The Hasty Heart

Vincent Sherman directs this 1940s drama starring Richard Todd, Ronald Reagan and Patricia Neal. The film is set in Burma following the end of the war in 1945. Life is tough for a group of soldiers with injuries too severe to travel back home to enjoy the victory celebrations with their friends and comrades. Under the care of Sister Margaret Parker (Neal), the multinational soldiers who go by the nicknames Yank (Reagan), Kiwi (Ralph Michael), Tommy (Howard Marion Crawford) and Digger (John Sherman) are recuperating in a Burmese hospital. Recalcitrant Scotsman Corporal Lachlan (Todd) joins them in a particularly tragic position: he has only weeks to live due to a kidney problem. The others try to cheer him up, but struggle to penetrate his steely facade. Will Lachlan makes some friends at last or will he die alone and bitter?