Kam Tong Movies

Set during the turn-of-the-century Moro uprising in the Philippines, The Real Glory stars Gary Cooper as an American Marine doctor and David Niven and Broderick Crawford as a pair of rowdy mercenaries. While staving off the insurgent Moros, Cooper must also combat a cholera outbreak. Once this matter is disposed of, Cooper joins Niven and Crawford in attempting to blow up a dam built by the Moros to cut off the American fort's water supply. After all this activity, it's small wonder that Cooper elects to return to private practice in the States with his new bride Andrea Leeds. While The Real Glory never skimps in the action department, the film is somewhat lacking in historical accuracy: the Moros were hardly the bloodthirsty savages depicted herein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A lively espionage drama that reunited the stars and director of the previous year's The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific was originally envisioned as the story of a Japanese invasion of Hawaii. Real-life events of December of 1941, however, precluded such a scenario and the location was changed to the Panama Canal. For reasons known only to Warner Bros., the title was retained despite the fact that none of the action takes place in the Pacific. Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Leland, a disgraced ex-army man, who, after being turned down by the Canadian military, jumps a Japanese steamer bound for the Panama Canal Zone. Also onboard are Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor), a small-town girl claiming to be en route to Los Angeles; Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a corpulent sociologist with a suspiciously friendly regard for all things Japanese; and Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung), a happy-go-lucky second generation Japanese-American on his way to visit the old country. But no one is exactly who he or she claims to be and the voyage from Halifax via New York City to Panama becomes a matter of life and death for the passengers in general, and for the future of the United States in particular. Director John Huston was forced to leave the film three weeks into the four-week shooting schedule when summoned to report to the Department of Special Services. According to Huston, he purposefully placed Humphrey Bogart's character in a highly precarious situation and left it up to his replacement, Vincent Sherman, to come up with the solution -- which Sherman did in an especially fiery climax. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The sure-fire combination of Judy Canova and Joe E. Brown paid off in big laughs and excellent box-office returns in the bizarre wartime musical Joan of Ozark. While hunting quail near her home, hillbilly Judy (Canova) catches a carrier pigeon bearing a message for a ring of Nazi spies. She turns the bird over to the FBI and is lauded as a heroine-much to the dismay of Philip Munson (Jerome Cowan), whose posh New York nightclub is a cover for his Fifth Column activities. As luck would have it, theatrical agent Cliff Little (Joe E. Brown) has been sent to the Ozarks to scare up new talent for Munson's club. Little wants to sign Judy for a singing contract, but she'll have none of it until he poses as a G-Man and appoints her an honorary "G-Woman." To keep Judy happy once they're back in New York, Cliff pretends to be a spy while wandering around the nightclub-and thus it is that our hapless hero and heroine stumble upon Munson's nest of Nazis. It's hard to determine which is sillier in Joan of Ozark: Joe E. Brown's imitation of Adolf Hitler or the Keystone Kop-like climactic airplane chase. Also good for a few yocks is the closing musical number, set in "the future"-namely, 1952! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth production from the enterprising King Brothers, Rubber Racketeers drew its inspiration from late-breaking headlines. When wartime rationing kicks in, rubber suddenly is at a premium, resulting in a brisk black market in bootlegged rubber tires. Patriotic defense plant worker Bill Barry (Bill Henry) rounds up his fellow workers to help stem the activities of hot-tire racketeer Gilin (Ricardo Cortez). In his American film debut, John Abbott plays a mute secondary hoodlum named Dumbo, who inability to speak neatly hides his cultured British dialect. Partially designed as a warning to "You, the Public" to avoid shady entrepreneurs like Gilin, Rubber Racketeers also succeeds as a purely as a rip-roaring actioner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this wartime comedy drama an ultra-macho but aging Marine sergeant does all he can to keep his men intimidated and towing the line while they are stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of WW II. The tough-as-nails jarhead does have a terrible secret though--he has never been involved in actual combat. When his unit heads out for battle in China, the sarge is humiliated because he has not been granted permission to go. He begins drowning his sorrows in a bottle and later gets into a fight with some merchant sailors. As a result he is tossed into the brig until his wife urges him to retire. He reluctantly agrees and tries his hand