Tsai Chin Movies
Chinese actress Tsai Chin appeared in a number of exotic roles in European and British films of the 1960s. She co-starred as the seductive Lin Tang in Christopher Lee's quartet of "Fu Manchu" pictures in the 1960s. Other films included the pretty good sci-fier Invasion (1966) and the pretty bad detective spoof Rentadick (1972). Tsai Chin's most conspicuous role was as the Chinese girl to whom James Bond (Sean Connery) is making love when he is "murdered" at the very beginning of You Only Live Twice (1967). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1966
The nefarious Fu Manchu strikes again in this crime drama. This time the megalomaniacal Manchu plots to earn the money he needs to build a world-dominating ray gun by abducting the daughters of 12 important world leaders. His dastardly daughter assists. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee, Marie Versini, (more)
- 1965
Britain's Merton Park Productions briefly put its Edgar Wallace series on the back burner for the 1965 sci-fier Invasion. Per its title, the film involves a massive invasion of earth by extraterrestrials. Keeping within its tight budget, the film depicts only a handful of the invaders, who are fended off by the staff of a small hospital. Head doctor Edward Judd, who is caring for an imprisoned alien, decides to protect his patient from the invaders, who plan to kill the prisoner before he can betray them. Armed with little more than his wits, Judd saves himself and his charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
In this drama, the devilish Chinese villain has concocted a deadly gas. He tries it out in a small English town and is delighted to discover that it is terribly effective. He then travels to the Thames with his daughter. There he has an explosive encounter with the hero who stops the evil plot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lee, Nigel Green, (more)
- 1963
In this musical, the Gilbert and Sullivan classic is updated and set in post-war Japan. This time, the trouble begins when a soldier, the son of a Yankee judge, falls in love with a Japanese girl. This enrages her Yakuza (Japanese mafia) fiance who kidnaps him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this drama, an American agent for the OSS after the war, hides a large treasure in Czechoslovakia for a Nazi general. The general commits suicide before getting the jewels. The general's top aide then convinces the American to help him get them back. They enlist the aide of the general's daughter, a hooker and find the valuable stones. Later the Yankee and the hooker are double-crossed by the aide who was working with the prostitute's roomie. The roommate then kills the aide, and escapes on the Munich Express. The agent also boards the quickly moving train. He almost has his hands on the box of jewels when it slips from his fingers and falls into the rushing river below. As the cops arrive and take the roommate away, the agent and the general's daughter decide to start a new life together. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Violent Playground opens with a few West Side Story style shots of a Liverpool street gang, commandeered by a very nasty-looking David McCallum. We're going to be seeing a lot more of McCallum before the final fadeout: His sister (Anne Heywood) is in love with an upright police officer (Stanley Baker). The film plods along predictable grounds until the climactic rumble sequence, which is as good as anything ever seen in Hollywood "J.D." picture. Violent Playground didn't get much American play in 1957, principally because there was a glut of such films at the time. The picture received a new lease on life in the early 1960s to cash in on the Man From UNCLE popularity of David McCallum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Baker, Anne Heywood, (more)
Alan Burgess' novel The Small Woman was the source for the British/American co-production Inn of the Sixth Happiness. Set in the China of the 1930s, the film stars Ingrid Bergman as real-life missionary Gladys Aylward. Against the advice of practically everyone, Gladys heads into the war-ravaged interior to spread the Christian gospel. She finds a powerful ally in the form of an elderly Mandarin (Robert Donat) who, despite his early efforts to rid himself of the troublesome Gladys, eventually converts to Christianity. Gladys' burgeoning romance with Chinese army officer Lin Nan (Curt Jurgens) is interrupted when she is obliged to guide a group of Chinese children to safety over some of the most treacherous of Northern China's mountain regions. Inn of the Sixth Happiness retains its entertainment value some four decades after its production, even allowing for the preponderance of Occidental actors in Oriental roles. The film also served to breathe new life into the old children's nonsense song "This Old Man" (aka "Knick, Knack, Paddywhack"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Curd Jürgens, (more)
