Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Robert J. Maxwell The very definition of "programmer." Randolph Scott and the two ladies that form the other points of the triangle are okay, but Anthony Quinn with his pasted-back eyelids is a heavy cross for any movie to bear, even for 1945. It doesn't help that the dialog, as usual, is given to the foreigners without any contractions. "You will help or we will die." The Korean Philip Ahn is Scott's doctor colleague and he ponders his torn allegiances with precise diction. Richard Loo, a Hawaiian-born Chinese, is a perennial Japanese ghoul in these war-time flicks, sinister and sneering.It's an inexpensive movie, a love story set amid the Japanese invasion of China, and it looks slack and limp. The Chinese hills look like California hills. Actors hit their spot and say their lines, look disturbed or happy, and then walk away.It's good that it was made, though. After the Japanese invasion, the slaughter in China was enormous. It's not something the West likes to think about too often now, because Japan is now our friend, while China is a communist country that sells us cheap goods. Gosh.

Clothes-Off Randolph Scott gets top billing, but ultimately this is Ruth Warrick's picture. She's a doctor holding together a makeshift hospital in China while its founder (Scott) is on his way back with much needed supplies--and a new wife, to her thinly-veiled disappointment. Having seen Warrick in a few other 1940s films, I can understand why the doc failed to notice her: despite her attractiveness, she never really exuded any sex appeal. But her character is very likable, while the new wife's shallowness becomes apparent within minutes of her entrance. And that's the problem with this picture--too easy. In fact, all it does is lower the audience's opinion of the foolish doctor for not seeing what's painfully apparent even to the other character's who don't speak the language. There's a similar subplot involving another doctor and a nurse, that's equally obvious. A wounded Japanese villain provides more action for the story, whose loose ends get tied up all too neatly and quickly. Either Pearl S. Buck's original novel just wasn't one of her better ones, or this movie doesn't do it justice. Nevertheless, it probably made for a decent lead-in on a double-feature back in the day.

Ishallwearpurple ----to fight over Randolph Scott in WWII China. Anthony Quinn, in an early role, plays the leader of the mountain fighters after the Japanese have taken over much of the country. Scott and Warrick are doctors in hospital at the village that supports the fighters. At the beginning of the film, Scott has gone back to America to raise funds for supplies and while there, meets and marries a spoiled beauty (Drew) and brings her back to the daily air raids and death at the village. Warrick, who has always loved her fellow doctor, tries to make the best of the situation, but as the weeks go by it becomes clear that Drew only came back with Scott to make him see that he should leave the war zone and come back with her to America. The verbal cat fight scenes between Warrick and Drew are the best part of the film. The people of the village being herded into the mountain caves during air raids; the fight near the end between the invaders and the mountain fighters and villagers, is handled very well. Despite the "A" list performers, this was considered a "B" film for the lower half of a double bill in the war years. As a preteen who first saw this the year it came out, I remember the Sat. matinee kids cheering for the good guys and booing the baddies. Watch it for a look at the past. 7/10

Sheldon Aubut China Sky is interesting as it shows a side of WWII that is seldom seen, the war in China. Few realize the enormity of what the Japanese did to China and it is seldom seen on television or in the movies. This gives at least a glimpse into that world.The story was written by Pearl S. Buck. It has some of the worst dialog I've seen in a movie in many years. The story is predictable, and there is not one thing in the plot that comes as a surprise. The acting is a bit better than the dialog, but that really isn't saying much.This movie is worth watching if for nothing else but the subject matter, but if one is expecting to be entertained please watch something else.