1943 – Paulette Goddard
So Proudly We Hail
Paulette Goddard was a knockout. And she could act. So why have I only rarely even heard of her? I thought she did a fantastic job, and she really earned her Oscar nomination. This was a much better movie than I was expecting, and the three top-billed actresses all turned in some really great performances. Goddard played Joan O’Doul, a woman who served as a nurse during WWII. She created a character that had a definite arch, and she played it perfectly, making it look easy.
Joan was the girl who couldn’t say no. But when she was shipped to the Philippines to serve on the front lines of the war, she tried to remain aloof and un-entangled with romance. Her priority was doing her duty as a Lieutenant in the military. And she is successful… until she meets a handsome Marine who falls in love with her. But despite slowly returning his affections, I loved that her duty always came first.
What I liked about Goddard’s performance was that there was an inner strength to Joan, and it didn’t soften her beauty in any way. In fact, it enhanced it, making her even more beautiful. There was a scene in which she had fainted from exhaustion, and even then, she tries to get up and continue her work. And later on she has a little monologue that showed why she joined the medical corps, and how she was determined to do her job, no matter what, or how many men she had to help. There was an honest earnestness in her eyes that I admired.
And I also enjoyed her on-screen chemistry with her Marine, Kansas, played by Sonny Tufts. There was a little running gag with Kansas. Whenever he said he never did something, it always happened. So when they are parting, and he tells her he never dies, the look of grief and dismay on her face was real and heart-wrenching. But we are never shown or told of his death. I’d like to think he survived. Either way, Goddard did a fine job, making me like her character, despite some of the silliness written into the part. Like when she put everyone’s lives in danger to retrieve a nightgown during a Japanese attack. Everyone would have died if Veronica Lake hadn’t sacrificed herself to save everyone. Badly played, Joan. But that was the script, not the actress.