Elaborate WW2 adventure follows a newsreel photographer's intrigues and romance in China and Burma. Although Ben Hecht's screenplay is lively with macho action and jingo dialogue, the women stand out: Gene Tierney looks ravishing , while Lynn Bari steals all her scenes by underplaying with a haunting edge. Much less successful is hero George Montgomery who apparently took Clark Gable lessons, projecting all the brashness but none of the humor. Victor McLaglen gives stolid support and Robert Blake is fine as an Indian child. The real attraction here is the production: exquisite Oriental decor, imaginative lighting, and some spectacular mayhem.
Add a Review
-
rfkeser26 November 1999
-
pzanardo12 April 2000Probably "China Girl" is a movie for cinephiles (I'm not one of them, though). Hathaway is a high-level film-maker, McLaglen, Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Ruman are gifted and nice actors. The black-and-white photography is beautiful: the scenes inside the colonial hotel are indeed very evocative. Even the plot is better than one may expect and presents a noble finale. At any rate, it is so pleasant to see a film with no beastly violence and trash talk which are routine in current movies. Of course, for us happy people Gene Tierney's fans, the main recommendation for "China Girl" is the presence of our Goddess of Love and Beauty. Beyond her incomparable beauty and loveliness, Gene shows her usual (underrated) talent as an actress: with her sad dreaming eyes, her rare sweet smiles, her refusal to give way to love, even her bravery in sharing her unhappy people's sufferences, she instills in the audience the foreboding of her bitter fate.
-
Pearly_Gates11 September 2006This is an underrated film that has received reviews too dismissing, I feel. I agree with the above reviewer on some of its shortcomings, but would also point out that there is a very nice tension set up between Gene Tierney and Lynn Bari throughout most of the story which certainly had me watch it through to the very end. Contrary to other opinions, Tierney fans will not be disappointed here, although I agree she doesn't truly shine as in some others; and Lynn Bari is at her best and definitely makes us wish she had been given more prominent parts. Some feel that Bari actually makes this movie, but this may be going too far. Moreover, I don't believe China Girl was ever intended as a war movie per se, rather a drama. The war-scene ending just happens to be the bitter twist that closes what is essentially a war-time drama between a guy and two gals it's no more complex than that.
Also, the camera is no slouch either, in this movie. It has excellent shots in the hotel rooms where much of the action takes place, giving it a somewhat noir feel that definitely generates an overall stylish period polish that is in synch with the true noirs of the period. If you like this style, as I do, China Girl is worth seeking out. One can only hope that it will eventually become part of a Tierny Collection. I'm certainly keeping my fingers crossed! -
larry41onEbay2 March 2006During the early days after America's entry into WWII, Hollywood cranked up the pro-war propaganda machine to both explain and justify our late participation and urgent need to catch up in the global battle against fascism. This pre-Pearl Harbor story concerns one he-man opportunist's efforts to juggle the bad guys and bad (?) girls with questionable motives. At times it looks like a film noir and other times a spy romance/melodrama, but with cynical dialogue by the master Ben Hecht and tough-guy direction by Henry Hathaway, this chop suey has enough meat and potatoes to satisfy. Example of the catchy language: George Montgomery says to sexy Lynn Bari, "I like you because you're everything a girl should be, 115 pounds of lies, venom and kisses." Another line has spy Victor McLaglen reporting the only Japanese he could translate from a secret document was the number 7 and the word Pearl!!! Oh - and the reason most folks will be watching - the China Girl, Gene Tierney is scrumptious!
-
jotix10014 July 2009Johnny Williams, an American photographer, finds himself a prisoner of the Japanese during the invasion of Burma. With the help of a couple, Weed and Fifi, that are also being held in jail, escape their captors by getting on a small plane parked nearby, after almost being killed by their enemies. Luckily for the trio, Johnny, who is an expert in many things, knows how to fly. The problem, as they try to land in Mandalay, in upper Burma, near the Chinese border, the aircraft, with Japanese markings, is almost shot down.
