| The Purple Heart | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Lewis Milestone |
| Written by | Jerome Cady |
| Based on | story by Darryl F. Zanuck (as Melville Crossman) |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Starring | Dana Andrews Richard Conte Farley Granger Kevin O'Shea Don "Red" Barry Sam Levene Trudy Marshall |
| Cinematography | Arthur C. Miller |
| Edited by | Douglas Biggs |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $800,000[2] |
| Box office | $1,500,000[3] |
The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, directed by Lewis Milestone, and starring Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Don "Red" Barry, Sam Levene and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Granger had a supporting role.
The film is a dramatization of the "show trial" of a number of US airmen by the Japanese government during World War II. It is loosely based on the trial of eight US airmen who took part in the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid on Japan. Three of the eight were subsequently executed and one later died as a POW.[4] This film was the first to deal directly with the Japanese treatment of POWs and ran into opposition from the US War Department, which was afraid that such films would provoke reprisals from the Japanese government.[5]
- ^ "The Purple Heart". American Film Institute. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
- ^ "Quick Money". Variety. 15 November 1944. p. 8.
- ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History Rowman & Littlefield, 2002 p 220
- ^ Dower 1987, p. 50.
- ^ Koppes and Black 1987, p. 267.