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China

1943, Movie, NR, 78 mins

China: Review

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A hard-hitting propaganda war film where Ladd appears as an unscrupulous trader of goods without conscience or national loyalty. Bendix, his buddy, picks a Chinese baby out of the rubble after a Japanese air raid and takes it to Ladd, who is just leaving a blonde floozy. Ladd tells him to drop "Donald Duck" (his casual nickname for the baby) and get into their truck; they are to drive to Japanese headquarters to sell the invaders oil. Bendix's blandishments fall on deaf ears; the Japanese "are good business," Ladd answers. During a rainstorm the truck is slowed by the refugees clogging the roadway. Next Chinese guerrillas stop the truck and force Ladd to take a group of schoolgirls with him. The group is led by Young, an American teacher, who pleads with Ladd to take the group to safety, but he intends to drive the girls only a short distance so he can turn off for Shanghai and his business appointment with the Japanese. Adding to his woes, he discovers the baby found by Bendix to be inside the truck, smuggled away by the soft-hearted sidekick. The group stops at a farm to get the child some milk and the baby is left with the kindly farming family. Further up the road, Young discovers that one of the girls has gone back to the farm--the people there are her relatives--and the teacher begs Ladd to return to get her, reminding him what Japanese troops do to women. Returning, Ladd finds that the Chinese family and the baby have been killed and the young schoolgirl beaten and raped. Grabbing a machine gun, Ladd storms into the house to find three enemy soldiers there. He guns them down and later tells Young, "I've got no more feelings about it than if they had been three flies on a pile of manure." When the schoolgirl dies of her injuries, Ladd erupts. He helps guerrillas fight the Japanese while falling in love with Young. To prevent an enemy force from crossing a mountain pass, Ladd and the guerrillas set dynamite next to a narrow passageway, but before the charges can be exploded, a Japanese column appears. Ladd goes to the lead car and attempts to stall the troops by double-talking the Japanese general. Then, as a prearranged signal to the guerrillas to set off the dynamite that will take him and the Japanese to doom, Ladd flips a burning cigarette into the general's face. Young and the guerrillas vow to carry on the fight to liberate China. Strong patriotism and a great deal of action permeate this production, but Ladd was embarrassed when ads for the film showed him in a drawing bare-chested with muscles he didn't possess and with the words: "Alan Ladd and twenty girls trapped by the rapacious Japs!" Farrow's direction is swift and economical and the lensing by Tover is above-average as are the process photography by Farciot Edouart and Jennings' special effects. leave a comment
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