Octopus Overlords

Lady from Chungking (1942)

Anna May Wong, 3rd generation American from LA, stars as a woman of several names in Japanese-occupied China.

Downed airmen, a Chinese underground working against the local forces and the arriving General, a femme fatal going undercover to gain intelligence, and an American(ish) singer out for herself all come together to foil the plans of the Japanese army offensive.

Acting wasn't the best, and of course, the biggest explosions happen off-screen. There was the attempt at some aerial combat, and a couple of parachuting scenes, and a bit of cheesy physical altercations.

The real fun part was the ending monologue about the hope of freedom and the undying spirit of China.

Coma bat rating: 3/10.

Disc 1 complete.

Isgrimnur wrote:Lady from Chungking (1942)

Anna May Wong, 3rd generation American from LA, stars as a woman of several names in Japanese-occupied China.

Downed airmen, a Chinese underground working against the local forces and the arriving General, a femme fatal going undercover to gain intelligence, and an American(ish) singer out for herself all come together to foil the plans of the Japanese army offensive.

...

Is that the one that was basically a puff piece for Chiang Kai-shek? Wasn't there newsreel footage of him spliced into it, or something?

Scuzz wrote:

Blackhawk wrote:It was a great series, but I agree that BoB was better. I think them hand-writing it based on mixed accounts hurt it, though. They wrote more drama into the characters lives than BoB, and they jumped around enough that it threw things off for me.

I know when they follow the one character on leave in Australia and take the opportunity for some hawt female nudity I kinda wondered what they were thinking.

That was actually a big thing historically though. That leave was so rowdy that it wasn't allowed to happen again and there was a big sentiment among the Australians that the Americans came in and stole all the women.

This reminds me I need to finish the music video challenge.

Holman wrote:

Isgrimnur wrote:Lady from Chungking (1942)

Anna May Wong, 3rd generation American from LA, stars as a woman of several names in Japanese-occupied China.

Downed airmen, a Chinese underground working against the local forces and the arriving General, a femme fatal going undercover to gain intelligence, and an American(ish) singer out for herself all come together to foil the plans of the Japanese army offensive.

...

Is that the one that was basically a puff piece for Chiang Kai-shek? Wasn't there newsreel footage of him spliced into it, or something?

Not the one.

Default wrote:My experience is that there are a few good ones and the rest duck.

Yeah, that's my experience with the 50 movie packs. It's generally public domain movies (and occasionally tv episodes from old anthology shows, which honestly I find more interesting). The video/audio quality is variable though generally not very great and often you can find the movies available on archive.org. And there are occasionally good or great movies but a lot of it is not.

BTW, if you want to get idea of which movies are worth watching, check out the Amazon reviews of the 50 movie packs. Usually the top review has some information on all the movies, like ratings and video quality for the movies, all in one place

The Big Lift (1950)

Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas and a passel of military personnel tell the story of the Berlin airlift. Sgt. Kowalski (Douglas) is a Ground Controlled Approach sergeant tasked with bringing the birds in. Sgt. Danny MacCullough (Clift) is a crew chief on a C-54 Skymaster.

Landing the 100,000th load into Berlin, the pilots and Danny are feted by the people of Berlin. The pilot gets the welcome from the Burgermeister, the co-pilot from the children, and Danny from Frau Frederica Burkhardt, a widow.

Smitten by her, Danny wonders how he can get time away from the quick turnaround that keeps him tied to his plane. An AP reporter has a connection to his hometown, and wants to follow him for a personal interest story about the loads of food coming in. The reporter swings it so that Danny gets a 24-hour pass into the city.

Cut loose after the interviews and pictures, he goes off to find Frederica. She is clearing rubble from the Berlin streets, which surprises him. They leave when she gets off work, and Danny gets a guided shopping tour. While roaming the town, Danny gives a sign hanger a cigarette after seeing him lunge for a discarded butt. His boss is up a ladder, and he goes to give him one as well, but ends up coated in paste for his trouble.

The neighbor, Stieber, is gracious enough to lend Danny his robe while Frederica takes Danny's uniform to be cleaned. After he emerges from the shower, Stieber tells him that he is a Soviet spy, recording the airlift numbers for the Russians. Surprised, Danny asks if he's worried that Danny will report him. Stieber laughs and says that the Americans know he is a spy, and even repaired his telephone. The Russians don't believe the published reports of the US deliveries, so he, at times, reports fewer than the actual numbers to give them something to believe.

