China (1943 film)

Last updated
China
Chinalobcard.jpg
Directed by John Farrow
Written byFrank Butler
Based onunproduced play "The Fourth Brother" by Archibald Forbes
Produced byRichard Blumenthal
Starring Loretta Young
Alan Ladd
William Bendix
Cinematography Leo Tover
Edited by Eda Warren
Music by Victor Young
Production
company
Paramount Pictures
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
  • April 21, 1943 (1943-04-21)
Running time
79 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million (est.) [1]
Box office$2.5 million (US rentals) [2]
1,774,843 admissions (France) [3]

China is a 1943 film directed by John Farrow and starring Loretta Young, Alan Ladd and William Bendix. [4] Ladd's character David Llewellyn Jones, wearing a fedora, a leather jacket, khakis and a beard stubble, was an inspiration for Indiana Jones. [5] Aside from Tala Birell as one of Jones' paramours at the beginning of the film, the entire supporting cast is Asian, including Philip Ahn and Richard Loo.

Contents

Plot

In 1941, in China struggling with civil war and the Japanese occupation, Captain Tao-Yuan-Kai wants to execute David Jones (Alan Ladd) for selling oil to the Japanese, but can do nothing because Jones is American. Japanese aircraft bomb the town, so Jones drives toward Shanghai with his partner, Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix), who has acquired a newly orphaned baby boy.

After nightfall, they are forced to stop because Chinese refugees crowd the road. The Chinese beat the Americans and start to take their truck, until Carolyn Grant (Loretta Young), an American schoolteacher born in China, tells them to stop. Carolyn sneaks her group of female college students into the back of Jones's truck. As she grew up there and knows the terrain, Carolyn takes over the driving for a while, and has her friend, Lin Wei, sit on the hood to watch for potholes.

When Jones realizes that Carolyn has loaded his truck with refugees, he starts throwing them out (worried he will not have enough gas to get to Shanghai), but relents when he learns that they are Carolyn's students, all young women.

The next day, they encounter Lin Wei's first and second brothers, Lin Cho and Lin Yun, who have formed a guerrilla band and are posing as peasants. Lin Cho warns them to take an alternate road as the Japanese are approaching. Jones reluctantly drives to the family farm of Tan Ying, a girl he tried to throw off the truck, as "Donald Duck" (the baby) needs milk.

At the farm, Carolyn tries again to persuade Jones to take the students to Chungtu, where they can continue their studies, rather than Japanese-occupied Shanghai, but Jones refuses. After Johnny leaves the baby with Tan Ying's family for safekeeping, the journey resumes. They are forced to abandon the truck when Japanese aircraft strafe the road, but Lin Cho and his compatriots shoot the airplane down.

When Carolyn discovers that Tan Ying has slipped off the bus to rejoin her family, she insists on returning for her. While the rest of the group hikes to a monastery, Jones and Carolyn drive back to the farm and are shocked to find that the Japanese have burned the farm, and murdered Tan Ying's parents and Donald Duck. Jones then finds three Japanese soldiers raping Tan Ying, and shoots them without hesitation, while Carolyn comforts the hysterical woman. After the group takes refuge in the monastery, Tan Ying dies.

Finally cognizant of the nature of the Chinese struggle, Jones is now inspired to join the fight against the Japanese, and offers his help to the three brothers. They determine that they must close a mountain pass in order to prevent the further onslaught of the Japanese, but only the Japanese army has the necessary dynamite. That night, Jones, Johnny, Lin Wei, Lin Cho and Lin Yun swim across a river to raid a Japanese encampment and steal the dynamite. When their presence is detected, a fierce gun battle ensues, during which Lin Wei, and all but two other guerrillas, are killed. Before he dies, Lin Wei honors Jones by calling him his "fourth brother."

That night, Carolyn rejects Johnny's marriage proposal because she is in love with Jones, and later, the new lovers Jones and Carolyn spend a final night together. The next day, the small band of fighters places the dynamite along the mountain pass road.

