Barbara Jean Wong Movies

Based on the autobiographical novel by Han Suyin, Love is a Many Splendored Thing was evocatively location-filmed in Hong Kong. Jennifer Jones plays Ms. Suyin, a Eurasian doctor and the widow of a Chinese general. She falls in love with American news correspondent Mark Elliot (William Holden), who unfortunately cannot obtain a divorce from his present wife. This, together with the disapproval of Dr. Suyin's tradition-bound relatives and Hong Kong's strict racial laws, forces the couple to carry on their romance in a clandestine fashion. The romance ends in tragedy, but with renewed hope for a happier future. The one lasting legacy of Love is a Many Splendored Thing is its Oscar-winning title song, written by Paul Fain and Sammy Webster; Oscars also went to Alfred Newman's musical score and Charles LeMaire's costume design. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Golden Eye is a Charlie Chan mystery set on a Southwestern ranch. A once-dormant mine mysteriously begins to yield gold, bringing out the worst characteristics of several people involved. When murder enters the picture, Charlie Chan interrupts his vacation and investigates, with the dubious aid of his son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and his perennially frightened chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). The script for this film lifts many elements from several earlier sources, including the "high-heeled nun" bit from Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (38). The fourth Monogram "Charlie Chan" film to star Roland Winters as the soft-spoken Chinese sleuth, The Golden Eye is salvaged by the effortless expertise of comic relief Mantan Moreland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alan Ladd stars in Calcutta as devil-may-care pilot Neale Gordon. With his equally fearless partners Pedro Blake (William Bendix) and Bill Cunningham (John Whitney), Gordon handles the air-freight route between Calcutta and Chungking. When Cunningham meets his death at the hands of jewel smugglers, Gordon vows to play judge and jury and bring the criminals to justice himself. Among the suspects are the film's two gorgeous leading ladies, sweetie-pie Virginia Moore (Gail Russell) and sultry nightclub singer Merina Tanev (June Duprez). Once Gordon figures out who his real friends are, he relies on his fists to mete out retribution, resulting in one sequence that's guaranteed to raise the hackles of every feminist in the crowd. Even with a short running time of 73 minutes, Calcutta secured top-of-the-bill bookings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) heads south of the border in this so-so series entry. With the help of Mexican police official Luis (Fortunio Bonanova), Chan looks high and low for a stolen atomic-bomb formula. The oriental detective is also "aided" by his son Tommy (Benson Fong) and his chauffeur Chattanooga (Willie Best, subbing for Mantan Moreland) two of the most inept assistants in the history of the movies. The gimmick in this film is a mysterious murder weapon which seemingly disappears from the face of the earth the moment it has been used. Though more expensive looking than most of Monogram's Charlie Chan films, The Red Dragon isn't one of the series' more exciting efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in Japanese-occupied China shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, this action/drama stars Alan Ladd as Mr. Jones, a cynically materialistic American who has no qualms about selling oil to the enemy; as far as he's concerned, their money spends as well as anyone's. Against the advice of his friend and partner Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix), Jones heads to Shanghai to negotiate a sale with representatives of the Japanese government. En route, Jones and Sparrow are caught in a massive rainstorm that leaves the roads all but impossible to navigate; the yanks are also stopped by Chinese guerilla troops, who force them to take on a group of schoolgirls and their instructor, an American named Carolyn Grant (Loretta Young). Between the patriotic Carolyn, the Chinese schoolgirls, and a baby that Sparrow rescued from the side of the road, Jones has a lot more going on than he's used to dealing with, but the situation forces him to take a long, hard look at his personal politics. When he discovers that one of the girls was brutally raped by Japanese soldiers after she tried to return to her family, Jones decides he can no longer stand alongside the Japanese and kills the three soldiers responsible. This was one of a small number of pro-China films made in the United States during World War II, when the two countries had a mutual enemy in Japan; however, a few years down the line, Hollywood's attitude towards China would be markedly different. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide