Tonight's Movie: China (1943) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

This seems to have been the weekend to watch World War II movies released in 1943.

Yesterday I saw the Warner Bros. film EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943), newly released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

Today I revisited CHINA (1943), a Paramount Pictures film I saw for the first time in 2012. It's now available on Blu-ray thanks to Kino Lorber.

CHINA stars Alan Ladd as David Jones, who is making a small fortune selling oil in 1941 China. He's strictly focused on profits and will sell to anyone who can pay top dollar, including the Japanese.

As war in China intensifies, David and his employee Johnny (William Bendix) struggle to make it by truck through the war-torn countryside to Shanghai. Against David's better judgment, they end up picking up a schoolteacher, Carolyn Grant (Loretta Young), and several of her students in order to transport them to safety. An orphaned baby found by Johnny is also along for the ride.

Though David is initially annoyed by his new responsibilities, it doesn't take long before he comes to admire and then love the spunky Carolyn.

At one point David and Carolyn view horrific atrocities; they also witness great loss of life by brave Chinese they have come to know. All of these experiences combine to change David's devil-may-care attitude toward the war in a very short time frame.

CHINA is an extremely tough film which doesn't hesitate to depict the brutality of war. No one is spared, including children. When David sees what a trio of enemy soldiers has done to a family, he unhesitatingly machine guns them -- and even says it felt good. The film has a very high body count on all sides. It's not graphic, but that isn't needed to make the film disturbing.

On my first viewing I liked the film well enough, but I think I enjoyed it even more on this second viewing, in large part simply because of how much I've come to enjoy Ladd over the past decade. That said, as I noted in my 2012 review, some of the script's character development is fairly perfunctory, though it's also true that that probably makes the film a little easier to watch. It's an interesting story, but if I were more deeply emotionally invested in the characters it might be too much to handle. The fast-paced 79-minute running time also helps in this regard.

Ladd and Young, who would work together again on AND NOW TOMORROW (1944), are both great favorites of mine, and they're each very good, especially considering the limited amount of screen time they have to sketch out their characters. Ladd conveys a fast-acting, temperamental man whose decency is awakened by his time with the sincere and generous Carolyn on the one hand and the horrible things he experiences on the other.

Ladd's an actor with tremendous screen presence, which does much to carry the film along. Since my first viewing I've read the suggestion in multiple places that Ladd's "Jones," who wears a leather jacket and fedora, could have helped inspire Indiana Jones, and it's certainly not hard to believe.

Young also does a fine job playing a confident woman who will jump in to do anything needed; she may be sweet and saintly, but she'll also drive a truck or pick up a gun. A scene where she reads the 23rd Psalm aloud is enormously touching, especially as the scene's Christian message is something so rarely seen in modern filmmaking.

Bendix has perhaps the best part in the film; Johnny's softer personality stands in stark contrast to his tough boss, especially when they wrangle over what to do with the baby Johnny has rescued. A scene where David has to deliver bad news to Johnny is beautifully acted; David doesn't even say anything, but Johnny knows from the look David gives him. Real-life friends Ladd and Bendix were always an excellent team, and that's certainly true here.

The film was directed by John Farrow. Frank Butler's screenplay was based on a play by John Stuart Dudley (aka Archibald Forbes).

CHINA was filmed in black and white by Leo Tover. Iverson Ranch stands in for China in some scenes; it was particularly fun to notice this, as since the first time I saw this film I have visited Iverson several times and have stood exactly where the cars are in the movie.

The supporting cast includes Philip Ahn, Iris Wong, Marianne Quon, Victor Sen Yung, Richard Loo, and Soo Yong.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a fine print with excellent sound. Disc extras are a commentary track by Eddy Von Mueller; the trailer; and a gallery of eight additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber.

As a side note, this film would make a nice double bill with one of my favorite Deanna Durbin films released the same year, THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY (1943), in which Durbin shepherds eight war orphans from China to a new life in San Francisco.

We're very fortunate that Kino Lorber has released a number of Ladd and Young films over the last couple of years, including Ladd's CALCUTTA (1947) and Young's BECAUSE OF YOU (1952) and THE ACCUSED (1949); I'll be reviewing the latter film here in the near future. Here's hoping the future might hold even more Ladd and Young Blu-rays from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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