From the moment these three arrive in Mandalay, things begin to change. Not only are the so-called-friends spies for the Japanese, they want to do a number on Johnny. The arrival at their hotel of the exotically beautiful Haoli Young, awakens a passion in Johnny, who falls head over heels with the gorgeous woman. Haoli and her father, want to get to Kunming, in China, where they have established a mission for orphans. Sadly, the Youngs get to their destination, but war in the area comes with a deathly toll for them and their school. Johnny is helpless trying to save the woman he loved.
Coming from a writer like Ben Hecht, the film is somewhat disappointing. Not even Henry Hathaway, a good director, was able to make this movie work. The trouble is the way the main characters are conceived. Johnny Williams romance with Haoli doesn't ring true. After only one day, he is madly in love with this woman, ready to do anything to keep her forever. Then there is Fifi, who sees right through Johnny and ends up wanting to have him. It might have worked in the 1940s, but it feels false today. We are not trying to demean what the creators tried to give the public, but much of the story makes no sense.
The fun comes in watching George Montgomery's take on Johnny. He was an action hero whose work in films gave him opportunities to display a charming personality. Gene Tierney, on the other hand, seems wooden in her approach to Haoli. She was a lovely woman with a screen presence to match. Lynn Bari, who appears as Fifi, fares better. Her Fifi is a dubious character that feels real. Victor McLaglen, as Weed, has nothing to do. Robert Blake, who was a child actor, turns up as Chandu, the little boy that is befriended by Johnny and acts as his personal accountant.
Fans of Henry Hathaway and the stars will enjoy "China Girl" even if it is flawed. -
wc199620 February 2006I'm a big fan of George Montgomery films--and he looks rugged & handsome, as always, in this one. Both Gene Tierney & Lynn Bari fall in love with him and, frankly, who can blame them. He plays an American newsreel cameraman in Burma & China just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After escaping from a Japanese prison, he goes to Mandalay where he meets & falls in love with Gene Tierney. He has a booklet containing some vital military info--so there are spy's on his trail. George Montgomery had a long Hollywood career & he was always interesting to watch (and,frankly, I see little comparison between him & Mr. Gable
-
imdb-2528828 March 2023The beginning is really convoluted, with the way Ms. Haoli (Gene Tierney) allows a complete stranger to carry her package, this after having told him it was glass vases worth over $15,000! The whole falling in love etc was also contrived. But one can look past all this (after all, it was the charming way they often made movies in the 1940s, in order not to waste time and precious film reel!) because, whenever Gene Tierney is onscreen, whichever the film, she truly elevates the quality by her simple presence. With no offense meant to Jaclyn Smith, Gene Tierney had to be the most beautiful woman Hollywood has ever filmed! Not only that, she was a magnificent actress. She was very underrated and should have been way more famous, certainly way more than many of her era who were neither lookers nor could act (Bette Davis, I'm looking at you here!) I have been very disappointed by most stars from the Golden Age but Gene delivers every time.
The other stunning presence here is delivered by the little Indian boy, Chandu (or Gunga Din, as the character played by Robert Montgomery's unbrother George nicknames him). He steals every scene, he is adorable. His eyes are sparkling and light up every time his disarming smile brightens up his handsome face. I looked him up, wondering if he made a successful career back home, in Bollywood. Imagine my shock and horror when I learned that that was none other than Baretta's murdering protagonist, Robert Blake. Hmm....
There is one man (character Jujubi or something like that) who is evidently trying for an impression of Sydney Greenstreet. Similar bearing, dressed all in white, sits the same way, same gravitas and pauses in delivering his lines. Can't be a coincidence! This being 1942, the year of Casablanca, I wonder how the original took it. (Maybe they couldn't afford him and went for a knockoff?) He's also a pretty good addition, here.
