13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Epic WWII Action/Drama in the Far East, November 2, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: China [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Ah yes, this is what your looking for; Action, adventure, personal drama, great story with some early WWII era homefront morale boost without being boring. It has all the elements.
Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, Wm Bendix (who's great) and best of all, a great supporting cast including the best of the war pictures type, the great's; Philip Ahn & Richard Loo.
Fine action and touching drama; Loretta Young is as always excellent. Alan Ladd in his second lead picture ever the fine athelete you'll like a lot. A good story for the times and usually overdone patriotism prone pictures. Well done; I really like it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Epic WWII Action/Drama in the Far East, November 2, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: China [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Ah yes, this is what your looking for; Action, adventure, personal drama, great story with some early WWII era homefront morale boost without being boring. It has all the elements.
Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, Wm Bendix (who's great) and best of all, a great supporting cast including the best of the war pictures type, the great's; Philip Ahn & Richard Loo.
Fine action and touching drama; Loretta Young is as always excellent. Alan Ladd in his second lead picture, ever the fine athelete, you'll like a lot. A good story for the times when over-patriotism prone pictures were common. Well done; I really like it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"China (1943) ... Alan Ladd & Loretta Young ... Paramount Pictures Film Noir", March 25, 2007
This review is from: China [VHS] (VHS Tape)
Paramount Pictures present "CHINA" (1943) (79 mins/B&W) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Alan Ladd, Loretta Young, William Bendix & Philip Ahn --- Directed by John Farrow and released in April 21, 1943, our story line and film, Shortly before Pearl Harbor, American opportunist Jones and partner Johnny are in China to sell oil to the invading Japanese army ... Cynical about the sufferings of the Chinese, Jones meets compassionate teacher Carolyn Grant while traveling cross-country to Shanghai ... Sparks fly between these strong-willed characters, neither budging an inch. But when Jones witnesses a Japanese atrocity, his feelings toward his customers (and Carolyn) begin to change --- An absolute ripper action film with a great ending! --- This was one of a small number of pro-China films made in the United States during World War II, when the two countries had a mutual enemy in Japan; however, a few years down the line, Hollywood's attitude towards China would be markedly different.
Under John Farrow (Director), Richard Blumenthal (Producer), Frank R. Butler (Screenwriter), Archibald Forbes (Play Author), Farciot Edouart (Cinematographer), Leo Tover (Cinematographer), Victor Young (Composer (Music Score), Edna Warren (Editor), Gordon Jennings (Special Effects) - - - - the cast includes Loretta Young (Carolyn Grant), Alan Ladd (Mr. Jones),William Bendix (Johnny Sparrow), Philip Ahn (First Brother-Lin Cho), Iris Wong (Kwan Su), Marianne Quon (Tan Ying), Jessie Tai Sing (Student), Barbara Jean Wong (Nan Ti), Bruce Wong (Aide to Capt. Tao-Yuan-Kai), Soo Yong (Tai Shen),
Chester Gan (Japanese General), Tala Birell (Woman), Victor Sen Yung (Third Brother-Lin Wei), Ching Wah Lee (Chang Teh), Richard Loo (Lin Yun) - - - - - Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe Hollywood crime dramas that set their protagonists in a world perceived as inherently corrupt and unsympathetic...Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hard-boiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression...the term film noir (French for "black film"), first applied to Hollywood movies by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, was unknown to most of the American filmmakers and actors while they were creating the classic film noirs..the canon of film noir was defined in retrospect by film historians and critics; many of those involved in the making of film noir later professed to be unaware at the time of having created a distinctive type of film ... featuring top performances from the '40s and '50s with outstanding drama and screenplays, along with a wonderful cast and supporting actors to bring it all together ... another winner from the vaults of almost forgotten film noir gems
SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Alan Walbridge Ladd
Date of Birth: 3 September 1913 - Hot Springs, Arkansas
Date of Death: 29 January 1964 - Palm Springs, California
2. Loretta Young (aka: Gretchen Young)
Date of Birth: 6 January 1913 - Salt Lake City, Utah
Date of Death: 12 August 2000 - Los Angeles, California
3. William Bendix
Date of Birth: 14 January 1906 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 14 December 1964 - Los Angeles, California
5. John Farrow (Director)
Date of Birth: 10 February 1904 - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Date of Death: 28 January 1963 - Beverly Hills, California
Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!
Total Time: 79 min on VHS ~ Universal Home Video ~ (6/10/1997)
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