Peter Chong Movies

In this wartime drama set during WW II, a US Army major is assigned to travel to China with an eight-man demolition team and destroy all bridges and roads needed by the Japanese. They are assisted by two Chinese fellows. At one point the major blows of a mountain bridge that leaves thousands stranded. His escort is outraged by the major's lack of sympathy. The major's antipathy towards his hosts increases when two of his men are trampled by a hoard of starving Chinese who run to grab rations. Later two more of his men die at the hands of Chinese military deserters, prompting the vengeful major to order the destruction of an entire village. Hundreds of innocent people die, and at last the Chinese guide leaves them in disgust. In the end the major understands the wrong he has done. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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

Humphrey Bogart stars in this improbable tale that marked Gene Tierney's return to the screen after battling mental illness for a number of years. Bogart plays Jim Carmody, an American soldier of fortune who, after crashing his plane in China, takes up with the Chinese warlord General Yang (Lee J. Cobb). Jim becomes Yang's advisor, but after watching one of the General's flunkies brutally kill a priest, Jim decides to leave. Unfortunately, Yang has declared that any deserter will be shot. Disguising himself as the slain priest, Jim sneaks out of the General's headquarters and makes his way to a mountain village where missionaries Beryl (Agnes Moorehead) and David (E.G. Marshall) take him in. Jim still is posing as the priest but his vows of celibacy are challenged when he falls in love with the attractive mission nurse Anne Scott (Gene Tierney). Anne feels ashamed because she is also attracted to him, but Jim writes to the bishop confessing that he is an impostor. At that moment, General Yang arrives, insisting that Jim rejoin his army or else he will burn down the village. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo, the stars of 1950's Flame and the Arrow, are reteamed in the lusty adventure romp South Sea Woman. It all begins at the military trial of Marine sergeant O'Hearn (Burt Lancaster), facing a court-martial for desertion. In flashback, O'Hearn recalls how he was stranded in Shanghai while trying to break up the impending marriage between his pal David White (Chuck Connors) and brassy nightclub photographer Ginger Martin (Virginia Mayo). The two marines try to make it back to Pearl Harbor, but they undergo several hair-raising adventures along the way, including a sticky involvement with a group of French resistance fighters. The upshot of all this is that O'Hearn arrives in Pearl after the Japanese attack, and as such is branded as a coward. It is up to Ginger Martin to provide the evidence that will clear our hero -- but she isn't too fond of O'Hearn at the moment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

June Allyson plays a band singer working in New York City; Van Johnson is the manager of a fancy apartment house where a murder is committed. The victim is Allyson's wealthy uncle, and since she can't account for her actions at the time of the crime, Our Heroine is the principal suspect. The real murderer is an expert in hypnosis, who uses this skill to manipulate Allyson's actions--and to lure the girl to her potential doom. Johnson doesn't figure things out until it's almost too late. Remains to Be Seen was based on the Broadway comedy/mystery by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse, which originally starred Jackie Cooper and his then-wife Janis Paige. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fred Astaire had announced his retirement before the cameras began to roll on Easter Parade, but he decided to accept the film's leading role when its original star Gene Kelly became incapacitated. The thinnish plot, which finds Astaire trying to turn chorus girl Judy Garland into a star in order to show up his former partner Ann Miller, is hardly what keeps the audience's eyes riveted to the screen. All that truly matters are the 17 musical numbers, all written by Irving Berlin (ten were standards, while seven were new to this film). Among the many highlights are Astaire's slow-motion version of "Steppin' Out," the Astaire/Garland duet "We're a Couple of Swells," the opening rendition of "Happy Easter," and the closing performance of the title number. So successful was Easter Parade that plans were immediately drawn to reteam Fred Astaire and Judy Garland in The Barkeleys of Broadway; this time, however, it was Garland who withdrew, to be replaced by Astaire's most famous vis-à-vis, Ginger Rogers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Raft once again plays the outcast of society who comes through in the end in Intrigue. Dishonorably discharged from the Army Air Corps, Brad Dunham (Raft) disconsolately decides to try his luck with Shanghai's postwar black market. Teaming with the treacherous Tamara Baranoff (June Havoc), Dunham prospers in his newly-found illicit profession, much to the dismay of his best friend, reporter Mark Andrews (Tom Tully). When Tamara has the troublesome Andrews murdered, Dunham realizes the folly of his behavior and works overtime to squash the black market for good and all. Meanwhile, social worker Linda Parker (Helena Carter), who realizes that Dunham's a good guy underneath and hopes against hope that he'll eventually realize it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The year is 1942: eight American airmen crash-land during the Doolittle bombing raid on Tokyo and are taken prisoner. Though slated for execution, the pilots are put through a "show trial" by the military, on a charge of committing war crimes. The Japanese judges promise to be merciful if only the Americans will reveal vital US military secrets. But captain Dana Andrews speaks for the rest of his melting-pot crew-some of whom have been subjected to the most horrific of tortures--when he chooses death before dishonor. In its own way, The Purple Heart is as racist a piece of propaganda as was ever produced by Hollywood. The Japanese are shown to be little more than sadistic beasts (at one point, the judges interrupt the trial by moronically shouting "Banzai" after receiving news of a military victory), while hissing, buck-toothed interrogator Richard Loo ("I attended your...Amelican universities"), unable to admit that he's been wrong about Yankee resilience, commits hara-kiri. Remember, however, that The Purple Heart was made at a time when America was still at war with Japan, and political correctness was hardly a consideration. Its jingoism aside, the film is a first-rate piece of moviemaking, socked across by director Lewis Milestone with the same fervor that he'd expended on his anti-war masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide