Arthur Song Movies

Season Four of M*A*S*H (now moved to Friday evenings) begins with the ever-irritating Maj. Frank Burns (Larry Linville) assuming command of the 4077th after the death of easygoing Col. Henry Blake. Returning from an R-and-R session, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) discovers that his old buddy Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) has been shipped out without so much as a goodbye. The sullen Hawkeye is then sent Kimpo to pick up Trapper's clean-cut replacement, B.J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell in his first series appearance), whose spotless record leads Frank and Hot Lips (Loretta Swit) to the premature conclusion that, at long last, the joyful slovenliness of the 4077th will be replaced by traditional military spit-and-polish. The first of the series' 60-minute "special" episodes, Welcome to Korea has since been divided into two half-hour episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The only Rodgers and Hammerstein cinemadaptation to be produced by Universal Pictures, Flower Drum Song was, alas, also the only Rogers and Hammerstein film to lose money at the box office. It looks far better now than it did back in 1961, if only because of the paucity of musical films in the 1990s. Essentially a comedy about the culture clash between old-world Chinese and assimilated Chinese-Americans, the film begins when Mei Li (Miyoshi Umeki) and her grandfather (Kam Tong) smuggle themselves into San Francisco. It seems that Mei Li has arrived to honor an arranged marriage between herself and Runyonesque nightclub owner Sammy Fong (the incomparable Jack Soo). This might prove delicate, since Sammy is in love with flashy cabaret entertainer Linda Low (Nancy Kwan). Meanwhile, Linda is romancing Wang Ta (James Shigeta), the son of a wealthy Chinatown merchant (Benson Fong). Soon, however, Mei Li and Wang Ta have fallen in love.......It's a complex plot, to be sure, but comedy and music manage to predominate. The songs include "I Enjoy Being a Girl" (a tour de force for the special effects department, and for Nancy Kwan), "A Hundred Million Miracles," "The Other Generation," "Love Look Away," "I Am Going to Like It Here," "Don't Marry Me," "You Are Beautiful," "Grant Avenue" and "Chop Suey." Flower Drum Song is attractively produced and consummately acted; while no classic along the lines of King and I or Sound of Music, it deserves a second look. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi