Incident in Shanghai

The final quota quickie shot by Fox-British at Wembley, presumably on a standing set - atmospherically lit by Francis Carver - hence it's expensive appearance.

The title employing the singular is misleading as there's plenty else going on as it's largely unknown cast mill about the lobby of a big hotel; including a striking-looking actress called Rita Davies (who never made another film) with an assumed American accent playing a nurse, and a Chinese girl rejoicing in the extraordinary name of Lotus Fragrance.

I'm inserting reviews of films I'v seen that so far lack one, this rarity showed on the fairly new Talking Pictures channel on Sky, which if you like old British films (as I do) is the best thing since Carlton Cinema expired, review follows... Set in a neutral British hospital post near Shanghai during the war between China and Japan, there are a disparate bunch gathered and cut off from the outside world as a the war rages around them, into this mix comes a new nurse, the estranged wife of the doctor in charge, and a handsome English soldier, wounded while fighting for the Chinese, causing more friction…. It's watchable, but has little feel of the exotic orient, that though false is often to be found in US films of the same period. The only name I recognize from the cast is Patrick Barr, here playing assistant to the head doctor, he had a career that spanned more than 50 years, playing supporting roles. There are two notable crew members... Director John Paddy Carstairs, who had a career that spanned 30+ years, his best remembered film probably the Norman Wisdom effort 'The Square Peg (1958)'and Producer Anthony Haverlock-Allen who produced 40+ mostly forgotten films from 1935>39, but hit his stride after the war with some notable films, his career ended with 'Ryan's Daughter' (1970), which got slated by the critics on release, it's reputation having grown over the last 45 years.

At the time this film was made the international settlement in Shanghai was much in the headlines.It was an area inhabited as a refuge by the various foreign colonialists whilst the war raged between the Chinese and the Japanese.It was shown in blockbuster scale some years ago in Empire of the Sun. Despite being made at Pinewood this is very much quota quickie territory.Patrick Barr is a wounded flier fleeing from the Japanese.He falls for the nurse treating him.Unfortunately her estranged husband is treating him and wants him out the way immediately. One can only assume that the writer couldn't work out how to get the film to run the required length as a Chinese variety show fills a few minutes.The story is clichés,and the production is rather poverty stricken but it holds the attention.