CHINA DOLL
US, 1958, 99 minutes, Black and white.
Victor Mature, Li Li Hua, Stuart Whitman, Bob Mathias, Ward Bond.
Directed by Frank Borzage.
China Doll is a pleasant war and post-war story. The focus is on China in 1943 and an American officer married to a Chinese girl. They are both killed during the war - and the young daughter arrives in America in the late '50s to be looked after by the officer's old buddies.
The film has the expected scenes of air crew training, missions, woundings and death. There is also a Catholic background with Ward Bond as a priest with typical Ward Bond earthy wisdom. There are nuns, in the Hollywood style (including playing saxophones). Victor Mature is the rugged hero.
The film was directed by Frank Borzage, a director of many romantic films in the '30s and '40s. In the late '50s, after a gap of ten years, he directed China Doll and The Big Fisherman.
1. Entertaining war story? Sentiment?
2. Black and white photography? The atmosphere of China during the war? Aerial sequences? War sequences? Musical score and sentiment?
3. The title and the focus on Brandon's wife and especially his daughter? The reception of the daughter by the American buddies in the late 1950s?
4. Victor Mature as Cliff Brandon? The typical American officer? In China in the '40s? The arrival of the air crew? His rigorous training of them? Pointing out mistakes? Tough style? Drinking? The irony of his buying the services of Shu-Jen? His wanting to get rid of her? Father Cairns' explanation about her honour? His illness? Shu-Jen's devotion? Falling in love? The marriage, the baby? Brandon in the front line? Shu-Jen? wanting to follow, her death during the Japanese raid? Brandon's return, hiding the baby? His own death?
5. Shu- Jen and the Chinese housekeeper, her being bought by Brandon? Honour, Chinese devotion? Her care for Brandon during his illness? In love with him? The marriage, the baby? The pathos of her death?
6. Father Cairns as the typical (Hollywood style) American missionary in China? Tough and worldly-wise? His friendship with Brandon? With the men? Explaining the situation about Shu-Jen? The nuns - and the old Hollywood image of nuns?
7. The air crew - the various personalities? Phil Gates, Dan O'Neill, Steve Hill, Ernie Fleming etc.? The typical camaraderie? Their skills in their work? The hard training, their mistakes? Their successes?
8. The old-fashioned war story? The old-fashioned inter-racial romance? The pathos of the war and deaths? The new hope for the Eurasian daughter in the United States of the late 1950s?
