China Girl Film 1942

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Eustacio Gadit

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Aug 5, 2024, 1:52:11 AM8/5/24

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Eightypercent of the film would have constituted a well above average B-movie adventure thriller, but the scenes at the beginning, with the Japanese army shooting Chinese peasants lined up along (and falling into) a long earthen burial pit belie any sense of light amusement value right from the start.

Nor is the ending, with Japanese warplanes wiping out an entire Chinese village, filled with screaming people, many of them children, intended to have anyone whistling their way out of theater. No, what this is is a bitterly honest anti-Japanese wartime propaganda film disguised as an everyday spy story and romance, with a budget and production values a notch higher than would have been given to it if that was all it was intended to be.

Comic relief is provided by Robert Blake as a young Mandalay street urchin who attaches himself to Williams. Haolis father is played by Philip Ahn, a teacher whose classroom demeanor was exactly the same in 1942 as it was 30 years later as the mentor to David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine in the TV series Kung Fu.

George Montgomery plays earnest very well, once his sharp edges have been worn away, while Gene Tierney is both beautiful and exotic as well as totally natural. No surprise there. Lynn Bari seems to have caught the eyes of some reviewers, but for me, not this time around.

I watched the first few minutes of the movie, and thought that the lobby scenes were shot a set and the shots of stairways and the upper floor were shot at the Bradbury buidling. Robert Blake may remember details about the movie, although he was only 9 when it was filmed.

However, the brick wall and the grillwork of the stairs at the end of the lobby look like the Bradbury! Why would they make the rest of the lobby totally unlike the Bradbury (excluding bar grill) but make the stairs exactly like the Bradbury unless they were also planning to shoot in the Bradbury?

China Girl was filmed in 1942 after the start of the war. Construction supplies would have been in scarce supply and it is unlikely that the studio would build such a extravagant set just for some shots of people going up and down stairs.

We may not have the definitive answer, but the exploration has revealed much about the process of filmmaking in the grand studio era. And how wonderful it is that the Bradbury Building still shines like a beacon all these years later.

The working titles of this film were A Yank in China, Burma Road, and Over the Burma Road. Ben Hecht's onscreen credit reads "Produced and Written by Ben Hecht." Melville Crossman, who is credited as the film's story writer, was the pseudonym of Twentieth Century-Fox production head Darryl F. Zanuck. According to HR news items and information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection, located at the UCLA Arts--Special Collections Library, the film, as originally conceived in 1941, was to be produced by Bryan Foy and concentrate on the actual building of the Burma Road. The story was to be partially based on the experiences of Daniel G. Arnstein, the American commissioner to the Burma Road, and Danny Ryan, "the first American engineer" arriving on the scene after Arnstein completed his survey of the area. The writers at this point were Steve Fisher and Jack Andrews, although the extent of their contribution to the completed film has not been confirmed.

Actors originally suggested by Zanuck for the leading roles were Pat O'Brien and John Payne . The story files contain a 1942 memo to Zanuck from Henry King about the script, in which it appears that King was scheduled to be the film's director. Also in early 1942, Zanuck told the writers to pattern the protagonist "somewhat after the boy [portrayed by Tyrone Power] in A Yank in the R.A.F.," a popular Twentieth Century-Fox film (see below). Feb 1942 HR news items then reported that Power would be starring in the Burma Road picture, with Robert Bassler acting as associate producer. Zanuck changed his mind, however, and in notes on a 30 Jan 1942 story outline, stated, "In reviewing this story outline, I am sure we made one mistake initially, in endeavoring to conceive Tyrone Power in the lead. We must forget Power, because no matter what changes in characterization we made, the audience would inevitably associate the line with A Yank in the RAF and this story would therefore be bound to lose its originality."

