GOD IS MY CO-PILOT (1945)

A WWII story based on the autobiography of Col. Robert L. Scott who flew with the Flying Tigers in China during the early days of the war. Apparently, the Tigers were a group of American volunteers who signed up by contract to fight the Japanese for the Chinese in the late 30's, before Pearl Harbor got our country "officially" into the war. Dennis Morgan plays Scott, an Army Air Corps man who, because he is told he is too old to fly in the Corps, winds up with the Tigers. At first there is some tension and resentment, but soon he comes to respect them. Raymond Massey is Gen. Chennault, the founder of the group; Alan Hale is Big Mike, the very Irish missionary priest who helps inspire Morgan to accept the belief that God is taking a hand in his exploits; Dane Clark is a doomed pilot; Richard Loo, who later played Master Sun in the TV show KUNG FU, is Tokyo Joe, a Japanese pilot who baits the Americans over the radio; Andrea King is Morgan's wife whom we see in flashbacks at home in Georgia. Also with John Ridgely and Craig Stevens. Episodic and cliche-ridden, but fast-moving. [TCM]


WEST OF SHANGHAI (1937)

Totally undistinguished B-melodrama based on what was at the time an old warhorse of a story, adapted from a play, "The Bad Man," which was filmed four times between 1923 and 1941. The orginal play was set in Mexico, but this version takes place in China. Boris Karloff is Wu Yen Fang, a warlord and leader of bandits who terrorizes villages with his men. He holds a group of American businesspeople hostage but then discovers that one of them (Gordon Oliver) is someone he knew in the past and owes his life to. Further incomprehensible plot complications occur involving land and oil and love and jealousy. Beverly Roberts is a woman who wants to leave her bad guy husband, Ricardo Cortez, for Oliver. Karloff eventually does the right thing for his old friend, but winds up killed by another faction of bandits, or something like that, I think. Karloff and Cortez are the main reasons for watching. Also with Richard Loo (see above) in a small role. [TCM]