When the Japanese convoy appears early, Jones stops them on the road to give the guerrillas time to lay the dynamite, and pretends that he is stranded. The Japanese general explains to Jones that Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbor in the United States, and that their intention is to create a new world order. After the general's second-in-command shoots Jones, the Chinese set off the dynamite causing an avalanche that buries the Japanese troops, and closes the road. Carolyn and Johnny mourn the loss of their friend as they drive the students to Chungtu.

Cast

Production

Development

The script was based on Fourth Brother, an unproduced play by Archibald Forbes about an American oil salesman in China who joins in the fight against the Japanese with three Chinese guerrillas. Paramount bought the screen rights for $25,000 in May 1942. [6] [7] [8]

Casting

The film originally was considered a vehicle for Loretta Young, who was an enthusiastic supporter of China during the war [9] and who had just signed a three-year deal with Paramount to make two movies a year. [10] By September, Alan Ladd and William Bendix were assigned to the film, with John Farrow to direct, in colour. [11] Young pulled out, claiming she was dissatisfied with her role. [12] However, she appears to have changed her mind. "I thought it was going to be good", she said. "It was a war picture. It was full of action and a bit of vindictiveness... pretty little orphan girls." [13]

William Bendix was cast as Ladd's sidekick, a departure from the "heavy" that he had played in earlier roles. He would go on to play Ladd's sidekick in The Blue Dahlia (1946), Calcutta (Shot in 1945, released in 1947) and The Deep Six (1958). [14]

Except for the three leads (and the brief role of Ladd's girlfriend before the journey begins), all of the cast were of Chinese descent or elsewhere in East Asia, causing the filmmakers to look outside normal casting avenues. [15] Sen Yung, Philip Ahn and Richard Loo played lead supporting roles. [16]

Helena Kuo was meant to play a small role [17] but did not end up appearing in the film.

Shooting

Filming started 27 October 1942. [18] In December Hedda Hopper wrote in her gossip column "wonder why so many battles between producer, director, Loretta Young and Alan Ladd on China? Could it be a bad story? Could be..." [19]

Loretta Young later said she objected to a scene where her character had to condone the suicide of one of the Chinese girls as she would not "propagandize suicide as the answer to anything". (Young was a devout Catholic.) She claimed Farrow and Paramount's head of production Buddy de Sylva agreed to cut the scene, but it reappeared in the script during production. Young refused once more and threatened to leave the film. The scene was not shot. [20]

Young also admitted she had difficulties with Alan Ladd. "He was a whiner and I hate that... Any man who calls for his agent every time he doesn't get his own way and his agent happens to be his wife (Sue Carol) there is something radically wrong. The last little thing that would happen, he'd be on the phone saying, 'Sue, you'd better get over here and straighten this out." [21]

"I don't remember hearing him laugh, or ever seeing him laugh", said Young. "Everything that concerned him was very serious." [22]

China was the third war film in a row John Farrow had directed after being discharged from the Canadian navy. Farrow was keen to make the movie as accurate as possible. "We have a big army and there are bound to be service men in every theatre", he said during the film's shoot. "Not only that, every mother's son has a mother – and you can bet she knows what it's all about too. As far as I'm concerned, when I decide to make a picture about anything – no matter what – I feel I should be truthful." [23]

Ladd was injured during filming the battle scenes, suffering a cut arm and sprained ankle. [24] He also had to make a 20-foot dive off a bridge, which former diver Ladd found easy. [25]

The scene where 4,000 Japanese troops were killed in explosion was thought to set a record for Japanese killed on screen in a Hollywood film. [26]

Locations

The film was shot in a number of highly scenic locations in both Arizona and California. In the former, these include Apache Trail and areas around Phoenix (which had a population of only 65,000 in 1940). In the latter, Big Tujunga Creek, Iverson Ranch. and canyons in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Post Production

