Main Cast: Barbara Hale, Richard Loo, Keye Luke, Leonard Strong
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
Plot
This WW II drama is the first to deal with the fateful atomic bomb attack on Japan. Originally, the film centered on the acquisition of a new kind of gun, but as it was in production during the time the Bomb was dropped, the producers were quick to change the story to suit the times. It tells the story of a straight-arrow American pilot who was raised in Japan and is asked to return there to get a captured scientist to garner valuable information about the A-bomb. The pilot, Major Ross, realizes that he will not survive the mission, but as he has just lost his lover, he cares little for life. Before he goes, his face is surgically altered so he looks Japanese and he then infiltrates the camp where the scientist is being held. There he finds his girl friend, an army nurse, who has also been captured. Unfortunately, she has fallen in love with a fellow inmate. The determined Major Ross remains focused and completes his mission, but not before encountering considerable danger at the hands of enemy officers. The end of the film features actual newsreel footage of nuclear bombings from Pathe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Benson Fong - Capt. Tanahe; Keye Chang - Capt. Soto; Michael St. Angel - Capt. Andrew Kent; Spencer Chan; Peter Chong - Dr. Kai Koon; Wallis Clark - Dr. Langley; Marc Cramer - Lewis Jardine; Gwen Crawford; Bruce Edwards - Capt. Harris; Paul Fung - Capt. Yamanashi; Edmund Glover; John Hamilton - Dr. Stacey; Russell Hicks - Col. Thompson; Selmar Jackson - Col. Blaine; Joseph Kim - Sgt. Osami; George Lee - Chinese Captain; James B. Leong - Bits; Weaver Levy; Clarence Lung - Maj. Ichabo; Tom Neal - Major Ross; Ione Reed; George Chung; Robert Clarke; Albert Law - Japanese Pilot; Harry Anderson - Sub Commander; Tommy Lee - Japanese Sentry; Gerald Pierce - Waist Gunner; Dorothy Curtis; Betty Gillette; Jim Jordan - Prisoner; Eddie Luke - Ling Wan; Ralph Stein - Bellhop; Johnny Strong; Richard Wang; Artarne Wong; Thomas Quon Woo
Credit
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Walter E. Keller - Art Director, Gordon M. Douglas - Director, Philip Martin - Editor, Leigh Harline - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Maurice Seiderman - Makeup, Harry J. Wild - Cinematographer, Robert J. Bren - Producer, Charles Nields - Set Designer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Vernon Walker - Special Effects, Gladys Atwater - Screen Story, Robert J. Bren - Screenwriter, Bren Atwater - Short Story Author
In the film, the U.S. government assigns Major Steve Ross to receive plastic surgery to appear Japanese; Ross had lived in Japan and is well versed with Japanese culture. The government assigns Ross to rescue Lewis Jardine, a scientist bearing valuable secrets about the atomic bomb. Ross is also driven by the knowledge that his one true love, Abby, was captured by the Japanese and "is in their hands". Both Abby and Ross's former college roommate, the treacherous Hideko Okanura, are now at the same prison camp where Jardine is being held. Abby (Barbara Hale), does not recognize Steve but senses something strange about the new Japanese soldier from Korea. She detects something about him that makes him different from all the other Japanese who are uniformly portrayed as crazed sadists who, when not busy committing war crimes and stealing, drink themselves into a stupor and then give free rein to their insatiable lust for American women. Okanura, now a colonel in the Japanese army (after attending American universities to steal industrial secrets and plan sabotage), also detects something strangely familiar about his new NCO. In addition to committing acts of non-stop savagery, Okanura enjoys driving his subordinates to suicide and leering at Abby. He then sees a dog chase Major Ross across the prison yard and he remembers where he last saw such "superb open field running". It was in a college football game where Steve Ross excelled. Okanura (played by Richard Loo) also remembered that his American roommate displayed a nervous thumb gesture identical to the one seen in the mysterious new NCO. In the film's "exciting climax", Major Ross places a bomb in the prison camp's factory (where Allied prisoners are being worked to death by vicious Japanese guards who then steal their food). Just as Okanura is on the verge of exposing him at a banquet where movies are shown that were taken by Okanura during his American treachery (including films of Ross playing football), the bomb goes off and throws the camp into confusion. Ross kills Okanura with his bare hands (along with ten other Japanese soldiers who run about shrieking in panic), frees Abby and Jardine and then leads the group to a rendezvous with an US submarine just off shore. At the last second, Steve realizes that he cannot go back to the States "looking like a Jap" and bundles his charges into a boat and then staying behind to help some Korean prisoners kill some more of the "yellow monkeys".
History
Originally the film centered around Ross helping to acquire a new kind of gun. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred during production of the film; the producers subsequently altered the plotline.[1]
