Tonight's Movie: Bombs Over Burma (1942) - A Film Masters DVD Review

BOMBS OVER BURMA (1942) is the latest DVD release from the Film Masters Archive Collection.

Thanks to a number of recent Blu-ray releases I've enjoyed watching several Anna May Wong films in recent months, from the silent era through her "B" movie work of the late '30s and early '40s.

I was thus appreciative of the chance to see this 65-minute programmer originally released by PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation).

BOMBS OVER BURMA was released in early June 1942 and is noteworthy as an early pro-China film of World War II. Another notable example honoring our ally, released less than a year later, was Paramount's CHINA (1943), an "A" picture starring Alan Ladd and Loretta Young.

BOMBS OVER BURMA was directed by Joseph H. Lewis, who graduated from "B's" like this film and MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945) to later making crime classics such as GUN CRAZY (1950) and THE BIG COMBO (1955).

BOMBS OVER BURMA begins in interesting fashion, with an unusual opening scene as teacher Lin Ying (Wong) teaches a class of young children while speaking Mandarin.

The innocent opening scenes are quickly disrupted by Japanese planes strafing the school. This is effectively staged by Lewis, despite the low budget, and what ensues helps provide the motivation for Lin Ying to take on a dangerous mission as a spy.

In her role as a spy Lin Yeng takes a bus trip accompanied by several other passengers, who then find themselves stranded at a monastery. Lin Yeng works to uncover an enemy agent transmitting information so that the Japanese can attack supply convoys.

The sequence at the monastery is the longest part of the film. There are a few nicely played moments of Agatha Christie style suspense, along with the anxiety of planes overhead, but for the most part this section of the film is slow-moving and talky. The promise of the film's creatively staged early scenes dissipates as the characters are stuck in a single set trying to sort out friends and allies.

The movie was filmed in black and white by Robert Cline. There's quite a bit of stock footage, and it appeared as though some of the convoy and concluding scenes could have been filmed somewhere in Southern California such as Simi Valley or Iverson Ranch.

An interesting cast note is that Lucy, a young girl on the bus trip, is played by Teala Loring (billed as Judith Gibson). Loring was the sister of better-known actresses Debra Paget and Lisa Gaye.

The cast also includes Noel Madison, Dan Seymour, Nedrick Young, and Richard Loo.

The Film Masters DVD print was quite good, especially for such a little-known PRC film. There are no extras on the disc.

The DVD does include chapter selections but no subtitles. The sound was on the softer side -- I had the TV volume turned all the way up, which I don't normally need to do -- so subtitles would have been appreciated, but I understand that it's probably not cost effective to provide them for a release of this nature. The goal, I assume, is simply to get rare movies in nice prints to consumers at an affordable price point.

Although BOMBS OVER BURMA wasn't the most interesting "B" film I'll see this year, I very much appreciated the opportunity to fill in my Wong and Lewis viewing via such a nice-looking print. Even a lesser movie has its place in film history, as outlined above, and I'm glad to have seen it.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Film Masters for providing a review copy of this DVD. It may be purchased via Amazon and other online retailers.

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