Reward Unlimited
{{Infobox film
| name = Reward Unlimited
| image = Reward-Unlimited-4.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Fay Holden and Dorothy McGuire
| native_name =
| director = Jacques Tourneur
| producer = B. P. Fineman
| writer = Mary C. McCall, Jr.
| screenplay =
| story =
| based_on =
| starring = {{Plainlist|
}}
| narrator =
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| studio = Vanguard Films
| distributor = Office of War Information
| released = {{Film date|1944|05|18}}
| runtime = 10 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
}}
Reward Unlimited is a short film produced in 1944 by David O. Selznick's Vanguard Films, for the United States Public Health Service, dramatizing the need for volunteer military nurses for the U. S. Cadet Nurse Corps during World War II. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, the 10-minute film stars Dorothy McGuire{{cite web |url=https://research.archives.gov/id/13272 |title=Reward Unlimited |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=2015-12-07}}{{cite news |last=Hu |first=Winnie |date=November 11, 2000 |title=Seeking Remembrance for Wartime Service |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/11/nyregion/seeking-remembrance-for-wartime-service-women-who-filled-stateside-nursing-gap.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=2015-12-06 }} in one of her first films. The story by Mary C. McCall, Jr., dramatizes the choice that young Peggy Adams makes to become a nurse, her training, and her volunteering for military nursing service. The cast includes Aline MacMahon, James Brown, Spring Byington and Tom Tully.
Reward Unlimited was released May 18, 1944.{{cite book |last=Doherty |first=Thomas |date=1993 |title=Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=325 |isbn=9780231082440}} Distributed by the United States Office of War Information,{{cite book |title=Reward Unlimited |publisher=WorldCat |oclc = 20626007}} the film was exhibited in 16,000 theaters and seen by an estimated 90 million people.{{cite journal |last1=Willever |first1=Heather |last2=Parascandola |first2=John |date=May–June 1994 |title=The Cadet Nurse Corps, 1943–48 |journal=Public Health Reports |publisher=Association of Schools of Public Health |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=455–457 |pmid=8190871 |pmc=1403514 }}{{Rp|456}} It was also presented at Cadet Nurse Corps recruitment events nationwide in 1944 and 1945.{{cite news |date=May 18, 1944 |title=Cadet Nurses to Appear at Theatre with Film |newspaper=The Daily Mail |location=Hagerstown, Maryland }}{{cite news |date=June 18, 1944 |title=Theatre Calendar |newspaper=Wichita Daily Times |location=Wichita Falls, Texas |quote='Reward Unlimited', a U.S. government release.}}{{cite news |date=May 3, 1945 |title=Cadet Nurses to Entertain |newspaper=Albuquerque Journal }}
Plot
Image:Reward-Unlimited-McGuire-MacMahon.jpg and Aline MacMahon in Reward Unlimited]]
Peggy Adams (Dorothy McGuire) and her fiancé Paul (James Brown) talk on the eve of his departure for active duty. He tells her, "We'll be married, but afterwards, after we've won the war." Peggy tells him she is going to find some war work herself—"Something that will make you proud of me, something that means something, to bring you home quicker." They part at the railroad station, and on her way home Peggy falls on the sidewalk. A kind nurse (Aline MacMahon) helps her. While bandaging Peggy's knee she tells her about the important work of the new U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps, and its great need for nurses. Back at home, Peggy tries to enlist the support of her mother (Spring Byington), who dismisses the idea of her becoming a cadet nurse—but Peggy's father (Tom Tully) encourages her. In a montage, Peggy undergoes training and is graduated from the program. The last scenes show Peggy and a fellow nurse walking down a hospital corridor, where they hear a child crying. Peggy goes into a dark room, switches on the light and comforts a young boy (Butch Jenkins) who has awoken from a nightmare. He tells her that he likes her more than the other nurses because she has "kind of an inside shine" that shows in her eyes. Peggy says, "I guess that's what happens when you're happy," and she switches off the light. The film ends with Peggy walking toward the camera, while a narrator encourages qualified female viewers to apply for the Cadet Nurse Corps.
Cast
- Dorothy McGuire as Peggy Adams
- James Brown as Paul
- Aline MacMahon as Mrs. Scott
- Spring Byington as Peggy's mother
- Tom Tully as Peggy's father
- Jackie "Butch" Jenkins as the boy{{cite web |url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba2daa410 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716084412/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba2daa410 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-16 |title=Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins |website=BFI Film & TV Database |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=2015-12-07}}
Reception and legacy
"This efficiently functional film is interesting mainly as Tourneur's most explicit study of the medical profession," wrote modern film scholar Chris Fujikawa, who remarked that "one notes in the film's characterization of nursing the same thematic combination of spirituality and service that informs I Walked with a Zombie and Stars in My Crown."{{cite book |last=Fujiwara |first=Chris |date=1998 |title=Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSX8EUOlqT0C&dq=Reward+Unlimited+Cadet+Nurse&pg=PA123 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |publisher=McFarland |pages=123–124 |isbn=9780786404919 }}
The Academy Film Archive preserved Reward Unlimited in 2013.{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=https://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=reward+unlimited&filmmaker=&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive}} The film is part of the Academy War Film Collection, one of the largest collections of World War II era short films held outside government archives.{{cite web|title=Academy War Film Collection|url=http://www.oscars.org/film-archive/collections/academy-war-film-collection|website=Academy Film Archive}}
Gallery
File:Reward-Unlimited-17.jpg|James Brown and Dorothy McGuire
File:Reward-Unlimited-23.jpg|Dorothy McGuire and Spring Byington
File:Reward-Unlimited-8.jpg|Dorothy McGuire and Tom Tully
File:Reward-Unlimited-5.jpg|Dorothy McGuire
File:Reward-Unlimited-6.jpg|Dorothy McGuire
File:Reward-Unlimited-1.jpg|Dorothy McGuire and Robert Forrest
File:Reward-Limited-15.jpg|Vanessie Clark, Beatrice Gray and Dorothy McGuire
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Reward Unlimited}}
- {{IMDb title | 0186493 | Reward Unlimited }}
{{Jacques Tourneur}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Selznick International Pictures films