China is a 1943 war drama film that was directed by John Farrow and stars Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, and William Bendix. The latter two were paired together in The Blue Dahlia and The Glass Key. In this picture, the roles are different than their usual Noirish gritty characters. Ladd’s character, complete with a leather jacket, khakis, a fedora, and also unshaven, was the inspiration for Indiana Jones!
Tough guy David Llewellyn Jones (Alan Ladd, The Glass Key) is selling oil in China to the Japanese Army during an invasion. His partner, Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix, Lifeboat) has found a baby in the middle of all the rubble as the Japanese are dropping bombs all over the place. Jones is cynical toward the Chinese suddenly finds himself with a baby and later some female Chinese students with their teacher Carolyn Grant (Loretta Young, The Accused) in the back of his truck while heading to Shanghai, which has been taken over by the Japanese. Carolyn wants Jones to take the girls to the city of Chungfu instead so they can finish their studies.
After witnessing something horrifying that the Japanese did to a Chinese farm where they left the baby (called Donald Duck) to be safe with a family, Jones has a change of heart and instead of working with the Japanese, decides to fight against them.
China was a film that I hadn’t seen before and after watching it, can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The cast outside of the big three actors, are all Asian including Sen Yung who was Jimmy Chan from the Charlie Chan films, Phillip Ahn from the Mr. Moto movies, and Soo Yong (The Good Earth, The Flower Drum Song). The story held my interest all the way through and the cast hands professional performances. There are some racy lines which was the norm for the time with the characters saying words like “Jap”.
China arrives on Blu-ray, courtesy of Kino Lorber. The video presentation is excellent, looking crisp and clean with rich details to the actors and the scenery. The blacks are rich, with strong whites and a gray scale is balanced consistently with the movie with a polished appearance. The image is stable throughout. Leo Tolver’s cinematography looks marvelous in high definition. He captured some beautiful scenery of California and Arizona, where the film was shot.
The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track is also superb with clear dialogue. Victor Young’s soundtrack comes in flawlessly. Action scenes such as exploding bombs, gunshots are on the aggressive side. No hissing, drop-offs or crackling were detected. English subtitles are available.
For the extras, there is a commentary by Film Historian Eddy Von Mueller who does a thorough job discussing China and lots of theatrical trailers for various Kino Lorber releases.
Kino has unearthed another overlooked classic! Their Blu-ray of China has excellent audio and video quality to go with a couple of extras making this another recommended release!
China – 1943 film
Director- John Farrow
Cast- Alan Ladd, William Bendix, Loretta Young
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –2/11/22