Anyway, the ending is disappointing, and part of why I don't give it an 8/10. I expected a Gene living happily together with George and the little cute Indian boy. Alas, that was not to be. (You'll have to find out by watching what happens to each and everyone of them.) Nevertheless, this movie is much better than most B movies of that era starring lesser and very boring (but more famous) actresses than Gene Tierney. This reminds me to watch everything she ever starred in. Well worth my time, and I hope you'll find her very worth yours too. Gene's performance is a 10/10 (as is Robert Blake's) but the movie is only a 7/10 (and would probably have been a 4/10 without the lady!) -
ksf-21 November 2021Stars Gene Tierney and George Montgomery, Victor McLaglen. They are stuck in burma during WWII. Johnny Williams is a photographer, and the japanese want him to photograph what's going on at the Burma Corridor. And of course, he gets caught up with a girl and her problems. Sig Ruman was in all those Marx Brothers films. Mostly known for his comedy, here, he's Jarubi, the dealer of artifacts. And information. Keep an eye out for nine year old Robert Blake... was in Little Rascals, and later, Beretta! Montgomery seems to be channeling clark gable... very similar plot. They Met in Bombay had just come out in 1941. Story by Mellvill Grossman. Directed by Henry Hathaway, who had been nominated for Bengal Lancer in 1935. It's okay.
-
jbacks314 August 2010Henry Hathaway starts this seldom-seen WW2 drama off with some of the most effectively brutal executions seen in a wartime movie. Then there's the scene where hero George Montgomery and Victor McLaglen crawl through a ditch of dead Chinese. As if 1942 audiences didn't hate the Japanese enough in the year since Pearl Harbor...
The problem with China Girl is the Ben Hecht (I can't believe it's possible to complain about Hecht) script (based on an idea prodded out of the prolific ghost-pen of Darryl F. Zanuck). Montgomery plays a faux-Clark Gable-ish newsreel cameraman suspected of being a spy, who in the midst of his escape snatches some intelligence seemingly vital to the Japanese. Now unfortunately, you can forget all that. It becomes a love story as Montgomery woos exotic (but not very Chinese looking) Gene Tierney. Except that McLaglen and his confederate moll (Lynn Bari, who also has the hots for George) have their own agenda. Except you can forget all about that too. The plot goes nowhere and serves as an excuse to show further Japanese atrocities against Chinese children. No spoilers here... it's just that the movie feels pointless plot-wise. Tierney was the hottest actress at 20th Century Fox from '41-44... her acting ability was respectably serviceable (best when playing a cold bitch from hell) but few ever melted a camera the way she did. I was astonished how Montgomery moved around on credit--- I think he still owed stereotypical-yet-now un-P.C. Bobby Blake at least $450 (in reality the kid probably would have cut him). The best part of China Girl is the set design, the worst part is how it manipulates the audience. Where'd the plot go? -
arthur_tafero6 April 2022Gene Tierney is about as Chinese as I am. She is beautiful, but she doesn't look vaguely Asian. Lynn Bari does a fine job as Second Hand Rose, or whatever character she was playing as a Japanese spy. But poor Victor Mclaglen is horribly miscast as a Canadian working for the Japanese. I can just imagine him with a hockey stick. And him losing a fight to Montgomery? I don't think so. There are some very good scenes in the beginning and the later part of the film; especially the brutal treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese, and the Chinese classroom scenes. However, the film has quite a few flaws as well. I am sure you will notice them without my assistance. Watchable soap with some unexpected results.
-
skiddoo14 August 2010One reviewer mentions the lack of trash talk and beastly violence. I guess that's true if you don't mind what the Japanese are called and Chinese bodies tossed into a trench as our hero escapes imprisonment. Or the bombing of the very authentic-looking school and village including the terror and apparent death of trusting little kids who weren't evacuated to a safer place very much like in the 1937 movie The Hurricane. I found those things realistic and repulsive.
Why Montgomery had to do a Clark Gable impression is beyond me and it makes his acting hard to endure. I gather from movie dramas that China was full of Americans and Brits as missionaries and business people when the Japanese invaded. Apparently you could hardly swing a cat without hitting one or two. :) I found Tierney's character uninteresting compared to Bari's and I was unmoved by what happened to her at the end, with the obligatory "inspirational" speech complete with heavenly rays of light.
