Spionage in Fernost

While the entire world watched the early success of the German book ¨Mein Kampf¨ by Adolph Hitler , few were aware of the existence of an Oriental Hitler...Baron Giichi Tanaka , he was a true life a bad guy who united with rich proprietaries and war lords to further his own ends . His plan of world conquest and dominance depended upon secrecy for success. This story deals with its first exposure by an American newspaperman (James Cagney) in Tokyo . Thus , Cagney publishes in a newspaper called ¨Tokyo Chronicle¨ that Tanaka plans attack on United States and China is the first victim of Premier Tanaka's plan for military conquest , revealing the existence of a document blueprint . Besides , marriage Mr. and Mrs. Miller (Wallace Ford and Rosemary DeCamp) have been murdered and Cagney will investigate it . Meanwhile , he falls in love with a charming double spy (Sylvia Sidney) .

This interesting picture combines intrigue , action , violence , noir cinema , historical background and arts martial fights , being the first American film in which there are arts martial (Judo) struggles . The movie is based on the history behind Japan's alleged Tanaka Plan , aka the Tanaka Memorial document , it was made public after his death in 1929 . This allegedly was Prime Minister Baron Giichi Tanaka's militarist strategic plan for world domination prepared for Emperor Hirohito . It was first printed in China by the Chinese communists and in the US by a communist periodical , leading some to think that it was a forgery , no Japanese version has ever been found . Plus , it appears notorious historical characters who will intervene in Second War World , as colonel Tojo (Robert Amstrong) , emperor Hiro Hito , Yamada (Martin Milner) and Tanaka (John Emery) . And film debut of judo/martial arts expert John Halloran . Magnificent Music Score with oriental sounds by the classic composer Miklos Rozsa . The film won Oscars for the best Art Direction and Interior decoration and was produced by Cagney Production . The motion picture was well directed by Frank Lloyd who realized excellent movies (Mutiny of the Bounty, If I were King , Under two flags) . Rating : Good and entertaining .

Not Cagney's best but still interesting enough to watch. The goof or error is that the Tanaka plan, which the story is about and has the Baron Tanaka in the movie is off historically. Cagney dates the time when he says to Slyvia Sidney, " left the US in 1921, spent 2 years somewhere and 10 years in China" That total would make the current time in the movie 1933! Baron Tanaka, died in 1929! The director should have caught this historical error! Although this is not the best movie and revues are not the best, it was Slyvia Sydney's last leading role and for movie buffs it is worth seeing. Overlook the terrible and obviously staged fight scenes and the political errors of the time based on what we know today and you can enjoy it. For movie buffs I think it is worth viewing.

The only reason this film gets as high as a five from me is because of James Cagney who made everything he was in a little bit better or appear to be so.

Blood on the Sun, coming out as it did in 1945 as World War II was ending focused on an incident from 1929. A document called the Tanaka Memorial which was purportedly a memorandum by the then Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi to Emperor Showa was leaked to U.S. media. It laid forth Japanese intentions to dominate the Pacific, Asia, and even the USA.

Problem was that when the Americans did occupy Japan, General MacArthur sent Army intelligence into sifting through Japanese files. Guess what? No Tanaka Memorial. A lot of people now consider the thing to have been a big old hoax perpetrated by the Chinese who were looking for friends back in 1929 because they rightly suspected Japanese intentions towards them.

So Blood in the Sun came out just in time as the belief in the Tanaka Memorial was still credible.

The brothers Cagney, William and James, produced this. But without the production values of the brothers Warner, this film looks like it was shot on the cheap. Jimmy Cagney played Nick Condon, a reporter who got a copy of the Tanaka Memorial and smuggled it out of Japan.

A lot of the cast played Eurasian roles and looked pretty silly too. Sylvia Sidney, John Emery and especially Robert Armstrong who may have conquered King Kong, but couldn't sound Oriental to save his life.

Jimmy Cagney is like a firecracker in this movie, set in pre-WWII Japan. In some ways it's a cross between Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon and sometimes it's silly (e.g., white actors in Japanese makeup), but it's one of the most entertaining movies of its era. It reminds you how much of a talent James Cagney was - he carries the picture. There are also excellent character performances by Wallace Ford and Porter Hall. Even Sylvia Sidney as an unconvincing half-Chinese vixen has some good moments.

Beware of the DVD, however - the audio is mixed so badly that at times you'll have to put your ear up against the TV to hear the dialogue.

After James Cagney won his Academy Award for Best Actor, he broke free of Warner Bros. and began focusing on what he considered to be art. Cagney's own production company made this wartime thriller, and it is one of his better efforts among his 1940's independent works. Cagney plays an American newspaper reporter living in Japan who crosses wires with the expansionist Japanese government. Cagney's character is fluent in both Japanese and Chinese, and even knows judo. It's refreshing to see a film from the immediate post-war era that doesn't try to simplify the problem of what happened in Japan and Germany with something like - If only these people would start playing baseball, learn to love hot dogs, and be more like Americans, this sort of thing would never have happened.

Cagney's character, Nick Condun, has to hide some expansionist Japanese plans from the Japanese government until he can safely get the data to the American embassy. Along the way he finds an ally in half-Chinese Sylvia Sydney's character Iris Hilliard, who becomes Nick's love interest. One thing about the production code you have to understand - interracial love is strictly taboo, so Nick and Iris' love scenes are less than satisfying. At the end of the film they share just the tiniest bit of a kiss.

Cagney is always fun to watch whether he's on an unrighteous or righteous tear, so I'd recommend it even if the script could have perhaps been a little more lively to match the energy of the lead actor.