Blood Alley (1955)

An American merchant marine captain ferries a group of Chinese refugess down the Yangtze River to escape the Communists.Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 085391158578 Manufacturer No: 115857 Product Description

"Powder your nose, Baby!"

BLOOD ALLEY (directed in 1955 by William A. Wellman and produced by John Wayne's film company Batjac) is one of the more unusual John Wayne adventures of the period. Set in Communist-run China, Wayne plays Tom Wilder, a sea captain assigned the task of taking a boatload of Chinese refugees to the safety of the Hong Kong harbour. To do so he must guide the boat down the dangerous 300-mile waterway known as 'Blood Alley'...

Also along for the ride is Lauren Bacall. She provides a much-welcome presence as Cathy Grainger, the daughter of a local doctor who has been murdered by the Communist regime. The cast also includes familiar Batjac personalities Joy Kim ("The High and the Mighty"), Anita Ekberg ("Man in the Vault"), Paul Fix and Barry Kroeger.

Although John Wayne's Batjac production company bankrolled the film, Robert Mitchum was originally-cast in the role of Captain Wilder; but he was later fired following a violent on-set incident. Both Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart (Bacall's real-life husband) were considered until it became necessary for John Wayne himself to step into the role.

Released hot on the heels of the previous years' John Wayne/William A. Wellman collaboration "The High and the Mighty" (1954), BLOOD ALLEY did very well at the box office, earning great notices for it's stars Wayne and Lauren Bacall. The timely political theme of the story had a lot to do with it's resonance with film audiences of the period. Today, we can still enjoy BLOOD ALLEY for it's tense action scenes, stunning CinemaScope photography and the memorable chemistry of Wayne and Bacall (they were later reunited in 1976 for "The Shootist"). Highly-recommended.

(Single-sided, dual-layer disc). February 28, 2008

John Wayne vs. Chinese Communists

In the 1950s, patriotic, conservative actor John Wayne joined the bandwagon of those who believed that Communism was a serious threat to the U.S. These were the days of the cold war and McCarthyism. While some, such as Senator McCarthy, used the "Red Scare" for political purposes, there were those, such as Wayne, who were sincerely concerned about Communist threats. Historians are still debating whether the threats were real or not. It didn't matter to John Wayne or studio head Jack Warner, who agreed to make a series of films dealing with the perceived dangers of Communism.

Some of the anti-communist films Wayne made for Warner Brothers, such as "Big Jim McLain," seem very dated and even silly at times, but "Blood Alley" remains a good action adventure film with some real twists. Wayne again worked with veteran director "Wild Bill" Wellman, who had directed one of Wayne's most popular films, "The High and The Mighty," the previous year (1954). Wellman, who had directed the first film to win a Best Picture Oscar way back in 1927, "Wings," was nearing the end of his career. Although Wellman's energies were clearly diminishing, he still managed to put some exciting touches into the film, along with charm and humor, as he depicted how Wayne led a group of Chinese villagers to freedom on a battered, aging ferryboat, from the People's Republic of China to Hong Kong (then still a British crown colony).

Wayne was paired for the first time with Lauren Bacall, who was then married to the legendary Humphrey Bogart. (Years later, they again worked together in John Wayne's final film, "The Shootist.") While the romantic elements are shaky in the film, they clearly worked well together. Bacall often played strong, determined women and this is one of her better performances. Wayne and Bacall were joined by a mostly Chinese cast, along with an emerging young actress named Anita Ekberg, who would later achieve some notoriety in her famous wading scene in "La Dolce Vita." Try and spot Ekberg in the film; she is heavily made-up as a Chinese villager. Another non-Chinese actor in the film is beefy Mike Mazurki, who often played heavies or sidekicks in films; this is one of Mike's more likeable characters, as he assists Wayne on the ferryboat.

