Rating: 
Summary: Perfect Casting
Review: "The African Queen," director John Huston's other foray into very similar territory (rough man & religious woman forge friendship to survive against nature and enemy in wartime), is justly celebrated as a classic and an acting tour de force for leads Bogart and Hepburn. I only wish "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" got as much attention as TAQ since I think it is an equally splendid movie. Mitchum and Kerr are perfectly cast and give outstanding performances in their roles as as a battle-hardened Marine and a dedicated nun. The acting fireworks in "African Queen" are great, but I actually think I prefer the exquisite subtlety of Mitchum & Kerr's approach here, where the conflict between the characters is not as volatile as in TAQ and therefore calls for even greater amounts of calibration and control in body language, facial expressions and tone of voice from the actors. Follow Mitchum's many successive emotions during the proposal scene -- desire, hesitation, courageous candor, disappointment, humiliation, and finally face-saving stoicism -- and you witness a flawless and masterfully intelligent piece of acting, with Kerr just as perfect in her responses and counterpoint (including Sister Angela's reaction to knowing she has just crushed this man who, for perhaps the first and only time in his life, has completely revealed his heart to anyone).This is a wonderful character study of two people who are simultaneously polar opposites (warrior vs. woman of peace; street-tough vs. refined) and yet twin souls (courageous, loyal, unselfish, and duty-bound, one to the Marines and the other to Christ). Their attraction to one another is just as natural as their parting in the end (each following their duty) is inevitable, albeit bittersweet. Kudos to the filmmakers for not lapsing into sentimentality or cliches. Every creative choice for these characters is perfect. This film would, of course, make a great companion piece to "The African Queen" for comparison and contrast, but it also stands quite well on its own as a first-rate story, well told and well acted.
Rating: 
Summary: HEAVEN KNOWS, THIS IS ONE GIGANTIC DISAPPOINTMENT!
Review: "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is the engaging tale of a nun (Deborah Kerr)quietly going about her Christian duties on a deserted island who, one day, discovers a stranded, lone American officer (Robert Mitchum) in her midst. Although the relationship is marred by each other's criticism from the onset, a friendship developes that, for Mr. Allison, spells romance. As this is quite out of the question...see the movie and find out how it ends!
TRANSFER: WHAT A MESS! Fox gives us this movie in such poor shape that one wonders why they bothered to release it at all. The visual elements are marred by color fading and bleeding, orangy flesh tones and excessive film grain. Worse, there is an abundance of camera flicker and chips and scratches throughout the original camera negative. We also get some pretty heavy pixelization, edge enhancement and shimmering that add another layer to the distortions.
Audio - OH HEAVENS! - labeled as stereo (I'm not sure whether that's a deliberate lie or just wishful thinking), the audio on this disc is so incredibly muffled that there is absolutely nothing to recommend it. It is not natural sounding or even remotely engaging and, save a few isolated examples where I think I detected some action in the side and rear speakers, I don't believe anyone in their right mind would classify it as anything but an undistinguished MONO MESS! Not even old Japanese kung-fu movies sound this bad!
Extras: Of course, nothing to write home about. A movietones trailer and the original theatrical trailer.
BOTTOM LINE: There is nothing even remotely adequate about this DVD presentation. You would do better to pray to heaven that the staff responsible for the mastering of this disc are no longer in the employ of the studio!
Rating:
Summary: 20th Century FOX WAR CLASSIC now on WideScreen DVD!
Review: 20th Century Fox has done an OUTSTANDING job remastering & digital transferring to DVD many of their World War II movies under the heading of FOX WAR CLASSICS! "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is the best of this series thus far. This 1957 film is presented beautifully in Delux Color & Anamorphic WideScreen (automatically adjusts to your tv size including 16:9 HDTV) format. Summary: John Huston directs this outstanding story about two of the dearest, most delightful & wonderful people who must survive together in the Southern Pacific during World War II. Sister Angelia (Deborah Kerr - absolutely fantastic (Oscar Nominated for Best Actress)) as a missionary nun and U.S. Marine Corporal Allison (Robert Mitchum - perfectly casted truly) who are stranded on an island in Japanese occupied territory. Their 2 faiths (hers in God & his in the Corps)bring them together and provide each other the strength to overcome over whelming odds. "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is a great family picture. Is so delightful & entertaining (the story line is a pleasant surprise). Kerr & Mitchum are magical together. Don't miss this one. I guarantee you will be watching this one more than once. This is a great movie to buy!! Get out the popcorn & see a Great WideScreen DVD movie today. Find out why "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison"? Enjoy. Special Features include: 1957 Movietone News (including Heaven Knows Mr.Allison clip), Theatrical Trailer & Fox War Classic Trailers.