Frederica finds the shop closed when she returns for Danny's uniform. It seems that the owner has been arrested in the Russian sector, and no one knows where he is. This leads Danny to end up wearing Stieber's clothes as they go out, which will land him in trouble with the MPs if spotted.

Meeting at a local club, Kowalski has his own girlfriend, a local girl that he browbeats, to which the others object. He grills Frederica about her husband and family. Frederica tells them that her husband was drafted, and her father taken away when he protested the book burnings. Kowalski expresses his disbelief that he has yet to find a German that enlisted.

A local man piques Kowalski's interest, convinced he knows him from somewhere. Meanwhile, the MPs arrive. Unable to find a way out of the club, Danny joins the singing trio on stage, managing to escape their attention.

The German man leaves, and Kowalski follows him. He corners him in a bombed-out area, and starts talking to him, stating that he remembers where he knows him from. He was in a prison camp, and a man matching the German's description would torture him, making him perform German tongue twisters, and working over his kidneys when he made a mistake. Taking him in hand, he makes the German say an American phrase, heavy on the Ws, and proceeds to work him over.

Danny and Frederica answer a German woman's cries for help, and find Kowalski pummeling the man, and try to get him clear as the MPs arrive. Danny takes off, and the MPs follow. Frederica helps him escape into the Russian zone, where they make their way to the border, and get detained by the Russians just as they make it over the line into the British sector.

As the lines denoting the sector boundaries have been worn away, they call for the higher-ups to come settle the boundaries. Once they start working the problem, Frederica and Danny are forgotten, and are able to walk away from the trouble.

Danny and Frederica manage to find someone that can help, and the shop will be open in the morning to get Danny's uniform. Danny stays the night at her place, and he rises in the middle of the night to engage in some romance.

The next morning, Danny returns to duty, and heads back to work. The restrictions have loosened, and he is able to get into town with Kowalski to hang out with the women more frequently.

Kowalski has a friend in records that looks up Frederica, and determines that she's lied about her husband (SS) and her father (Nazi sympathizer). When confronted, she falls back on the story of the hardships that they've had to endure since the war ended, and justifies her lies as an escape from their misery. Danny commiserates with her.

Danny starts working the chain of command to get approval to marry Frederica. However, she is writing to a "friend" in St. Louis. And things aren't clear as to how "friendly" they actually are.

Danny is up on rotation to go home, and is desperately trying to get back to Berlin, but the place is fogged in. The planes go up with instructions to try to make it if they can see on final, but abort and return if not. Danny's plane tries to land and aborts, but one of the engines catches fire, and they can't get it out. So the ground control station talks them in to a landing.

Before Danny arrives at Frederica's place, she has written a letter to her friend in St. Louis, and given it to her neighbor to mail. True to his spycraft, he opens the letter and finds out that she plans to use Danny to get citizenship, divorce him, and move to St. Louis to be with her "friend".

Kowalski and his girl get tapped to be the witnesses for the marriage, and everyone meets at City Hall. Danny starts talking about where he may go after he returns, and mentions that, instead of his home town, maybe he'll go to St. Louis. Stieber had gotten to him first.

While Kowalkski's girl is understanding of why she did it, and wants to explain it to Danny, Kowalski has no sympathy for Frederica, and she is left standing alone as everyone else walks out.

Danny is travelling out, Kowalski has signed up to be permanent party in Germany for when the new equipment comes in, and has stopped refusing to speak German to the locals and be a bit nicer to them. They decide that the truth of the matter lies somewhere between their starting positions, and both are looking forward to what lies ahead.

Coma bat rating: 0.2 for just a bit of fisticuffs.

The film is notable in that it was shot on location at the airfields and in Berlin at the time shortly after the blockade was lifted, offering real views of the city still recovering from the wartime destruction.

I saw this not too long ago. Not really a war movie. Not a bad movie just not a war movie.

They Raid By Night (1942)

An American-sounding Canadian Captain, a Norwegian Lt., and a Brit sergeant are sent behind enemy lines into Norway to free the general of the Norwegian Army from a Nazi Prison camp.