I could see why the rough and ready but perennially well-shaved and clothed photographer from Akron would be fascinated by a beautiful and aloof Vassar girl who was half Chinese instead of all the "dames" who were throwing themselves at him, but I wasn't. She seemed a false note in the village scenes and she never made me care about her. Actually, I just cared about the Chinese in the village because we know what they would have to endure in the years to come if they survived to maturity.
There are lots of good lines and moments which make this watchable. It's interesting to me to see the changing view of the war in movies as the situation on the ground changed. In the late 30s movies indicated that this war was just a reprise of the last one, with greedy and powerful men manipulating behind the scenes and international alliances bringing the situation to a head although there was no consensus on which countries would be fighting which, even France vs Britain was considered plausible! Then it was a British war with peripheral Americans. And then it was an American war with us in the thick of things against obvious villains and no reference to the time when it was seen as just another European land grab and whatever happened in China etc was very remote indeed. -
Copyright 3 December 1942 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 20 January 1943. U.S. release: 9 December 1942. Australian release: 18 November 1943. 8,736 feet. 97 minutes.
OPENING SYNOPSIS: Johnny Williams (George Montgomery), an American newsreel photographer captured by the Japs in China, makes a breath-taking escape with the aid of a tough soldier-of-fortune, Major Weed (Victor McLaglen), and the Major's girl-friend, Captain Fifi (Lynn Bari).
NOTES: Domestic rentals gross: $1.4 million. Although this wasn't sufficient to put the movie into the topmost branches of the box-office tree, it's a most respectable total - more money in fact that either Ninotchka or Grapes of Wrath or even The Women took on original release in the U.S./Canada.
PRINCIPAL MIRACLE: Hathaway, Hecht and company turn wartime propaganda into first-rate entertainment.
COMMENT: Even by Hathaway's highly polished standard, this is a stylishly fascinating entry in the wartime propaganda mill. The camerawork and the lighting are absolutely out of this world. We can't imagine why the movie wasn't nominated for any of the year's major awards.
The sets are really magnificent too. In fact, I'll go further. I'd say that the sets would rank amongst the finest (the most artistic, the most imaginative, the most eye-catching, the most aesthetically appealing) ever created for a motion picture. But no awards. Not even a nomination.
True, there's one thing - and only one thing - about China Girl that's not top-flight, and that's Ben Hecht's cornball script, with its stereotyped characterization and strictly conventional brash-American-boy-meets-beautiful-but-elusive-Eurasian-girl romance. All the same, Miss Tierney is suitably beautiful as the heroine and Mr Montgomery routinely brash as the diamond-in-the-rough hero.
The supporting cast, however, is even more interesting, with some fine studies in villainy from Bari, McLaglen, Rumann and Baxter.
OTHER VIEWS: Superbly photographed, well played, with great art direction (the hotel set is most ingenious and imaginative), stylish direction, snappy dialogue, and a good music score (abetted by that great 20th Century-Fox sound track), this film lacks only one thing - a satisfactory conclusion.
SPOILERS: This must be one of the few Hollywood films in which justice does not triumph. Although this is certainly a novel idea, the conclusion doesn't even cash in on this novelty because it's blatant propaganda swamps any other ideas out of an audience's mind. Great supporting cast. Pace is A-1 too, and the plot moves like a crackerjack until about halfway through. It's Gene Tierney who slows down the action; but she's so beautifully lit and costumed, we don't really care. - JHR writing as George Addison. -
Uriah4311 March 2013Set during the Japanese invasion of China, an American photographer named "Johnny 'Bugsy' Williams" (George Montgomery) has been captured and put in a jail cell. As luck would have it he gets help from a Canadian mercenary "Bull Weed" (Victor McLaglen) and a beautiful female named "Fifi" (Lynn Bari) and manages to escape in an airplane that just happens to have been fueled and ready for takeoff. When he gets to Mandalay he meets up with another beautiful woman named "Haoli Young" (Gene Tierney) and falls in love with her. Unfortunately, events take on their own life and things don't go according to plan. At any rate, rather than spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is an average grade B war movie filmed during World War II. The acting was barely adequate and while Gene Tierney was attractive she was less than convincing as a half-Chinese school teacher. But there weren't many Oriental actresses in Hollywood during this time so I suppose she was as qualified as anybody else for the part.
-
jburton-37 February 2006I'm a big Gene Tierney fan, so I tuned into this one with some eagerness, hoping to see a film that captured pre-WWII tensions in SE Asia and gave the luscious actress some room to shine. And while Gene does have a few moments of brilliance, the rest of the film is a mish-mash of good and bad elements. The whole is somewhat less than satisfying.
My biggest problem is that this film doesn't really know what it wants to be: action movie, spy/war thriller, romance, drama, or anti-Japanese war propaganda. The script tries to be all things to all people and ends up satisfying no one. Plot elements are left hanging unresolved. One line of tough guy dialog is followed by another trying to stir hearts about the plight of the Chinese nationalists. What a mess! George Montgomery is a poor man's Clark Gable, and he's almost a caricature in this film - tough guy only looking out for himself who falls hard for a "dame" caught up in the mess that was China and Burma in 1941. Though Tierney gets top billing, it's really Montgomery's film, and he's not up to carrying it. He's pretty good at the action stuff, but he's lost in the romantic scenes. Plus, his comedic timing is way off. It doesn't help him that the screenwriter gave him some terribly cheesy dialog.
There is little depth to any of the supporting cast, although Robert Blake gives a scene-stealing performance as a young Burmese kid (of all things) that pals around with our hero in Mandalay.
There are some good elements here - some exotic shots that appear to be on location (if they're backlot, they fooled me), and a wonderful set in the hotel in Mandalay. The action scenes often move well. The movie doesn't pull punches, either - we see Chinese civilians being mowed down by Japanese machine guns, and our hero crawls across a ditch of dead bodies in an early escape scene. This is more grim than I expected from a film more than 60 years old, and it's effectively done.
But overall, I can't recommend this film to hardly anyone. There are better films about Japanese brutality in SE Asia during WWII ("Bridge on the River Kwai" or "Objective, Burma") and certainly better films for Tierney fans (my recs - "Laura", "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", and "Leave Her to Heaven"). Give this one a pass and consign it to the history books. -
bkoganbing17 May 2015With Occidental Gene Tierney playing the title role in China Girl this World War II era propaganda flick has not aged well over the decades. Certainly Anna May Wong could have and should have been cast in the lead. But Darryl F. Zanuck ever conscious of that southern market if he was going to do an interracial love story could not have a real Oriental as the lead.
George Montgomery who was one of many players backing up Tyrone Power at 20th Century Fox when Power wasn't available plays one of Power's typical hero/heel type parts. Montgomery is a newsreel cameraman and flier who gets hoodwinked by a pair of Japanese agents, Lynn Bari and Victor McLaglen, to working for them, but not for long. In fact Bari with Montgomery around has trouble keeping her mind on her mission.
Gene is as beautiful as ever and she and Montgomery would go on to do much better films. Unless you have a taste for World War II propaganda films, pass this by. -
clanciai22 December 2023Gene Tierney never made a bad film but on the contrary was almost the jewel in the crown of every film she made. This is no exception but rather an example proving the rule. But the first lovely lady to enter the scene here is Lynn Bari, who is the perfect introduction to all the intrigues of love and war here. She is the lady of Victor McLaglen here, always rowdy and a robust fighter but also with great good humour for a cheerleadership. George Montgomery is the real fighter here, a journalist getting mixed up with the Japanese and by misfortune getting one of their documents with him with all the exact information of the Pearl Harbour attack with date and all (December 7th, while this all happens in November,) but George Montgomery doesn't understand Japanese, so that vital document never actually plays a part in the film, although the Japanese are desperate to get it, which causes Montgomery more inconvenience than he ever bargained for. He is gradually transformed from a journalist to a furious fighter, but we never learn the end of the story. Did he stay on to help the Chinese at Kunming, or did he fulfil his mission as a journalist? We are left hanging in the end, but the best part of the story is told, and the main thing of it and the film was Gene Tierney.
