China (1943 film)
| China | |
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| Directed by | John Farrow |
| Produced by | Richard Blumenthal |
| Written by | Frank Butler |
| Based on | unproduced play "The Fourth Brother" by Archibald Forbes |
| Starring |
Loretta Young Alan Ladd William Bendix |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | Leo Tover |
| Edited by | Eda Warren |
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Production
company |
Paramount Pictures
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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79 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2 million (est.) |
| Box office | $2.5 million (US rentals) 1,774,843 admissions (France) |
China (aka The Fourth Brother) is a 1943 film directed by John Farrow. It stars Loretta Young and Alan Ladd. David Jones, one of the main characters wearing a fedora, a brown jacket, and khakis, was an inspiration for Indiana Jones.
In 1941, in Mei-Ki, China, war profiteer David Jones (Alan Ladd) narrowly escapes with his life when Chinese Captain Tao-Yuan-Kai arrests him for selling oil to the Japanese but releases him because he is American. Japanese aircraft bomb the town, and Jones drives toward Shanghai with his partner, Johnny Sparrow (William Bendix), who has brought with him an orphaned baby boy.
After nightfall, they are forced to stop because Chinese refugees crowd the road and beat the Americans until Carolyn Grant (Loretta Young), an American schoolteacher born in China, tells them to stop. Carolyn sneaks her group of female college students into the back of Jones's truck and insists that Jones proceed without headlights because they might be sighted by Japanese bombers. As she has an intimate knowledge of the local terrain, Carolyn takes over driving the truck, and has her friend, Lin Wei, sit on the hood to watch for potholes.
When Jones realizes that Carolyn has loaded his truck with refugees, he ruthlessly starts to throw them out, fearing that the extra load will use up the gas he needs to get to Shanghai, but relents when he learns that the students are young women.
Along the road the next day, they encounter Lin Wei's first and second brothers, Lin Cho and Lin Yun, who have formed a guerrilla band and are posing as peasants. Lin Cho warns them to take an alternate road, as the Japanese are approaching, and Jones reluctantly heads the truck to the family farm of Tan Ying, a girl he tried to throw off the truck.
At the farm, Carolyn tries again to persuade Jones to take the students to Chungtu, where they can continue their studies, rather than Japanese-occupied Shanghai, but Jones is unconcerned with the struggle of the Chinese, and refuses. After Johnny leaves the baby, whom he has dubbed "Donald Duck," with Tan Ying's family for safekeeping, the journey resumes. They are forced to abandon the truck when Japanese aircraft strafe the road, but Lin Cho and his compatriots shoot the enemy aircraft down.
When Carolyn discovers that Tan Ying has slipped off the bus to rejoin her family, she insists on returning for her. While the rest of the group hikes to a monastery, Jones and Carolyn drive back to the farm and are shocked to find that the Japanese have burned the farm, and murdered Tan Ying's parents and Donald Duck. Jones then finds three Japanese soldiers raping Tan Ying, and shoots them without hesitation, while Carolyn comforts the hysterical woman. After the group takes refuge in the monastery, Tan Ying dies.
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Wikipedia