Product Details

• Actors: Victor Mature
• Directors: Frank Borzage
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: April 24, 2007
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000MTFFR2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #50,815 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "China Doll" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Victor Mature's long-suffering, bloodhound visage is the central image in Frank Borzage's wartime romance drama China Doll, a perfect example of what critic Andrew Sarris once referred to as Borzage's films about war as an intrusion on the emotional privacy of lovers. Mature plays Air Force Captain Cliff Brandon, stationed in China and training elite pilots by day during World War II. At night, Brandon becomes a drunken loner shunning the company of his men, Red Cross nurses, and local women who try to sell him comfort. Things change when Brandon, stumbling home from a bar, agrees to buy an old Chinese man's daughter, Shu-Jen (Li Hua Li), for three months, a decision the officer instantly regrets in the cold light of day. Convinced by his sole confidante--a priest (Ward Bond) running an orphanage--that the only honorable way out is to let Shu-Jen fulfill her three-month obligation, Brandon soon finds himself falling for her and re-embracing life. With the world on a collision course with itself, however, Brandon and Shu-Jen's shared destiny departs from the life of mutual salvation and closeness they've earned. Borzage's delicacy with the love story finds echoes in parallel relationships between other characters. In fact, struggling for a clear path to intimacy in the midst of battle seems very much on the minds of everyone in this movie. Action sequences are reasonably crisp, though they’re not designed to thrill so much as devastate viewers. A climactic scene set at an Air Force base under attack by Japanese pilots is one of the most powerful and poignant wartime visions in American cinema. --Tom Keogh

Product Description

No one could ladle out sentimental schmaltz more effectively-or successfully-than director Frank Borzage. China Doll was the blacklisted Borzage's first film effort in ten years. Victor Mature plays American air force officer Cliff Brandon who while stationed in the orient in WW2 marries his Chinese housekeeper Shu-Jen (Lili Hua). She is subsequently killed in the war whereupon Brandon leaves their baby with strangers before he goes off on a bombing mission. Fifteen years later Brandon returns to China hoping against hope to be reunited with his now-grown-up daughter. Ward Bond costars as cagey missionary Father Cairns while other supporting roles are filled by singer Johnny Desmond Olympic athlete Bob Mathias and up-and-coming leading man Stuart Whitman. After China Doll Frank Borzage directed one more film--The Big Fisherman--before bringing his 45-year movie career to a close.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 027616073822 Manufacturer No: M107382

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wartime romance with Victor Mature and Li Li Hua, May 29, 2007

By	Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

CHINA DOLL is a finely-pitched wartime drama. Victor Mature plays Capt. Cliff Brandon, a disillusioned airman fighting against the Japanese. One morning he wakes up to discover he has purchased the services of a beautiful Chinese housekeeper, Shu-Jen (played by the celebrated Asian actress Li Li Hua in one of her rare American film appearances).

This is one of the better films produced by Frank Borzage around this period. Just like the similarly-themed "Sayonara" and "The World of Suzie Wong", CHINA DOLL explores the problems and prejudices involved in a cross-cultural relationship.

Victor Mature is fine playing Captain Brandon; but it's Li Li Hua who really owns this picture. She only made a handful of movies in America, but here she is truly magnificent. The cast also includes Ward Bond, Bob Mathias, Johnny Desmond and Elaine Devry.

It's great to see CHINA DOLL finally on DVD. The disc offers no extras but the anamorphic transfer looks a treat. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars ........The China-Burma Campaign [ 1941-1945], May 29, 2007

By	Christopher E. Sarno (Boston, Massachusetts United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This movie [now a DVD] was made in 1958 and it covers the pilots who flew over the Himalayan mountains from Burma-Tibet-China...this movie lacks genuine art/direction for the various tableaus look so flimsy throughout the entire film...every GI was spit-shined and plenty of booze for all hands [is there a war going on??]...Victor Mature is almost in every scene as a hard-bitten Commanding Officer but shows hardly any emotion even when annoyed...the cast around him is second string all the way except for Ward Bond...and as for singer Johnny Desmond, he is totally forgettable in the role of a pilot...on the bright side the Chinese actress LiLi Hua is perfect in her virginal/traditional role and very easy on the eyes, too...the story/line is good with a tearful ending for the only survivor to arrive in the USA...I think it is over/priced for the final product...this here movie could have been Vic Mature's sayonara to his long and wonderful film career......SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

4.0 out of 5 stars not in color, June 2, 2009

By	John Huber - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great little movie, however I was disappointed that the copy I received was in Black & White. The format is advertised as being in color. The false advertising disturbs me as much as it not being in color. But if this doesn't bother you then you will probably enjoy it.