-
dmuel4 July 2017As in most films produced during the war years, at least those that focused on Asian locales, China Girl probably had two important functions when it was made. The first, of course, was to entertain audiences with action and romance, to be profitable, the second was to serve the US war effort though, sadly, there was never much of a US effort made to actually help China until late in the war.
In this film George Montgomery--described by some critics as the actor chosen after Montgomery Cliff or Tyrone Power refused the role-- plays a rakish hustler out to profit from the chaos of war. After escaping Japanese controlled China, he lands in Burma where he meets his China Girl, played by Gene Tierney who looks not a bit like a Chinese woman.
While there is some attempt to inject other elements to the plot, Japanese agents and even a "love triangle", these seem superficially installed for their melodrama and don't do much to draw the viewer into the story. A major part of the plot is that true love can absolve moral failings. How sweet!
There are logistical and factual problems with the story-line: the hero says he has just fled a Japanese military base in Luchow, located in Sichuan, where the Japanese army never advanced to; a World War I vintage biplane carries its passengers several hundred miles over mountainous terrain, surely well beyond such a plane's range; a dispute over destinations has the hero arguing that they will go to Kunming, not Yunnan (Kunming is in the center of Yunnan); the hero and his gal take an evening stroll to the Dhammayan Temple vicinity, about a hundred miles from Mandalay, where they are supposed to be. But one would not expect Hollywood scriptwriters to be familiar with Asian geography,and viewers of that era even less so.
All in all, a mediocre effort to depict a trans-continental romance set against the background of horrendous human tragedy in WW II China. There were some good films made during this period, but this is not one of them. -
planktonrules13 September 2023The plot to "China Girl" is incredibly confusing...so much so that I lost track of all the plots and subplots after a while. To enjoy the film, it's probably best you turn off your brain while you are watching and just accept it as it comes!
When the story begins, the incredibly disaffected Johnny Williams (George Montgomery) is being held captive by the Japanese in occupied China sometime in 1941. They want to hire him to photograph the Burma Road...since they need this info for their attack on Burma. However, when he finds himself locked up with Major Weed (Victor McLaglen) the pair manage to escape...and it's suspiciously easy*. Soon he's somewhere where the Flying Tigers are stationed** and all sorts of folks start coming and going....and at this point, figuring out who was good, who was bad and what ALL the motivations are just seemed to go out the window! What's next? Well, possibly anything!
The film has some decent acting and suspenseful moments, but it is also a confusing mess and I had a real hard time sticking with this one. I wonder if perhaps this movie was rushed into production too quickly...all I know is that the story seemed unfinished...like it could use some editing and a re-write.
*Despite this being a rather slight film in some ways, the scene of Johnny and the Major climbing through masses of murdered Chinese people is amazingly dark and surprising.
**As IMDB noted, this film is set BEFORE the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941...months before the Flying Tigers were active in the war. This is a huge mistake in the plot. -
christopher-underwood19 March 2014I picked this up for very little, drawn partly by the fact it had Gene Tierney in and I had never heard of it. I was also drawn by the reminder of the David Bowie song! Maybe I should have steered clear, for while this probably does have its fans, this war drama was certainly not my cup of tea (Chinese or otherwise - sorry about that!). It is a ridiculous tale set in the early days of WW2 and George Montgomery spends about a third of his time escaping or avoiding the Japanese and the rest flirting, first with Lynn Bari and then quite unbelievably, Gene Tierney, who just as unbelievably plays the titular Chinese girl! Apart from Gene Tierney who is very effective, allowing for the fact you cannot accept there is anything Chinese about her, but the only other interest in the film are the politics. Here the Americans are sympathetic with the poor Chinese and try to help them as much as possible defend themselves against the Japanese who are portrayed appallingly. So Chinese good, Japanese bad - how things change.
-
it_teach2024 July 2000I was very eager to see this film because it had one of my favorite actresses (Gene Tierney) in it. I started watching it and was so turned off by George Montgomery, who imitates Clark Gable through the whole thing, that once she was on screen, I was hoping it would be over soon. Needless to say I watched it for awhile and finally turned it off. Bad film. Would not recommend.