Paramount purchased the rights to "Work as One", a popular Chinese marching song by Shu Mo, to use in the film. Part of the purchase price went to the campaign fund for United China Relief. The song was recorded by the All-Chinese Choir of the Chinese First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles. [27]

Reception

The film premiered in New York at the Paramount in April 1943, with an appearance by Harry James and his orchestra. Teenage fans ended up rioting, smashing a window and breaking a policeman's ribs. "Every indication points to a record breaking run, however", wrote the Los Angeles Times. [28]

The film was a big hit and Paramount reunited Young and Ladd on And Now Tomorrow (1944). [29]

Critical

Bosley Crowther in his film review for The New York Times , noted that Hollywood had churned out an unsatisfactory look at a topical subject, "... a small host of Chinese worthies play their countrymen in the accepted style. But the film scarcely does justice to their country — or to the title which it bears. By and large, it is Hollywood trumpery ..." [30]

The review in Variety was more charitable, noting, "Frank Butler generates authenticity in the dramatic evolvement of his screenplay [from a play by Archibald Forbes], while director John Farrow neatly blends the human and melodramatic elements of the yarn." [31]

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "the hostility expressed in some quarters towards China can probably be laid to the title as much as anything. Hollywood's penchant for the grandiose has a way of kicking back unexpectedly – and China, apparently, has got itself in the pan. Except in the narrow movie sense, it hardly justifies so sweeping a name. In the narrow movie sense the picture is, however, as good as most melodramas treating of some phase of the global war and – in certain moments of realism – rather better than that." [32]

Radley Metzger praised the film, saying John Farrow "brilliantly mastered" the technique of the tracking shot and that China "has the most fabulous shots I've ever seen." [33]

Related Research Articles

<i>Wake Island</i> (film) 1942 film directed by John Farrow

Wake Island is a 1942 American action drama war film directed by John Farrow, written by W. R. Burnett and Frank Butler, and starring Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macdonald Carey, Albert Dekker, Barbara Britton, and William Bendix. The film tells the story of the United States military garrison on Wake Island and the onslaught by the Japanese following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Russell</span> American actress (1924–1961)

Gail Russell was an American film and television actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Ladd</span> American actor (1913–1964)

Alan Walbridge Ladd was an American actor and film producer. Ladd found success in film in the 1940s and early 1950s, particularly in films noir and Westerns. He was often paired with Veronica Lake in films noir, such as This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Whispering Smith (1948) was his first Western and color film, and Shane (1953) was noted for its contributions to the genre. Ladd also appeared in ten films with William Bendix.

<i>This Gun for Hire</i> 1942 film by Frank Tuttle

This Gun for Hire is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tay Garnett</span> American film director and writer (1894–1977)

William Taylor "Tay" Garnett was an American film director and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Farrow</span> Australian film director (1904–1963)

John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director for Wake Island, and in 1957 he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Around the World in Eighty Days. He had seven children by his wife, actress Maureen O'Sullivan, including actress Mia Farrow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patric Knowles</span> English actor (1911–1995)

Reginald Lawrence Knowles, better known as Patric Knowles, was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, he made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career. He appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.

<i>The Glass Key</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Frank Tuttle

The Glass Key, released in 1935, was based upon the 1931 suspense novel The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett, directed by Frank Tuttle, starring George Raft and featuring Edward Arnold, Claire Dodd, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams and Ray Milland. Ann Sheridan has a brief speaking role as Raft's character's nurse in their first film together.

<i>Variety Girl</i> 1947 film by George Marshall

Variety Girl is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Tryon, Nella Walker, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and William Demarest. It was produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Among many others, the studio contract players include Gary Cooper, Alan Ladd, Paulette Goddard, Ray Milland, William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, William Bendix, Barbara Stanwyck and Paula Raymond.

