International Settlement (film)
| International Settlement | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Eugene Forde |
| Produced by |
Darryl F. Zanuck Sol M. Wurtzel |
| Written by |
Lou Breslow Frank Fenton |
| Starring |
Dolores del Rio George Sanders June Lang |
| Music by | Samuel Kaylin |
| Edited by | Nick DeMaggio |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
International Settlement is a 1938 American drama film directed by Eugene Forde and starring Dolores del Rio, George Sanders and June Lang. It is set in the Shanghai International Settlement during the Sino-Japanese War. In the film, a gun runner falls in love with a beautiful French singer.
1938's "International Settlement" refers to the heart of Shanghai China (the shooting title was "Shanghai Deadline"), where Western foreign powers had long controlled a protected enclave divided among 13 nations. The film opens as Japanese forces have successfully overrun Peiping (modern day Beijing) in the north and are now heading for Shanghai. Somewhat like Casablanca's famous opening, this conflict is introduced with a twirling globe leading us to China, interspersed with geniune newsreel footage of Japanese bombers attacking Peiping and Chinese refugees fleeing south, while a solemn voice intones the threat of oncoming war.
Future Academy-award-winner George Sanders in his first leading man role in Hollywood, plays Del Forbes, a vagabond adventurer with a dapper mustache, sailing for China, and broke enough to agree to impersonate a fellow passenger, ailing munitions dealer Zabellu (Pedro de Cordoba). Too ill to leave the ship, Zabellu pays Forbes to impersonate him in an illegal arms deal for which he's owed some 200,000 pounds ("That's a nearly a million dollars!!" Forbes exclaims helpfully). Since no one in Shanghai knows who either man is, Forbes agrees.
Forbes gets the last hotel room In a British sector crowded with frightened guests escaping from the Japanese invasion of Peiping in the north. Playing the suave, slightly condescending British cad that would become his trademark, Sander's Forbes ignores the annoying advances of a naive American girl Joyce,( June Lang), and instead falls hard for Lenore (Dolores Del Rio), a stunning nightclub singer he first meets when she breaks into his room and tries to kill him. As she not only misses but is far too beautiful to turn over to the police, Forbes promptly invites her to dinner. But first he rickshaws to the "native city" - the Chinese quarter outside the Settlement - to carry through the deal with shady Joseph Lang (Harold Huber) and his partner Murdock (John Carradine in another early role). He fights off an attack as he leaves with the money but when he delivers it to the ship, he learns Zabellu has died of natural causes.
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Wikipedia