Of all of Wayne's anticommunist films, "Blood Alley" is probably the best because it is entertaining and exciting. Underscoring the action is a very enchanting musical score by Roy Webb, who benefited from the excellent Warner Brothers studio orchestra. June 14, 2007

:)

This is so cheesy and hammy, that I love it. Also, it helps that is was shot quite beautifully. "The bleeding heart of China--you can pin one on me, baby." Or something to that effect. Delightful cheese. April 10, 2007

Blood Alley

I enjoyed the movie, even though I have seen it many times, it is still an excellent movie to watch. Lauren Bacall and John Wayne are some of my favorite actors. February 12, 2007

John Wayne does The African Queen--in China

This is probably one of Wayne's lesser-known films, but it's still a good thrilling adventure. He plays Tom Wilder, an "old China hand" who has been knocking around the seacoast of China in just about anything that will float for most of his adult life--until the Chinese Communists took over, confiscated his old freighter, and imprisoned him for two years. All that has kept him sane and unbrainwashed is his imaginary companion, "Baby," to whom he talks throughout the film. Without warning he gets a mysterious note advising him on escape. Provided with a Russian uniform and a handgun, he slips out of the prison and is ferried by sampan to the village of Chiku Shan, whose people, led by elder Mr. Tso (Paul Fix) and their American friend Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall), daughter of a doctor who has recently been shanghaied off to treat an important commissar, have made up their collective mind to defect en masse to Hong Kong. What's more, they have a plan: hijack an ancient sternwheel ferryboat (on which Tso's nephew, the American-trained Tack (Henry Nakamura), is Chief Engineer) that plies the straits to Amoy. But, with no charts, they need a captain/navigator, and that's where Wilder comes in.

The creativity with which Wilder and the villagers carry out their program is perhaps the best part of the film. (Watch for the way they trap and cripple the local patrol gunboat to give themselves time to get away.) But even before they set out, there's peril from the Reds (a detachment of their soldiers searches the village for Wilder, who bayonets a straggler when he attempts to assault Cathy) and the necessity of working out from memory a crude chart of the course the boat will have to follow (which Wilder does on the back of one of Dr. Grainger's anatomical charts, furnished by Cathy's maid SuSu (Joy Kim)). There's also the issue of the Fengs, the local collaborationist family, who have to be taken along because the Reds would blame them for the escape of the village and probably kill them all--"even the little ones." The ferry herself--a 19th-Century vintage craft manufactured in Sacramento and named after their abandoned home by the villagers--is almost as much a character as any of the people, and they too make the movie worth a look: SuSu, who tries to get Wilder interested in "Missy Cathy" and, when he jokingly turns the tables on her and claims it's she who sets him afire, indignantly tells Cathy that "Captain Sailor-Man" is "clazy...full of ginger;" Tack, a slangy, cigar-smoking expert who can make his ship do things she wasn't designed for and has trained a "black gang" (engine-room crew) consisting entirely of his own cousins right under the nose of his Communist captain; Old Feng, who persuades his family to poison the refugees' food supply; scholarly Mr. Tso; and tough, loyal Big Han (Mike Mazurki), whose cheerful presence brightens several scenes. There's an "African Queen"-ish sequence in which the villagers, male and female together, literally cordelle the ferry through the reed marshes like a keelboat in order not to betray her presence by burning fuel, and a thrilling battle in the wheelhouse in the midst of a raging thunderstorm when two of the Fengs try to overpower Wilder at the wheel, only to be foiled when Tack, in the engine room, hears the ruckus through the speaking tube and sends up a couple of his cousins as reinforcements. And the sequence in which the villagers come aboard--bringing with them all their goods and chattels, from pigs and goats and poultry to carved furniture and golden household Buddhas to several small machine guns acquired Heaven-knows-how--is reminsicent of a similar scene in Heston's "Ten Commandments." Though no longer Politically Correct in these days of official recognition of "the Mainland," it's a good adventure film and one families can enjoy together. June 20, 2006

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