Women in War
Cast & Crew
John H. Auer
Elsie Janis
Wendy Barrie
Patric Knowles
Mae Clarke
Dennie Moore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Cynical socialite Pamela Starr goes out with Captain Tedford to celebrate a British naval victory, but when Tedford takes liberties after seeing her home, she pushes him away, causing him to crash through the bannister at the top of the stairs and fall to his death. Pamela is tried for manslaughter but is acquitted after her mother, Miss O'Neil, comes to England and instructs Pamela's lawyer, Gordon, to enlist Pamela in the auxillary nursing service unit bound for the front lines in France. Pamela resents the trick but begins training as a nurse. She is unaware of her mother's involvement or that her mother, whom she has not seen since she was an infant, is O'Neil, the head matron of the unit. The other girls in the unit, Gail Halliday, Ginger, Millie and Phyllis, are suspicious of Pamela because of the trial and her haughty attitude, and matters grow worse when Pamela is locked in a stateroom with Gail's fiancé, Lieutenant Larry Hall, while their ship to France is being bombed. Soon after they arrive in France, Pamela and Larry meet again during an air raid. Gail's suspicions and accusations intensify despite Pamela's assurances, and so Pamela vows that she will steal Larry. O'Neil tries to dissuade Pamela, but when she refuses to listen, O'Neil assigns her extra duties to toughen her, and time passes as Pamela works hard on her job and on Larry. One night, Larry tells her that he loves her and wishes to break his engagement to Gail. Pamela replies that their relationship is only a flirtation, but Larry insists that she accept his RAF wings as he is going on a dangerous patrol the next morning. Larry is shot down during his patrol and is taken to Pamela's hospital, where he recovers quickly and again asks for Pamela's love when she says goodbye before the unit is sent on a mission to the front. Ginger overhears Pamela tell Larry that they are through and that he must return to Gail. Gail, however, misunderstands when she discovers that Pamela was with Larry, and later, when Gail, Pamela and Ginger are in a truck enroute to the front, Gail lets Ginger out, then deliberately drives to a village under barrage. Ginger finds O'Neil and Frances, another matron, and they go to the village, where Pamela has dragged Gail to shelter in a basement. Pamela lies to protect Gail, and after O'Neil saves her from being crushed by a falling beam, Pamela admits she has behaved awfully to them all. The barrage increases, and Ginger tells Gail that Pamela was not trying to take Larry away from her. Gail runs outside, intent on getting through to their side and telling them to end the barrage, but she is hit. O'Neil stops Pamela from pursuing Gail, after which O'Neil goes to Gail's body, then crosses through the front. While they wait in the basement, Frances tells Pamela that O'Neil is her mother. O'Neil is successful and the barrage ends. Soon after, Pamela visits O'Neil in the hospital, where the mother and daughter are reconciled, and Pamela announces that she will tell Larry that she loves him.
Director
John H. Auer
Cast
Elsie Janis
Wendy Barrie
Patric Knowles
Mae Clarke
Dennie Moore
Dorothy Peterson
Billy Gilbert
Colin Tapley
Stanley Logan
Barbara Pepper
Pamela Randell
Lawrence Grant
Lester Matthews
Crew
Doris Anderson
William Bradford
Cy Feuer
F. Hugh Herbert
Howard Lydecker
John Victor Mackay
Edward Mann
Jack Marta
Herbert Norsch
Adele Palmer
Murray Seldeen
Sol C. Siegel
Ellis F. Thackery
Al Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Award Nominations
Best Visual Effects
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Hollywood Reporter news items add the following information about the production: Barry Trivers was signed to do a "dialog polish" for this film; the picture was to mark the screen debut of English radio actress Wela Davies, whose participation in the completed film has not been confirmed; and Republic set a "minimum of $350,000" as the film's budget. Hollywood Reporter production charts and Daily Variety news items include Gwen Gaze, Peter Cushing, Holmes Herbert, Estelle Ettere, Marjorie Benedict, Doris Stone, Anne Donoghue, Jean Murray and Betty Farrington in the cast, although their participation in the completed film has not been confirmed. A preproduction Hollywood Reporter news item noted that the film was to depict "a girl entertainer for the soldiers, a la the [Elsie] Janis tour in France in 1918." A New York Times article written during the film's production noted that the fluctuating situations in "the European war has engendered all sorts of confusion at Republic," and that the script had to be re-written to encompass the latest developments. Women in War marked the last film appearance of Elsie Janis, a famed American stage and screen performer and writer who toured extensively during World War I and was proclaimed the "Sweetheart of the AEF." Her previous performance in a film was in the 1919 Selznick picture A Regular Girl (See AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1911-20; F1.3680). This was also the first film that actress Mae Clarke appeared in since the 1937 Columbia production Trouble in Morocco. Howard Lydecker and his crew, consisting of William Bradford, Ellis F. Thackery and Herbert Norsch, were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects.
