Storia cinese

Good feeling and moving film with awesome acting, rousing score and heartbreaking scenes. Adventure drama and a bit of history with the communist rebellion led by Mao spreading across China. Accompanied by a young native girl (France Nuyen), Father O'Banion (William Holden) travels to China to replace the tenacious Father Bovard (Clifton Webb) a priest who has become too old to take on the mission while following the strife-torn China in the 40s. As a result the pressure from the communists will complicate things. During the Chinese Civil War of 1949, the Communist leader (Robert Lee) constantly harasses the two priests of the remote Catholic mission outpost. They are pursued by Communist forces along the way. How Violators of Human Decency Work Their Terror Countdown!." Chances are, you'll laugh and cheer with maybe here and there a tear¨. Leo McCarey who gave you "Going My Way" and "The Bells of St. Mary's" now brings you his crowning achievement...Funmaking, filmmaking Leo McCarey, who has been delighting the hearts of countless millions, with a succession of merry movies...does it again! It's McCarey! It's Wonderful!

A sensitive and agreeable flm set in China during the Japanese invasion, concerning love, religion, escapades and sacrifice . Dealing with an enjoyable yarn about two priests in China sticking out for their beliefs against the onslaught of communism. China is the evil empire here though it was in fact filmed in England and Wales. The film's sets were the already used in¨The Inn of the Sixth Happiness¨. As 'Variety' noted, more occurs in the final 15 minutes than in the whole of the rest of picture. This is the last of the more than 100 films that make up Leo McCarey's long filmography and who began his career in silent films and accumulated a total of 3 Oscars. On this occasion, however, the director ended up so fed up with the shoot that he left it, 5 days before finishing it, passing the responsibility to his assistant David W. Orton. Curiously, it was also the last film of one of the protagonists, the legendary Clifton Webb, known for 'Laura' and for playing 'Lynn Beldevere' several times, who this time appears without his characteristic moustache.

There are attractive events, adventures, perilous situations , and fun situations throughout the film. Main and support cast are pretty good. William Holden is top-drawer as the obstinate priest O'Banion and outstanding France Nuyen as the sweet and young girl who relentlessly pursues Holden with whom she is deeply in love while providing comic relief. In addition, Clifton Webb is especially excellent as the already tired priest who after a life dedicated to missions has decided to retire and go to his beloved England.

The famed producer, director and author who teased your heart and made it cry for joy, with"The Bells of St. Mary's" "Going My Way" (which won him two Academy Awards) and "The Awful Truth" (which won him another), now takes you away from the everyday with his crowning achievement, "Satan never sleeps¨. Being unevenly but professionally directed by Leo McCarey. He was considered one of the most handsome directors in Hollywood, and some said as good looking as Cary Grant, whom he directed in four films. He is the first director to win three major categories at the Academy Awards : Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing, Original Story, for this Going my way (1944). He directed five Academy Award Best Picture nominees: Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), The awful truth (1937), An affair to remember (1939), his big hit: Going my way (1944) and Bells of St Mary's (1945). Rating Satan never sleeps (1962) 6/10 . Well worth seeing . Essential and indispensable watching for William Holden fans.

Passably entertaining, but often unconvincing, silly, and down-right hokey, Leo McCarey's film of Pearl S. Buck's original screenplay "China Story," "Satan Never Sleeps" takes place during the Communist takeover of China in the late 1940's. Possibly seeking to replicate his success with the Oscar-winning "Going My Way," McCarey tackles the story of a younger priest sent to relieve an aging priest at a remote Chinese mission. However, the charming conflict between Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald is beyond the reach of William Holden and Clifton Webb. Although Webb, in his final screen role, is quite good as crusty Father Bovard, Holden as Father O'Banion is uneven, and neither actor benefits from France Nuyen's annoying presence. The French-Vietnamese Nuyen's Siu Lan, a young Chinese girl with an obsession for Holden, mugs and grins like a schoolgirl in a childish performance that undercuts the film's moral core. Not only does Siu Lan moon over a man obviously twice her age, but she ignores his priestly vows and even suggests he switch religions to attain her goal. The lack of candor between O'Banion and Bovard with regard to Siu Lan's intentions is puzzling, given that the elder priest would have been O'Banion's confessor, and the entire situation could have been cleared at the outset.

