Main Cast: Randolph Scott, Ruth Warrick, Ellen Drew, Anthony Quinn, Carol Thurston
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
Plot
Pearl S. Buck's novel China Sky is boiled down to a wartime romantic triangle, courtesy of commercial-minded RKO. Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick play American doctors in a remote Chinese village. The relationship is platonic, but Scott's spiteful wife Ellen Drew suspects hanky-panky. Despite these turgid soap-opera events, World War II has to be fought, and fought it is thanks to guerilla leader Anthony Quinn and insidious Japanese POW Richard Loo, who tries to win half-Japanese doctor Philip Ahn over to the Rising Sun. Halfway down the cast as "the goat" is Chinese juvenile actor Ducky Louie, who enjoyed a brief 1940s stardom in such films as China's Little Devils (1945) and Black Gold (1947), reteaming with Anthony Quinn in the latter film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
China Sky is a well-produced World War II propaganda film about two dedicated doctors, Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick, who must battle a soap-opera script to keep the Chinese village where they work safe from invading forces. Released shortly before action in the Pacific ended in 1945, the film removes much of the texture of Pearl Buck's source novel, though the chemistry between Scott and Warrick compensates somewhat. In part because he was limited by RKO's comparatively moderate budget, veteran director Ray Enright takes a conventional approach to the material, allowing the melodramatic elements to outshine the story's war themes. The cultural credibility of the Chinese settings is hampered by inappropriate casting, such as Mexican-born Anthony Quinn as a guerilla leader. Nonetheless, what works about the film is its production design, and Enright's ability to deliver the story in a straightforward, audience-pleasing manner. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