Spotted almost immediately by the LT's collaborator former fiancee, who promptly rats them out, are discovered at their contact's home. After a physical struggle, they take the uniforms and car to head to the prison camp, while the contact blows himself up with the soldiers.

The commandos manage to infiltrate the camp and obtain the general, but have to fight their way out, at which point the general is wounded. they flee by car before being spotted and forced to flee on foot through the forest. Hobbled by his injury, the Lt goes to his fiancee's house to call a doctor. She, of course, rats him out.

The LT gives up his comrades under torture, the Captain is captured, while the sergeant flees up the trail. The Captain outwits the Nazi Colonel in his interrogation. The Norwegian stooge that is his lapdog manages to free the Lt. and Captain before their execution, showing his true resistance colors before he is gunned down while covering their escape.

The party is reunited in the mountains, and they reach the coast as the Brits start their assault to destroy the port supplies and rescue the group. Caught up to one more time by the Nazis, the sergeant picks them off from above as they try to execute the Captain. The LT dies protecting the general from being shot, and a squad of Tommies comes to the rescue, following the beacon fire the party lit and the sound of gunfire. The Nazi Col. is wounded, and taken out as a prisoner.

Cue the moralistic lecture about how they weren't just three men, but had the help of freedom-loving Norwegians the whole time.

Bonus points for plenty of stock footage of explosions and combat footage. Minus points for some of the worst death sequence acting and the use of Beethoven's 5th anytime the Tommie fleet was shown.

Combat Rating: 6/10

Isgrimnur wrote: Bonus points for plenty of stock footage of explosions and combat footage. Minus points for some of the worst death sequence acting and the use of Beethoven's 5th anytime the Tommie fleet was shown.

FWIW, the opening notes of Beethoven's 5th were very explicitly associated with the Allied cause:

Wikipedia wrote:The symphony, and the four-note opening motif in particular, are known worldwide, with the motif appearing frequently in popular culture, from disco versions to rock and roll covers, to uses in film and television.

Since the Second World War it has sometimes been referred to as the "Victory Symphony". "V" is the Roman character for the number five; the phrase "V for Victory" became well known as a campaign of the Allies of World War II. That Beethoven's Victory Symphony happened to be his Fifth (or vice versa) is coincidence. Some thirty years after this piece was written, the rhythm of the opening phrase – "dit-dit-dit-dah" – was used for the letter "V" in Morse code, though this is probably also coincidental.

The BBC, during World War Two, prefaced its broadcasts to Europe with those four notes, played on drums.

Thanks. I learned something new today.

The Torch (1950)

The Mexican glassmaker’s daughter, Maria, is abusing her privilege to get her father’s workers to make stuff for her wedding to the American doctor. Her reverie is interrupted by the rebel general taking the town of Cholula.

The general is friends with the town’s priest. The general calls in the rich men of the town and makes it clear who’s in charge. The glassmaker and others are imprisoned until they pay the General their ransom.

The doctor is given a pass to Mexico City to obtain supplies. After he leaves, the general sees the Maria, and is stuck by her beauty and temper. He begins to court her, releasing her father, and engages in heated arguments with her.

The priest tells Maria about the general’s finer points of art appreciation, while the general received advice about women from his old major.

A sickness sweeps through town, spin-dropping people in their tracks. The general goes to check on his orphaned goddaughter, who travels with him. As he departs, the townsfolk riot. The general seals the town.

Maria and her father attempt to leave town, but are taken to HQ and the general, who gives them permission to leave. They return home after seeing the horror of the plague. Maria gives all the linens to the soldiers to aid the sick.

The doctor returns, bringing back only Maria’s wedding dress and news that the sickness is a flu epidemic that has spread across the country.

The general‘s goddaughter fall ill. Maria finds the general, he asks her forgiveness, and she takes him to the child. His daughter dies while Maria, the doctor and his priest friend watch.

Reports come in that the government’s troops are close, and the general calls a retreat.

Cut to the wedding of Maria and the doctor. He pulls her off to the side before the ceremony and asks her if she’s sure that she wants to go through with it. She says that she is. Cannon fire interrupts the ceremony, and Maria bolts into the street to find the general and run off after him while under fire.

Coma bat rating: 2/10.

Artillery and cavalry combat up front and a retreat under fire at the end bookend the film, with little combat in between the Taming of the Shrew antics.