<i>The Great Gatsby</i> (1949 film) 1950 film directed by Elliott Nugent

The Great Gatsby is a 1949 American historical romance drama film directed by Elliott Nugent, and produced by Richard Maibaum, from a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Cyril Hume. The film stars Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, and Barry Sullivan, and features Shelley Winters and Howard Da Silva, the latter of whom later returned in the 1974 version. It is based on the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set during the raucous Jazz Age on Long Island near New York City, the plot follows the exploits of enigmatic millionaire and bootlegger Jay Gatsby who attempts to win back the affections of his former lover Daisy Buchanan with the aid of her second cousin Nick Carraway.

<i>And Now Tomorrow</i> 1944 film by Irving Pichel

And Now Tomorrow is a 1944 American drama film based on the best-selling novel, published in 1942 by Rachel Field, directed by Irving Pichel and written by Raymond Chandler. Both center around one doctor's attempt for curing deafness. The film stars Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, and Susan Hayward. Its tagline was Who are you that a man can't make love to you?. It is also known as Prisoners of Hope.

<i>Two Years Before the Mast</i> (film) 1946 film by John Farrow

Two Years Before the Mast is a 1946 American historical adventure film directed by John Farrow and starring Alan Ladd, Brian Donlevy, William Bendix, and Barry Fitzgerald. It is based on Richard Henry Dana Jr.'s travel book of the same name and was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures.

<i>The Glass Key</i> (1942 film) 1942 film by Stuart Heisler

The Glass Key is a 1942 American film noir based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The picture was directed by Stuart Heisler starring Brian Donlevy, Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. A successful earlier film version starring George Raft in Ladd's role had been released in 1935. The 1942 version's supporting cast features William Bendix, Bonita Granville, Richard Denning and Joseph Calleia.

<i>The Accused</i> (1949 film) 1949 film by William Dieterle

The Accused is a 1949 American melodrama film starring Loretta Young and Robert Cummings. It was directed by William Dieterle, produced by Hal Wallis, and written by Ketti Frings, based on Be Still, My Love, a 1947 novel written by June Truesdell. Wendell Corey appears in principal support.

<i>Dynamite Brothers</i> 1974 film by Al Adamson

Dynamite Brothers, also known by its alternate title East Meets Watts, is a 1974 martial arts and blaxploitation film.

<i>Saigon</i> (1948 film) 1948 film by Leslie Fenton

Saigon is a 1948 American crime film directed by Leslie Fenton starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, in their fourth and final film together. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and was one of the last films Veronica Lake made under her contract with the studio. Ladd and Lake made four films together; This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key, both in 1942, The Blue Dahlia in 1946 and Saigon. While the earlier films all proved to be big box office successes, Saigon did not do as well financially. Ladd continued to remain one of Paramount's top male stars, while Lake's career was in decline. By the end of 1948 her contract with Paramount had expired and the studio chose not to renew it.

<i>Lucky Jordan</i> 1942 film by Frank Tuttle

Lucky Jordan is a 1942 film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Alan Ladd in his first leading role, Helen Walker in her film debut and Sheldon Leonard. The screenplay concerns a self-centered gangster who tangles with Nazi spies.

<i>Calcutta</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by John Farrow

Calcutta is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by John Farrow, and written and produced by Seton I. Miller. The drama features Alan Ladd, Gail Russell and William Bendix.

<i>Salty ORourke</i> 1945 film by Raoul Walsh

Salty O'Rourke is a 1945 American drama film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Alan Ladd and Gail Russell. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. J. Wolfson</span> American writer, film producer and screenwriter

Pincus Jacob Wolfson was an American pharmacist, novelist, screenwriter, film producer, and film director.