at civilian life. Later when the Japanese invade the islands, it is the old sergeant who helps the civilian's safely withdraw; unfortunately he dies in the process. His wife also dies. Later their daughter, once a devout pacifist and now a uniformed member of the armed forces, accepts a medal of honor for her courageous father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were still referred to as Indo-China when this Sam Katzman-produced adventure quickie was filmed. John Archer (the father of actress Anne Archer) stars as the titular "yank," a devil-may-care pilot named Mulvaney. Together with his partner Clint Marshall (Douglas Dick), Mulvaney runs a profitable air-freight line in Indo-China. After antagonizing a band of Red Chinese, Mulvaney and Clint attempt to rescue two American women (Jean Willes and Ellen Murphy) who'd foolishly allied themselves with the bad guys. Shamelessly jingoistic, A Yank in Indo-China is a fascinating artifact from an era in which America thought of Southeast Asia in terms of Black and White. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of two Clark Gable films produced by 20th Century-Fox, Soldier of Fortune casts Gable as an American mercenary, running a successful smuggling operation in and out of Hong Kong. Gable is hired by Susan Hayward, who hopes to locate her missing husband, photographer Gene Barry. Upon discovering that Barry is being held by the Communists somewhere on the Chinese mainland, Gable risks his neck to rescue the man. Along the way, he falls in love with Hayward, which may or may not compromise his dedication to saving Barry's neck. Filmed largely on location, Soldier of Fortune deserves to be seen in its original CinemaScope form--or, at the very least, in the "letterboxed" version recently made available to cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to track down convicted murderer Manfred Holt (a young Charles Bronson), who has killed two guards while escaped from the Laramie jail and may be gunning for banker Ned Alcorn, the banker who testified against him. Once Holt is recaptured, he tells Paladin that his only purpose in escaping is to be briefly reunited with his wife Sarah (Peggy Stewart), and to see his newborn son; once he does this, he promises to return to jail without further bloodshed. Though he doesn't entirely trust Holt, Paladin allows his prisoner to visit his family, an act of charity which leads to a violent (yet curiously poignant) climax. This episode was filmed on location in the Alabama Hills just outside Lone Pine, California. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Emerging victorious from a poker game, Paladin (Richard Boone) finds out that the prize is not so sweet: It seems that he has just won fifty obsolete rifles. As he tries to figure out a way to divest himself of his winnings, Paladin runs smack dab into a violent range war. Not surprisingly, he now discovers that his collection of worn-out firearms is now quite valuable--and he also proves that a bluff can work just as well in "real life" as in poker! Walter Brennan Jr., son of the beloved character actor, appears in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Award-winning episode, Paladin (Richard Boone) is extended the hospitality of Samuel Abajinian (Harold J. Stone), a prosperous Armenian winemaker. But before Paladin can partake of any vintage wine, Abarjinian asks him to track down his "helpless" daughter Helen (Lisa Gaye), who has run off with a ranchhand whom the winemaker regards as weak and unworthy. As it turns out, Helen is fiercely self-reliant--and as usual, there is more to the story than it seems at first glance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The premiere episode of Have Gun, Will Travel finds cultured gunslinger Paladin (Richard Boone) already headquartered at a fancy hotel in San Francisco, casually thumbing through a pile of newspapers in search of an assignment. Heading to New Mexico, he offers his services to wealthy rancher Jesse Reade (Harry Shannon), accepting his usual thousand-dollar fee to head South of the Border to rescue Reade's daughter Nancy (Janice Rule) from the clutches of bandit Dave Enderby (a pre-Hawaii Five-O Jack Lord). Risking his life to infiltrate the outlaw-controlled town of Perdido, Paladin finds that Nancy is in no mood to be rescued; she is in love with Enderby, and in fact is now the bandit's wife. Now Paladin must figure a way to disillusion Nancy and prove Enderby to be a thorough rat--and to escape safely from Perdido in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though his usual fee is a flat thousand dollars, Paladin willingly accepts the $82.17 offered him by timid young barber Ernie Teller (Dean Harens). It seems that Ernie is in love with a proud and haughty beauty named Belle Hooper (Bonnie Bolding), but two tough gunslingers are already vying for her affections. Ernie simply wants his rivals to avoid killing each other, but Paladin changes the scenario when he discovers that Belle has deliberately set the gunslingers at each other's throats merely to make Ernie jealous! This episode was written by future Mission: Impossible producer Bruce Geller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide