China Girl **** (1942, Gene Tierney, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen, Alan Baxter, Sig Ruman) – Classic Movie Review 7790

Director Henry Hathaway’s busy, neat 1942 Twentieth Century Fox wartime adventure-cum-romance China Girl stars Gene Tierney, George Montgomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen, Alan Baxter and Sig Ruman.

It is written by Ben Hecht, based on a story by the film’s producer Darryl F Zanuck (writing as Melville Crossman), and shot in black and white by Lee Garmes.

Montgomery stars as World War Two American news cameraman Johnny ‘Bugsy’ Williams in pre-Pearl Harbor Mandalay, who falls for Eurasian teacher Miss Haoli Young (Tierney). Both are chased by Japanese spies who want Montgomery’s army secrets.

The two superior star turns, the nimble star support acting of Bari, McLaglen Baxter and Ruman, Hecht’s nifty script and Hathaway’s punchy, always robust direction lift it well above the general level of mere Hollywood professionalism into a tense, and still intriguing and involving movie.

Also in the cast are Philip Ahn, Myron McCormick, Robert Blake, Ann Pennington, Tom Neal, Paul Fung, Lai Chand Mehra and Kam Tong.

Gene Tierney (1920–1991) is best remembered for China Girl (1942) Laura (1944), Leave Her To Heaven (1945), for which she was Oscar nominated as Best Actress, Dragonwyck (1946) and The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7790

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