Sous le ciel d'Orient

Randolph Scott gets top billing, but ultimately this is Ruth Warrick's picture. She's a doctor holding together a makeshift hospital in China while its founder (Scott) is on his way back with much needed supplies--and a new wife, to her thinly-veiled disappointment. Having seen Warrick in a few other 1940s films, I can understand why the doc failed to notice her: despite her attractiveness, she never really exuded any sex appeal. But her character is very likable, while the new wife's shallowness becomes apparent within minutes of her entrance. And that's the problem with this picture--too easy. In fact, all it does is lower the audience's opinion of the foolish doctor for not seeing what's painfully apparent even to the other character's who don't speak the language. There's a similar subplot involving another doctor and a nurse, that's equally obvious. A wounded Japanese villain provides more action for the story, whose loose ends get tied up all too neatly and quickly. Either Pearl S. Buck's original novel just wasn't one of her better ones, or this movie doesn't do it justice. Nevertheless, it probably made for a decent lead-in on a double-feature back in the day.

----to fight over Randolph Scott in WWII China. Anthony Quinn, in an early role, plays the leader of the mountain fighters after the Japanese have taken over much of the country.

Scott and Warrick are doctors in hospital at the village that supports the fighters. At the beginning of the film, Scott has gone back to America to raise funds for supplies and while there, meets and marries a spoiled beauty (Drew) and brings her back to the daily air raids and death at the village.

Warrick, who has always loved her fellow doctor, tries to make the best of the situation, but as the weeks go by it becomes clear that Drew only came back with Scott to make him see that he should leave the war zone and come back with her to America.

The verbal cat fight scenes between Warrick and Drew are the best part of the film. The people of the village being herded into the mountain caves during air raids; the fight near the end between the invaders and the mountain fighters and villagers, is handled very well.

Despite the "A" list performers, this was considered a "B" film for the lower half of a double bill in the war years. As a preteen who first saw this the year it came out, I remember the Sat. matinee kids cheering for the good guys and booing the baddies. Watch it for a look at the past. 7/10

One of the most popular American authors of the 20th Century was Pearl S. Buck. A daughter of Presbyterian missionaries in China she developed a real love for the people there and her novels beginning with The Good Earth popularized China and its people in the USA.

Though her work remained popular, Buck never equaled what she did in The Good Earth as literature. She also never took note of other trends developing in China and she became quite the apologist for the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek with both its strengths and weaknesses.

Indirectly Buck was one of the people responsible for the Red Scare and the great question of who lost China in the USA as if it was our's to lose. Her work so popularized the Chinese here that when China went Communist in 1949, the shock was so great that it had to be some kind of conspiracy at work. So we went hunting for the conspirators.

Randolph Scott and Ruth Warrick are the kind of medical missionaries Buck idealized. Ruth's crushing on Randy real bad, but he can't see her except as a work partner. As the film opens he's off in America trying to get better equipment for the mission. Scott brings back a society wife in Ellen Drew also and the hostility between the two women develops immediately. Very similar to the plot line in The Good Earth where Paul Muni takes a second wife, a kind of Chinese trophy wife.

Meanwhile guerrilla leader Anthony Quinn brings a wounded Japanese Colonel played by Richard Loo to the mission. He wants him healed so he can be tried for war crime atrocities, a very early mention of that concept.

Loo made a career in playing nasty Japanese folks during World War II and after. Played them all with a Fu Manchu kind of sneer. He's a shrewd article though as he works on the jealousies of both Drew and Korean doctor Philip Ahn who's crushing out himself on Carol Thurston who has eyes for Quinn.

Romance, jealousy, and war are the hallmarks of China Sky. This story set in a remote corner of western China is a bit much to believe. Spoiled society brat that she is, the viewer is going to have a lot of trouble with Drew's pouting about the fact that this little village ain't Park Avenue. Was she that dumb that she didn't know what she was getting into?

Today we could never get away with casting occidental types like Anthony Quinn and Carol Thurston as Chinese even though both give fine performances. Quinn especially. Quinn, Jose Ferrer, and J. Carrol Naish probably played more ethnic types than any other players in film history.

War of some kind was a factor in China from the overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty in 1911 until the Communists won in 1949. The issues are very complex and a film like China Sky isn't the venue for a discussion of same.

Randolph Scott started off his career in a variety of 1930s films, and when WWII started, he supported the troops (since an injury from the previous war prevented him from obtaining a commission) both by live performances and by making war pictures. Of course, in the 1950s, he exclusively made westerns. So if you want to catch him playing a medical doctor, you've only got two chances: Broken Dreams and China Sky.

In China Sky, Scottie runs a hospital in war-torn China. He's competent, fair, understanding, and has the love of a good woman by his side - only he doesn't know it. His faithful nurse, Ruth Warrick, is totally (and silently) in love with him. She knows his only passion is medicine, and during the uncertain wartime years, he couldn't possibly think of anything else but helping the wounded. Or can he?

I really liked this movie. It's not your typical war movie, and it's not your typical medical drama. The romance, while not the main focal point, is also compelling. Scottie does a great job, speaking Chinese and convincing the audience that he knows what he's doing on the operating table. If you only know him from his westerns, rent this movie. You'll also see a large number of Asian actors (and Anthony Quinn in his pre-stardom) with sizable parts, which was very unusual at the time and very much appreciated: Richard Loo, Benson Fong, H. T. Tsiang, and of course veteran actor Philip Ahn.

China has been fighting for eight years against the Japanese. Dr. Gray Thompson (Randolph Scott) and Dr. Sara Durand (Ruth Warrick) are struggling to maintain their hospital with the war approaching. To her surprise, Gray is return with a wife (Ellen Drew). Chen-Ta (Anthony Quinn), leader of the local militia, brings in an injured Japanese war criminal.

This is old Hollywood and its yellow-face acting. It's not the best look and has not aged well. They do have some Asian actors in lesser roles. I was going to complain about Dr. Kim but there is a reason to have a Korean in the mix. As for the three white roles, I don't like the glam-up. It really doesn't fit the harsh reality of war. I can see the wife being a fish out of water. The other two should not be well dressed at all. It really destroys the realism of the war. At the end of the day, this is a propaganda film in the closing days of the war. It shows the dire war situation in China but the pulpy love triangle is bothersome. It is less than what it should be.