There are excellent and exciting battle sequences, as well as one throat-tightening, laudably un-Hollywoodized, glimpse of the infamous Death March. And there are also numerous good performances under the firm, capable direction of Edward Dmytryk.

| Feb 1, 2023

Back To Bataan has more excitement per reel than anything you've come across in some time and explodes the theory that war pictures are necessarily dated.

| Feb 1, 2023

The picture, which drew its vitality from the front pages of the newspapers, goes deeper than the headlines and delves into the human story behind the guns and bayonets.

| Feb 1, 2023

The picture's strength is its fast action.

| Feb 1, 2023

Back to Bataan is a bang-up show and a bitter . memory, its hair-raising thrills tempered by its aching terrors.

| Feb 1, 2023

This is the story of the Filipino refusal to give up, a blending of fact and fiction which adds up to a dramatic spectacle of gallantry of an appeal rarely achieved in its field.

| Feb 1, 2023

Result: A film that is coldly tingling in its fighting scenes, and highly embarrassing in its personal angles.

| Feb 1, 2023

As films of this type go, the R.K.O. production ranks above average.

| Feb 1, 2023

Here's another strong action film, with imaginary events cleverly blended with modern historic ones to provide first-rate entertainment.

| Feb 1, 2023

This one pulls no punches, wastes no time on subtleties, and its methods, if sometimes rather crude, art most effective.

| Feb 1, 2023

Anthony Quinn [is] splendidly cast.

| Feb 1, 2023

Wayne, physically fitted for the role, plays the colonel! forth-rightly, with a restraint and quiet determination that makes for an-impressive performance. Anthony Quinn comes off with great credit as a Filipino soldier.

| Feb 1, 2023

For people who like that sort of picture, it will probably be gratifying... But, from a more realistic viewpoint, it seems a cheap and meretricious conception of the ordeal of the Philippine patriots and of the Americans who stayed behind to aid them.

| Feb 1, 2023

Quinn does a particularly outstanding job, as does Franquelli. Wayne makes a stalwart leader for the guerrillas, commendably underplaying the role for best results.

| Feb 1, 2023

The courage and perseverance of the Filipino guerrillas is emphasized in Back to Bataan, a thrilling, lusty, more or less honest account of how the way was paved for General MacArthur and his men to come back to beaten Bataan as victors.

| Feb 1, 2023

Here is presented, in fiction so much like fact that the film partakes profitably of the flavor of a documentary without sacrificing drama or suspense, the story of the Filipino guerrillas.

| Feb 1, 2023

[Back to Bataan achieves] that new steely-hard objectivity which Hollywood itself has finally caught up with in its approach to total war.

| Feb 1, 2023

Miss Franquelli... is an exciting and, well worth watching, future screen personality.

| Feb 1, 2023

Mr. Wayne gives a straightforward performance as the able but undemonstrative officer who organizes the guerrilla bands... Anthony Quinn, too, does a first-rate job.

| Feb 1, 2023

It is history book material into which is breathed life and yes, death, in a way that none of us shall forget. Stories such as these should be classroom musts in the future as well as educational and emotional entertainment for every American.

| Original Score: 2/3 | Feb 1, 2023