Product: China Doll (1958)
Rating: 4.0
An unexpected gem ... different facets gleam ...
This 1958 film directed by Frank Borzage was set in China during World War II. "Captain Cliff Brandon" (Victor Mature), drinking away his tour as a Hump Pilot, takes in "Shu-Jen" (played by the Hong Kong film star Lihua Li) as his housekeeper. A gruff and distant relationship becomes affectionate; love follows; the two marry and have a daughter; and then the Japanese attack.The film can be appreciated from a number of angles.-- Intercultural marriage. American moviegoers were offered "Sayonara" in 1957, "South Pacific" and "China Doll" in 1958, and "Bridge to the Sun" in 1961. The treatments now show their age, but the different plots and characters were addressing interracial marriage, perhaps in response to the small but growing number of GIs returned from Japan and Korea with wives. These films, even though they were about white-Asian marriages, should be recognized for denting interracial taboos, laying important psychological foundations for the Civil Rights movement a few years later.-- War film. "China Doll" gave more visibility to the American aviators in the China-Burma-India theatre. Spliced into the film are great scenes, originally shot by combat cameramen, of troop carrier aircraft dropping supplies to the American and Chinese troops crossing Burma.-- Aviation movie: There are some fine scenes of the C-47 and the equipment and uniforms used during the war. Inexplicably, the film editors who put together the other flying sequences must have had hangovers, and aviation buffs will no doubt wince at the several editing whoppers.Finally, if you happen to watch the film with Chinese friends, be prepared to hear them laugh out loud at the Hollywood characters' attempts to speak lines in Chinese. Ward Bond had many virtues, but Mandarin dialog was not one. On the other hand, they will nod in appreciation when Bond, playing a missionary, "Father Cairns," says, speaking of 1943, "I know China's somewhat behind the times, but you give her time and she'll catch up."-30-