The Purple Heart

For other meanings see Purple Heart (disambiguation). The Purple Heart is a 1944 American war film directed by Lewis Milestone. The film stars Dana Andrews, Richard Conte, Kevin O'Shea, Don "Red" Barry and Trudy Marshall. Eighteen-year-old Farley Granger had a supporting role. The Purple Heart is a dramatization of the "show trial" of a number of US airmen by the Japanese during World War II. The film is loosely based on the trial of eight airmen who took part in the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid. Three were executed and one died as a POW. This film was the first to deal directly with the treatment of POWs by the Japanese and ran into opposition from the US War Department which was afraid that such films would provoke reprisals from the Japanese.