This film is akin to a test. Maybe it can't be otherwise. After all, the events unfold on Bataan, in 1942, at one of the key moments of the Second World War. In addition, the main characters are young women, most of whom came to this Philippine island voluntarily, at the call of the heart, without having the slightest relation to military affairs. How they cope with the difficulties that have fallen on them, overcoming fear and despair, in fact, is the content of the film by Richard Thorpe.
The theme of a woman in war, touched upon by the director, is not new, being one of the most exciting in cinema, but every time you encounter her, you still cannot force yourself to perceive what you see from a distance.
So now for the hour and a half that the action lasts, you literally have time to become akin to the heroines who had to recklessly love, build families, give birth to children, and not walk on the edge of a knife and invariably be on the edge of a precipice.
Such thoughts prompt not just to sympathize with girls, but to indignate internally. And this lack of sentimentality of the picture is due to the harsh direction of Thorpe and, of course, the bright, to the extent of the emotional manner of the screen existence of all the participants of the well-coordinated acting ensemble, of which Margaret Sullivan makes the greatest impression.
She plays the lead role of Lieutenant Smith and once again confirms her reputation as a serious dramatic actress.
Sullavan’s tactful, delicate skill is especially evident in the final shots, frankly, which do not give the hope of a miracle so desired and traditional for Hollywood (and the very title of the film – “Death to All!”, resembles a sentence), but the barely noticeable final smile of Smitty-Sullavan, in which gratitude to fate is “read” for the chance to live a short, but meaningful life, nevertheless leaves light in the audience’s soul. And this partly alleviates the bitterness of contact with the tragic plot.