The script by Claude Binyon and McCarey himself simplifies Communism and the Chinese Civil War; rather than explore issues and motivations in historical context, the film uses blatant propaganda to paint a good-versus-evil, black-and-white portrait of the period. The propagandist approach was likely Buck's, because she had been refused entry to China during this period. Helming his last film, McCarey directs with a heavy hand and cannot decide between light comedy, tragedy, and political drama; the film abruptly weaves between various moods and succeeds at none. Although poor rear projection and obvious painted backdrops mark the image, Oswald Morris's impressive cinematography captures the Welsh locations that convincingly stand in for rural China.

Marred by a simplistic political backdrop, an unconvincing dynamic between the two priests, and a performance by France Nuyen that grates like fingernails on a blackboard, "Satan Never Sleeps" is not worthy to be the swan song of two cinematic talents: Leo McCarey and Clifton Webb. Both are better remembered for their classics from the 1930's and 1940's. While Holden survived the film to give some remarkable performances in the following decades, Nuyen was relegated to minor roles, principally in television series. Unfortunately, this film is not a high point on any participant's resume.

William Holden (looking disinterested) and fey Clifton Webb are priests in the 1940s serving at a Chinese mission and being terrorized by the Red Chinese Army. Holden is actually being terrorized in another way as well--by twinkling servant Frances Nuyen, who's anxious to snuggle up to the heavy-sighing Man of the Cloth. Director Leo McCarey helmed this adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel as either a comedy-drama or as a drama with a comedic undermining (I'm not sure which, as the tone of the film strays all over the place). There are Communist takeover sequences such as the crucifix thrown on the fire which should be harrowing, but McCarey directs it thoughtlessly, cartoonishly. We never really fear for Holden or Webb's safety because the direction is so dispassionate (and Holden is so laconic) that fear seems nearly unwarranted. I actually found the Nuyen-seducing-Holden scenes more tasteless than the violence, and the pat conclusion is tacked on for silly relief--but by then the viewer has no idea where to stand emotionally with "Satan Never Sleeps". It's a curiosity, but not a particularly good example of one. ** from ****

This film, set in Mao's China during the Communist Revolution proved to be an almost infuriating film to view. It was the final film of Leo McCary's fantastic (and eclectic) directing career ("Duck Soup," "The Bells of St. Mary's). The story centers around a young priest, Father O'Bannion (William Holden) sent to relieve an aging priest in a Chinese mission. He meets a wide-eyed, idealistic young Chinese girl (France Nuyen) along the way. When he arrives at the mission, all hell seems to break loose. Without divulging too much plot...our young priest encounters many battles: fending off the affection of the young girl; remaining true to his faith, and abstaining from self-defense and violence (even under extreme duress); and pleasing his aging sage, the older preist (Clifton Webb). Why did this movie bother me? Well, in a nutshell: the young girl professes her love for Father O'Bannion...and he realizes he must send her off, despite his *true* feelings. Later, a character rapes the young girl while Father O'Bannion can only look on in desperation (after being tied up). After the inital horror, the good Father suscribes to the ideal that the resulting son needs a father. No matter who it is. When the rapist returns to see is his son, O'Bannion more or less encourages the young woman to form a family. This after our new "dad" has watched communists kill his parents in cold blood for the simple act of worshipping Christ. I suppose this movie is "pure to the period." But it's a tough movie to view in this day and age. A rapist is never properly punished. A man supresses his true feelings of love for a woman, who then must live with her attacker "just so the child can have a father." The finale is as wacky as forgiving rape for "family's sake." The charming Nuyen and Holden give solid performances, but the message sent, and the film itself, left me frustrated and somber.

William Holden and Clifton Webb make an engaging pair of priests in China at the time of the 1949 Communist take-over.

Since Holden arrives late to replace Webb at the mission, the latter isn't able to get out in time as the Communist forces invade.

This is a story of how 2 different priests in the way of Crosby and Fitzgerald in "Going My Way" come to know one another under such adverse conditions.

The film succeeds due to its depiction of the eventual disillusionment towards Communism of a Chinese person who almost became a priest before being totally brainwashed by the Red system.

France Nuyen is absolutely wonderful as the young girl, who is saved by the Holden character and refuses to leave him. There is definitely a comic take to this fine film as Priest Webb will eventually think that her unborn child is that of Father O'Banion (Holden)

The film shows how the Communists would go to any length, including murder to get their point across. It shows how individual thought is done away with under the Communist system.