Prisoner of Japan

The Poverty Row Studios Acted Quickly with a Call-To-Arms and did Their Bit to Help Awaken the Sleeping Giant Nation after Japan Rang the Alarm Bell.

Edgar G. Ulmer, now Considered an Influential Author/Director of Any-Budget, Any-Time.

Crafting Out of Seemingly Nothing, Movies that were Poetic Constructions that Entertained Movie-Goers for Decades.

In this Counter-Punch to 12-7-1941, He took $19,000 and Manufactured a Movie that is upon Deep-Reflection much Better than is Given Credit.

While the Acting is Lethargic with Slowly-Paced Dialog and Pauses and tends to Drag, the Film Surprises with Alarming Sound-Effects and Quick-Cutting the Action.

Both of these Types of Flourishes, so Prevalent Today, were Uncommon in 1942.

It Uses Vibrating Sound and Rapid-Editing to Enhance the Film's Lack of Budget and Ulmer Spiced it Up with Inexpensive Creativity.

Slightly Above Average within its Peer-Group, it was an Early Effort for Movies and the War-Time Production of Patriotic Pictures Issued to Inspire.

The Ending is Down-Beat and Sacrificial, but the Message is Clear even to a Pacifist.

Gertrude Michael to Alan Baxter...and American Audiences

"We must fight...Everyone must fight"

Stuffy, set-bound low-budget programmer that shows early promise but then gets bogged down in endless talk. It boils down to a call to pacifists to take up arms and die heroically for their country.

Back in the 1930s and 40s, it was not uncommon to have white folks playing Asians, American Indians and the like. After all, it was the era of Charlie Chan! When seen today, these casting decisions seem insane...and in the case of "Prisoner of Japan", the lead Japanese character is played by Ernst Deutsch--a guy born in Austria-Hungary! Why didn't they just use Deutsch to play a GERMAN bad guy in a different WWII propagnda film?!

The film begins with some US naval officers visiting a small island in the Pacific and having a lovely meal with their American hosts. During this meal, the junior officer sure blabs a lot about secret stuff....which seems incredibly difficult to believe. Then, the Navy folks leave...satisfied that the Bowmans are loyal Americans. However, it's all a ruse...and Japanese soldiers are hidden underneath the house and are operating some sort of radar system.

So why is David Bowman (Alan Baxter) cooperating with the Japanese? Well, he's a complete pacifist and wimp...and will do nothing to fight them in any way. The film clearly is an attack on pacifism and through the course of the movie, it's obvious that it's all about David getting sick and tired of the brutality of the Japanese soldiers and eventually he'll rebell. This is made all the more likely when a plucky American lady (Gertrude Michael) is captured and held by these soldiers....and she keeps needling David to stop being a total wimp!

The budget for this film from tiny Atlantis Pictures was only $19,000--a microscopic budget even for 1942. How could a film possibly be any good when there was no money to pay for competent writers and good actors...as well as a director what wasn't a chimpanzee?! Deutsch looked about as Japanese as a pizza...but the gibberish he spoke sounded a bit Japanesey....and his accent wasn't bad...not that this is a glowing endorsement! The others were just okay...though there was a tendency to overact....and a good director would have re-shot a few of these scenes. Overall, watchable but bad. And it makes you wonder how another studio with better actors, directors and a larger budget could have made this same story.

"Prisoner of Japan" was a hard film to sit through. One could see that it was made by a Poverty Row studio, Atlantis Pictures. But even it was among the lesser of the B studios of the day. Of its half dozen movies in 1942 and 1943, the studio had three with some actors of name. But the screenplays for all of these films are just horrible. I have never seen a high school or college play that had scripts as poor as these.

Besides an awful script, this film has a cast in which the few characters seemed to try to under-perform each other. None were much known in 1942. Only Gertrude Michael, as Toni Chase, seemed to have ever had an acting class. Her role was fair. But Alan Baxter as David Bowman, Ernst Deutsch as Matsuru and Tom Seidel as Ensign Bailey were almost laughably bad. The first two were stiff, wooden and hesitant throughout, and Seidel was like a kindergarten kid in a Navy uniform.

The idea for the plot wasn't a bad one. But the screenplay, sets and all technical aspects of the film are poor quality. Thankfully, it was over in 64 minutes. One had to watch to see the end with the subject and title the film has. But, there's absolutely nothing here at all even for war film addicts.

Now, brace yourself, reader, for here's an example of the dynamite dialog in this film. David Bowman, "I'm afraid." Toni Chase, "David, don't be afraid."

PRC in choosing a title for the film used the exact meaning of words. Our protagonist Alan Baxter is not a prisoner in Japan. But he's a prisoner nonetheless. He's under house arrest on his little plantation in a south sea island that is occupied but not openly by the Japanese.

It suits their purposes that way. Baxter is the son of a noted astronomer and one himself, but he's given way to drink and dissipation and he makes a convenient front for their espionage. Especially with that observatory dear old dad built. Just right for keeping track of American naval traffic and air traffic.

If that wasn't enough the Japanese pretending to be islanders have a nice little cafe with a dragon lady type operator who gently pumps navy people for information. Loose lips do sink ships in this film.

A visit by old friend Gertrude Michael persuades Baxter of his patriotic obligations. I think you can figure out the rest.

Doing this PRC flag waver must have really reminded both Baxter and Michael of better days. Baxter's career role was in Each Dawn I Die where he played the aptly named Polecat Carlisle who sets up James Cagney. Michael is best known for playing Calpurnia in Cecil B. DeMille's production of Cleopatra. This PRC film is about as far from DeMille as you can get.

What can I say, script is ludicrous, acting on the high school level, use of light and shadow to cover up shoddy sets. A model PRC film for sure.