LADY FROM CHUNGKING (1942)

Set during the Japanese occupation of China, this WWII melodrama begins in a Chinese rice field where a small boy is threatened by a Japanese guard for playing rather than working. The laborers are mostly silent, though the kindly Kwan Mei (Anna May Wong, pictured) comforts him. She is also a leader of a local resistance group and when the guards aren't watching, she passes out smuggled weapons to the workers. When an American Flying Tigers plane is shot down, one wounded pilot, Rodney Carr, is taken prisoner but the other one, Pat O'Rourke, is saved and hidden by Kwan Mei and the resistance fighters, though they have to kill and hide the body of one Japanese guard. When the body is discovered, General Kaimura (Harold Huber) orders the execution of all the coolies from the rice paddy, but Kwan Mei talks him out of it by stressing their economic importance in providing rice for the Japanese to sell. Kwan Mei, an educated aristocrat before the occupation, becomes Kaimura's mistress. This causes some of the rebels to accuse her of collaboration even as she negotiates with Hans Gruber, a German hotel owner who is selling arms to the resistance (while predicting Nazi victory in the war). A half-American, half-Russian singer named Lavara (Mae Clarke) is enlisted by Kwan Mei to help the pilot Carr escape, while Kwan Mei, the American pilots, and the Chinese rebels try to destroy an incoming supply of weapons meant for Kaimura and his troops.

Anna May Wong has been made to carry a lot of symbolic weight; as one of the few Asian-Americans to have had lead roles in Hollywood movies in the classic era, her life story is often presented both as something to celebrate (she sustained a career in the 20s and 30s) and as something tragic (she was denied the parts that might have made her an even bigger star). I agree that she is an important symbol in movie history, but I also have my doubts that she could have handled the bigger roles to which she aspired. This, her last leading role, doesn't change my mind; she is attractive but bland here as the self-sacrificing heroine. [Spoiler: she is executed at the end but her spirit continues to speak to us.] Of course, this is a B-movie from Poverty Row studio PRC and B-director William Nigh (who cranked out over 70 movies between 1930 and 1948), so maybe working with grade-A talent might have made a difference in Wong's performances. Still, this is an appealing little war film with some interesting twists and turns (keeping track of the loyalties of both Gruber and Lavara keeps us on our toes) and good performances. As was the Hollywood norm, non-Asian actors play leading Japanese roles—Harold Huber as Kaimura and Ted Hecht as Shimoto, the general’s assistant—but both are very good, as is Ludwig Donath as Gruber, Mae Clarke as Lavara, and Rick Vallin as Rodney. An entertaining 40s B-film. [YouTube]