Hong Kong * (1952, Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Fleming, Nigel Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 10,541

Rhonda Fleming had signed a three-picture deal with Paramount Pictures in 1950 and, for the third of these, Pine-Thomas Productions teamed her with Ronald Reagan again in Hong Kong (1952).

Dishonest adventurer Jeff Williams (Reagan) is in China seeking after a treasured ancient jewelled statue belonging to a recently orphaned Chinese small boy called Wei Lin (Danny Chang). In Hong Kong, Jeff tries to sell it to crooked dealer Tao Liang (Marvin Miller), but Red Cross lady Victoria Evans (Fleming) keeps him on the straight and narrow.

Director Lewis R Foster’s 1952 Paramount Pictures Technicolor adventure thriller Hong Kong is beset by cardboard characters and sets, with a script sinking in waves of slack sentimentality and weak efforts at comedy.

However, the practised Reagan-Fleming acting team (reassembled from the 1951 The Last Outpost) is OK, and the kid is winsome enough.

Lowell Gilmore, Claude Allister and Mary Somerville also appear.

It is written for the screen by Winston Miller from a story by Lewis R. Foster.

RIP Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,541

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