Rating:
Summary: 20th Century FOX WAR CLASSIC now on WideScreen DVD!
Review: 20th Century Fox has done an OUTSTANDING job remastering & digital transferring to DVD many of their World War II movies under the heading of FOX WAR CLASSICS! "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is the best of this series thus far. This 1957 film is presented beautifully in Delux Color & Anamorphic WideScreen (automatically adjusts to your tv size including 16:9 HDTV) format. Summary: John Huston directs this outstanding story about two of the dearest, most delightful & wonderful people who must survive together in the Southern Pacific during World War II. Sister Angelia (Deborah Kerr - absolutely fantastic (Oscar Nominated for Best Actress)) as a missionary nun and U.S. Marine Corporal Allison (Robert Mitchum - perfectly casted truly) who are stranded on an island in Japanese occupied territory. Their 2 faiths (hers in God & his in the Corps)bring them together and provide each other the strength to overcome over whelming odds. "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is a great family picture. Is so delightful & entertaining (the story line is a pleasant surprise). Kerr & Mitchum are magical together. Don't miss this one. I guarantee you will be watching this one more than once. This is a great movie to buy!! Get out the popcorn & see a Great WideScreen DVD movie today. Find out why "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison"? Enjoy. Special Features include: 1957 Movietone News (including Heaven Knows Mr.Allison clip), Theatrical Trailer & Fox War Classic Trailers.
Rating:
Summary: One of the greats!
Review: Although, I do not own this movie (yet) I have seen It A dozen times. I love it! My father,being A Marine during W.W.2,the movie held special meaning for me. Here are two people with such totally different beliefs and lifestyles, stranded on an island togther. Alone! I mean how much more ironic can you get! A Marine and A nun! You realize as you watch the movie, that they are not as different as you would think. They are both proud of what they believe in and what they stand for. The tensions they experience,as a man and woman together and later the respect for one another are beautiful!
Rating:
Summary: Can Two Actors Make a Movie Great? Yes!
Review: Deborah Kerr plays a proper, devoted, caring nun and Robert Mitchum plays an unsophisticated, uneducated, somewhat crude, but kind-hearted Marine. They end up stranded together on an island overrun by the Japanese during World War 2. There might be other actors who could have done this movie as well, but I'm not sure, and no one could have done it better. These two completely different people come to respect each other and care for each other as they survive the almost-constant threat of discovery by the Japanese. I agree with another reviewer that the two characters come to see in each other the same kind of devotion to a cause (religion and the military) and to their separate vocations which have shaped their lives, given them meaning, and saved them. The movie could have fallen prey to cliche and degenerated into a love story by having Kerr break her vows, and it almost reaches that point, but these two devoted people would not betray that which has defined them, and they remain true to their cause and to their selves. Extraordinary acting, dialog, action, and scenery. This is a keeper to be watched and re-watched.
Rating:
Summary: A good love story that's also exciting to watch..
Review: Heaven Knows Mr. Allison is one of those feel good movies thats fun to watch with a good love story and more than enough excitement to keep the viewer interested. It's the story of a shipwrecked U.S. marine (Robert Mitchem) who finds himself stranded on a deserted island. Stranded that is except for the nun (Deborah Kerr) and about 1000 Japanese soldiers who keep coming and going throughout the film as if they cant make up their minds how important occupying the island really is? The movie then becomes not only a struggle to survive the island and its lack of food and water? But also a struggle to avoid detection by the Japanese while keeping their romantic feelings for each other in check? The acting by both Mitchem and Kerr (who won a best actress oscar nomination for her role) is superb. And the ending in which Mitchem once again finds himself crucial to the war effort by taking out the Japanese big guns before the American invasion add up to a fun and very entertaining film that doesn't leave a bad taste in the viewers mouth. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Rating:
Summary: HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON
Review: I have enjoyed this movie since it was first released.... being a "Mick" myself I watched it in awe as a youngster... but one thing has always puzzled me - in the original the movie didn't end as they left yhe island - it ended in post(?) war London with that classic line " no one ever looks at the face of a Nun" .... why was this all telling ending cut out ?? Politically Incorrect .... dear me, even us Aussies are not that narrow minded. How about a version with the full uncut ending....
