China Venture is a 1953 American adventure war film directed by Don Siegel and starring Edmond O'Brien, Barry Sullivan and Jocelyn Brando.Sculthorpe p.182 It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The plot concerns an American patrol sent into South China during World War II 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.Kass, 1975 p. 112-115: Plot summary
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 as Patterson Richard Loo as Chang Sung Dayton Lummis as Dr. Masterson Dabbs Greer as Galuppo Philip Ahn as Adm. Amara James Anderson as Cpl. Walters Alvy Moore as Carlson, the radio operator
Source:Kass, 1975 p. 193: See filmography, additional cast members listed here.
Theme China Venture is almost unique among Seigel's films, in that it lacks the key character elements that normally preoccupy the director.Kass, 1975 p. 68: See list, no. 1-8, offered by Kass. The protagonists do not struggle with heroic vs. anti-heroic tendencies, nor does a femme fatale emerge to manipulate male characters. Pessimism, manifested in a damaged hero, is largely absent.Kass, 1975 p. 68: See list of elements, 1-8 here. And p. 114-115 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