''China Venture'' is a 1953 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

Don Siegel Donald Siegel ( ; October 26, 1912 – April 20, 1991) was an American film director and producer. Siegel was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a director of tough, cynical and forthright action-adventure films whose taut plots centered o ...

and starring Edmond O'Brien, Barry Sullivan and Jocelyn Brando. It was produced and distributed by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

. The plot concerns an American patrol sent into

South China South China ( zh, s=, p=Huá'nán, j=jyut6 naam4) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

to rescue an important prisoner held by Chinese guerrillas.

Plot

In 1945, during World War II, a Japanese admiral is severely injured in an airplane crash in a remote jungle. He possesses vital intelligence that may affect the course of the war. A joint American team of Marines and Navy personnel are deployed to locate the admiral and interrogate him before he dies from his wounds. The mission is plagued by both the Japanese occupiers and Chinese guerilla forces. Captain Matt Reardon and Commander Bert Thompson clash initially, but grow to respect one another before Thompson is murdered at the hands of Wu King. The Japanese prisoner is successfully delivered to a US submarine, and his interrogation reveals that the Japanese military is determined to fight to the bitter end. The picture closes with documentary footage of a mushroom cloud, suggesting the Americans resort to atomic warfare to defeat Japan.

Cast

* Edmond O'Brien as Capt. Matt Reardon * Barry Sullivan as Commander Bert Thompson * Jocelyn Brando as Lt. Ellen Wilkins * Leo Gordon as Sgt. Janowicz * Leon Askin as Wu King *

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American acting coach and actor. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed ...

as Patterson *

Richard Loo Richard Loo (October 1, 1903 – November 20, 1983) was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982. Early lif ...

as Chang Sung * Dayton Lummis as Dr. Masterson *

Dabbs Greer Robert William "Dabbs" Greer (April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007) was an American character actor in film and television for over 60 years. Greer appeared in nearly 100 film roles and in nearly 600 television episodes of various series. He pl ...

as Galuppo * Philip Ahn as Adm. Amara * James Anderson as Cpl. Walters * Alvy Moore as Carlson, the radio operator Source:

Theme

''China Venture'' is almost unique among Seigel's films, in that it lacks the key character elements that normally preoccupy the director. The protagonists do not struggle with heroic vs. anti-heroic tendencies, nor does a

femme fatale A ( , ; ), sometimes called a maneater, Mata Hari, or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and Seduction, seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype ...

emerge to manipulate male characters. Pessimism, manifested in a damaged hero, is largely absent. Biographer Judith M. Kass writes: Kass adds that “the only woman present (Jocelyn Brando) is responsible for saving the admiral's life and is neither seductive nor fatal, rather the opposite, while retaining her femininity.”Kass, 1975 p. 115

Footnotes

Sources

* * Sculthorpe, Derek. ''Edmond O'Brien: Everyman of Film Noir''. McFarland, 2018.

External links

* 1953 films 1953 war films Films directed by Don Siegel Films set in China Films about the United States Marine Corps Second Sino-Japanese War films American war films Columbia Pictures films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language war films {{WWII-film-stub