Mildred Martin Philadelphia Inquirer Feb 1, 2023

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.

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Virginia Wilson Modern Screen 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.

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Ida Belle Hicks Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com 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.

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Ethel Hoffman Buffalo News Feb 1, 2023

The picture's strength is its fast action.

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Harold V. Cohen Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Feb 1, 2023

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

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Jay Carmody Washington Star 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.

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Josephine O'Neill Daily Telegraph (Australia) Feb 1, 2023

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

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Jack Karr Toronto Star Feb 1, 2023

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

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Herbert Whittaker Montreal Gazette Feb 1, 2023

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

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Donald Kirkley Baltimore Sun Feb 1, 2023

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

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H. Viggo Andersen Hartford Courant Feb 1, 2023

Anthony Quinn [is] splendidly cast.

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Len G. Shaw Detroit Free Press 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.

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Bosley Crowther New York Times 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.

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William Brogdon Variety 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.

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Marjory Adams Boston Globe 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.

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William R. Weaver Motion Picture Herald (Exhibitors Herald) 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.

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Philip K. Scheuer Los Angeles Times 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.

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Hortense Morton (Screen Scout) San Francisco Examiner Feb 1, 2023

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

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Edwin F. Melvin Christian Science Monitor 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.

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Sara Hamilton Photoplay Feb 1, 2023 2/3

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.

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