Rating:
Summary: Still a Favorite After 40 Years
Review: I saw this film for the first time in 1962 while sitting on my father's lap. I was eight years old. It immediately became a favorite of mine and remained so for many years. I think it was the first really "adult" movie I ever saw. I was transfixed by every aspect of the film: the romance of a deserted island, the "evil" Japanese soldiers, the intense musical score, the mystery of a nun dressed in an all white habit and, most of all, Robert Mitchum's raw animal magnetism. Of course, as a child of eight, I would never have used the phrase raw animal magnetism, nor even have known what it meant. And I certainly didn't pick up on the sexual tension between the Marine and Nun. All I knew was that Mr. Allison (as played by Mr. Mitchum) had a rare combination of masculinity, selfless bravery, and sensitivity that made my heart go pitter pat. I just finished watching this film for perhaps the twentieth time. I now see it through the eyes of a mature woman who knows about romantic love, WWII, devotion and bravery -- and I enjoyed it just as much as I did forty years ago. It is still one of my two favorite war films. The other being The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful story of love between two opposites
Review: Perfection is about the only way to describe this beautiful film about the trails of an Irish nun and a marine who are stranded on an island in Japanese infested waters during World War Two. "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison", is based on the simple premise of two totally opposite characters from two different worlds being forced by circumstances to work together for a mutual need and in the process learning not only to appreciate the other's qualities but also learning abit about themselves in the process. What works so wonderfully in this film are the beautifully drawn characters who are so realistic and honest in their composition and in their reactions to each other. The film is basically a two character study and it is to the great credit of Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum that never once does the interest in these two individuals drop off, so believable are their interpretations. One can believe totally that Robert Mitchum is a tough, no frills marine Corporal Allison and that Deborah Kerr is the sweet, pious but also gutsy Irish nun Sister Angela. "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" tells the story of Corporal Allison who after a Japanese attack on his vessel, finds himself washed up onto a desert island somewhere in the South Pacific. Thinking the island has been deserted he is amazed to discover that the only occupant is an Irish nun Sister Angela who is also stranded there after the death of a fellow priest. The story follows their trials and tribulations on the island, finding food, hiding out in a cave together when the Japanese take over the island and avoiding bombing when finally the marines drive the Japanese off with heavy bombing and gun fire. It is an inspirational story as the gruff marine and placid nun get to know each other, begin to develop firstly affection and then real love for each other before realising how life has taken them on different paths but made them better people for having known each other. Never once is the story done in bad taste or does it resort to crudity or sensationalism. I doubt if so delicate and tender a topic could be done today where such a story would have its sexual elements played up to the detriment of the story. Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum both deliver stunning performances and Kerr in particular in her portrayal of Sister Angela (for which she quite rightly received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress) became the proto-type so to speak, of all nun portrayals in the years to come. She is in turn beautifully mannered, pious, brave and considerate and capable of great love.In short a wonderfully well rounded character. The vision of her in her beautiful white nun's habit carrying the charred crucifix down the hill from the island's bombed church is an image I will always carry with me. Robert Mitchum is a perfect choice as Corporal Allison, the wayward orphan who joined the marines to become someone and who hides under his gruff unpolished totally masculine demeanour an essentially kind personality that resurfaces when he encounters Sister Angela. These two performers who appeared together in a number of films, notably "The Sundowners", have a beautiful chemistry when working together and their verbal exchanges and interaction is a delight to view. Directed with many subtle layers of meaning and emotion by veteran director John Huston he manages to combine what is essentially a sensitive love story with an exciting and serious war time drama. These layers combine excellently here and make the film a viewing experience to cherish. There are many exciting moments in "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" such as the turtle capture where Sister Angela rows the boat to try and save Mr. Allison from drowning, the landing of the Japanese on the Island and the couples retreating into the cave to avoid capture, Sister Angela's attack of malaria, and Mr. Allison's frantic trips to steal food from right under the noses of the Japanese are some of the best. Filmed on location on a beautifully unspoiled atoll in the South Pacific, the filming was not an easy experience for anyone involved but that does not show itself on screen. What resulted was an almost two hour film that never drags or lacks interest through its many changes in approach. Being a Catholic I guess I can see alot that I can identify with in the theme of the film but really it's a wonderful story that can be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates good writing and great character development. It's the type of film that wouldn't be made today given the extremes to which our current cinema feels it has to go to deliver "acceptable" entertainment, more's the pity. "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" is a particular favourite of mine and I feel it contains Deborah Kerr's finest performance so enjoy this great story of love, adventure, and human understanding set in wartime.
| 
