China Girl

An American Will Fight For Three Things1Himself2A Girl3A Better World.
China Nov 1941.Cameraman and newspaper reporter, Bugsy Williams(George Montgomery)is picked up by advancing Japanese troops.At headquarters,Bugsy is made an offer by the Japanese to film the Burma Road.He tells them he will think about it.On his way out Bugsy picks up a book which he thinks are his credendials.
In his cell is another prisoner,Major Weed(Victor McLaglen)a canadian officer.The Major tells Bugsy he has an escape plan with the help of his mistress,Fifi(Lynn Bari)waiting not far away.The escape comes off and Bugsy,The Major,and Fifi find a plane where they escape to Burma.
Bugsy looks at the small book he picked up and finds its written in Japanese,which he cant understand,but he can make out one word,Pearl and a number,seven.Bugsy shrugs it off.
Bugsy finds that Fifi and Major Weed are two Axis agents and breaks off with them.
He falls in love with Miss Young(Gene Tierney)whos father,Dr Kai Young(Philip Ahn)is a missionary in China and both must soon...

Typical WWII propaganda piece with an interracial romance thrown in
In the month before the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, a photographer (George Montgomery) and a soldier of fortune (Victor McLaglen) escape from a Japanese prison in China. The Japanese are eager to recapture the photographer as he mistakenly took a notebook with information on the impending Pearl Harbor attack. Directed by Henry Hathaway (TRUE GRIT) from a screenplay by Ben Hecht (NOTORIOUS), this is an unexceptional WWII propaganda piece gussied up with a romance between Montgomery and a Eurasian girl (Gene Tierney). I think she's Eurasian because she has a Chinese father (Philip Ahn) but no attempt is made to make her look Asian. The film casually features some unpleasant racial aspersions, one character complains "What's wrong with this buck toothed babes, they always play hard to get!". That's one of the milder smears. While Tierney is always a welcome presence, Montgomery's brash performance becomes tedious after awhile. The score is an early effort by Hugo Friedhofer (BEST YEARS...

mediocre to depressing
The one and only reason to see this one may be Gene Tierney in her early prime, but the story is a hodgepodge. I agree with the other reviewer that Montgomery plays his part like a Clark Gable wannabee and comes off looking less than the part. The supporting cast does a fairly good job of trying to keep the story interesting but the mostly annoying performance of Montgomery keeps this only a middle of the road film. There are some good special effects and action at times but the story lacks the punch of other films that use the "woman gets guy to committ to effort in wartime" theme. See "This Above All" with Tyrone Power and Joan Fontaine for how it should be done.

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