References

Notes

  1. Schallert, Edwin. "Drama: 'Refugee Smith' will Become Metro feature." Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1942, p. A10.
  2. "Top Grossers of the Season", Variety, 5 January 1944 p 54
  3. "French box office of 1947." Box Office Story. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  4. "'China' (1943)." AllMovie. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  5. French, Mike. "Influences: China." Theraider.net. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  6. "Addenda". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. May 15, 1942.
  7. Schallert, Edwin (May 14, 1942). "DRAMA: Chaplin Writes Comedy Into Irish Village Play New Screen Introduced Stooges Navy Show Hit Jean Rogers Wins Lead 'Taxi Mister' Announced Jane Wyatt Slate Filled". Los Angeles Times. p. 17.
  8. "PLAY AT BELASCO CLOSES ABRUPTLY: 'Walking Gentleman,' Grace Perkins-Fulton Oursler Work Given Only Six Times COMEDY FOR MISS ULRIC Milton Herbert Gropper's Play, 'If Women Could Choose,' to Be the Vehicle". The New York Times. May 13, 1942. p. 14.
  9. "Mme. Chiang Kai-shek honours star of 'China'". Canberra Times . July 3, 1943. p. 4 via National Library of Australia.
  10. "SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD: 'Two Against Tomorrow,' a Story of Bataan by Peter Viertel, Bought by M.G.M. GABLE FILM NEXT WEEK ' Somewhere I'll Find You,' His Last Before Joining Army, to Be Seen at Capitol". The New York Times. Aug 20, 1942. p. 23.
  11. "Loretta Young and Alan Ladd Will Be Seen in 'China' -- Role for Ernest Truex: 48TH ST. REOPENS TODAY 'Soliga Solberg' Will Have Its Premiere There -- 'Battle of Midway' Due on Monday". The New York Times. Sep 12, 1942. p. 9.
  12. Hopper, Hedda. "Looking at Hollywood." Chicago Daily Tribune, October 20, 1942, p. 19.
  13. Funk, Eavesdropping, p 238
  14. Linet 1979, p. 74.
  15. "'China', a casting nightmare". The World's News . Sydney. September 11, 1943. p. 9 via National Library of Australia.
  16. "SON OF CHARLIE CHAN". Daily Advertiser . Wagga Wagga, NSW. 5 March 1943. p. 3. Retrieved 23 January 2016 via National Library of Australia.
  17. "News of the Screen". The Christian Science Monitor. Oct 21, 1942. p. 14.
  18. "Loretta Young Gets Feature Role in 'Her Heart in Her Throat' at Paramount: RIVOLI BENEFIT PREMIERE Proceeds of Tonight's Showing of 'Moon and Sixpence' Will Go to French Group". The New York Times. Oct 27, 1942. p. 29.
  19. Hopper, Hedda (Dec 11, 1942). "Looking at Hollywood". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 30.
  20. Funk p 199
  21. Funk p200
  22. Funk, Eavesdropping, p 235
  23. Scheuer, Philip K. "Town Called Hollywood." Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1942, p. C3.
  24. "Make-believe film wars also have casualties." Chicago Daily Tribune, January 17, 1943, p. C7.
  25. "Ladd performs high dive in action picture." Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1943, p. 30.
  26. "Newcomer singing Crosby-type song." The Washington Post, March 4, 1943, p. B9.
  27. "Picture Prospects". The Christian Science Monitor. Nov 13, 1942. p. 11.
  28. Lusk, Norbert (Apr 27, 1943). "Critics' Tears Fail to Dampen Fans' Enthusiasm". Los Angeles Times. p. 15.
  29. Funk p 206
  30. Crowther, Bosley. "Movie review: China (1943) with Alan Ladd and Loretta Young, opens at the Paramount, picture is called romance with topical theme." The New York Times, April 22, 1943.
  31. "Film review: China." Variety. Retrieved: January 26, 2015.
  32. Scheuer, Philip K. (May 21, 1943). "Nip Invaders Up Against Alan Ladd". Los Angeles Times. p. 13.
  33. Corliss, Richard (Jan–Feb 1973). "Radley Metzger: Aristocrat of the Erotic". Film Comment (9.1 ed.). pp. 19–29.

Bibliography