named Charles Herbert Shaw (1890–1955) brought
out Heaven Knows, Mister Allison, a novel about a tough U.S. Marine and a gentle
Catholic nun stranded together on a remote island in the South Pacific during World
War II who form an improbable bond and ally themselves against Japa nese occu-
pying forces. Producer Eugene Frenke optioned the film rights but let his option
lapse in 1953, whereupon John Wayne and Robert Fellows tried to buy the rights,
but failed. In 1954, 20th Century Fox acquired the property and initially hired
William Wyler to direct and Kirk Douglas to star. A few months later, Wyler and
Douglas were replaced by Anthony Mann and Clark Gable. Ultimately John Hus-
ton was hired to direct. Though the book became an international bestseller, direc-
tor John Huston thought it “a very bad novel which exploited all the obvious
sexual implications,” but screenwriter John Lee Mahin persuaded Huston to change
his mind and make a film version (Huston, 1980, p. 260). Huston and Mahin
repaired to Ensenada, Mexico, in the spring of 1956 and, trading off scenes, wrote
a taut screen adaptation in five or six weeks that avoided prurience and sentimen-
tality. John Huston tried to interest Marlon Brando in the role of Cpl. Allison but
Brando vacillated, so it ultimately went to Robert Mitchum, with Deborah Kerr
signing on to play Sister Angela.
Production
On 1 August 1956 80 20th Century Fox crew members arrived on the island of
Tobago, a southern Ca rib bean locale off the coast of Venezuela chosen for two rea-
sons: it was, according to Huston, a “dead ringer for a South Seas island” and was
also a location where the com pany could use blocked UK funds, receive British
film financing, and qualify for the Eady Levy (a British tax on box office receipts
used to support the film industry) (Robertson, p. 139). Native workers were hired
to build a thatched- roofed village, a small church, and an elevated filming plat-
form. The script called for a com pany of Japa nese troops occupying the island, but