Zanuck then suggested starring Victor Mature in the picture .Subsequent scripts were written for either Mature or Payne in the lead, and with Marlene Dietrich as "Captain Fifi." In Apr 1942, some versions of the script had "Johnny" rescuing "Haoli," then joining the Flying Tigers, and others had "Johnny" dying at the end. A 21 May 1942 news item stated that the studio was seeking to borrow Albert Dekker from Paramount for a top role, while in June 1942, it was announced that Phil Silvers would be included in the cast. Osa Massen was cast in the picture as "Captain Fifi," but was replaced by Lynn Bari after seventeen days of filming. HR also stated that Bobby Blake was borrowed from M-G-M for the production, and that some scenes, representing a hotel, were shot on location at the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles. According to studio publicity, a permanent airfield was built on the lot for filming because real airfields could no longer be photographed due to wartime restrictions. The picture marked the final screen appearance of former Ziegfeld Follies performer Ann Pennington.Less

In November 1941, cynical American Johnny Williams, a newsreel cameraman, is detained by Japanese military officials in Luichow, a Japanese-occupied part of China. The interviewing officer tells Johnny that the Japanese will pay him twenty thousand dollars to photograph the building of the Burma Road, then gives him the night to reconsider after he declines. As they are talking, Johnny steals what he thinks are his press credentials, after which he is returned to his cell. There he finds Major Bull Weed, a captured Canadian who was fighting with the Chinese irregulars. Weed is visited by his girl friend, "Captain" Fifi, who slips him a pistol. Johnny helps Weed escape to a pre-arranged meeting place, where they find Fifi waiting. She takes them to an abandoned airplane she has located, and Johnny then flies them to safety in Mandalay. There Johnny meets his old pal, Captain Shorty Maguire, who now serves in the American Volunteer Group, popularly known as "The Flying Tigers." Maguire asks Johnny to join the Tigers, but Johnny callously replies that he won't die for China, only for himself. Johnny then discovers that he grabbed some Japanese military orders rather than his press credentials. Weed translates the words "pearl" and "seven," but Johnny loses interest when he spots a beautiful woman in the lobby. Johnny pursues the woman, named Haoli Young, who is picking up some vases that she intends to sell. Johnny escorts Haoli home, where he is shocked to learn that in addition to being cosmopolitan and Vassar-educated, Haoli is Chinese. After Johnny forces a kiss on her, the couple part bitterly, despite their attraction to each other. Johnny returns to his hotel, where he flirts with Fifi in order to forget Haoli. He takes her to his room and is surprised to find Haoli, who has come to tell him that her father, Dr. Kai Young, warned her that Fifi and Weed are Japanese agents, and that Johnny is now suspected as well because of his association with them. Johnny tells her to leave, but soon realizes that he is being used as a pawn by Weed and Fifi. After tricking them into providing him with money to buy new camera equipment, Johnny tells Weed and Fifi to leave Mandalay before he tells the Tigers that they are spies. As a week passes, Johnny waits for Shorty to take him over the Burma Road to film a newsreel for an American company. He also becomes more involved with Haoli, and the pair fall deeply in love. Meanwhile, Weed reports back to the Japanese major, who orders him to retrieve the document that Johnny stole. One afternoon, Johnny goes to Haoli's house and learns that she has abruptly left with her father for Kunming, the site of his school for orphans. Bereft, Johnny gets drunk before returning to his hotel, where Fifi meets him the next morning. She warns him that Weed intends to kill him but offers to escape with him, as she has fallen in love with him. When she mentions that the Japanese are about to bomb Kunming, however, Johnny decides that he must find Haoli. First he fights Weed, and after he bests the big man, he rushes to the airfield and goes up with Shorty. Upon his arrival at Kunming, Johnny finds Haoli, but her father has already been killed in the bombing. Johnny helps her to rescue the trapped children, but before they can reach safety, Haoli is also killed. The enraged Johnny dashes to the top of a nearby building, on which is located a machine gun. Johnny then shoots down a Japanese plane and dedicates his actions to his "China girl" as he continues to fire at the planes.