Hong Kong

I like this one. Ronald Reagan, who helped tear down the Berlin wall in real life, battles communism in Asia with this film, although the viewer might not realize that's part of what this film is about. It isn't full of rhetoric, but instead is full of drama. Mostly the film is about an orphaned Chinese boy in the care of an American, Jeff Williams (Reagan). Williams struggles with greed versus human compassion. It is a good human drama with some romance also between the Reagan character and the lovely Victoria Evans played by Rhonda Fleming who did a wonderful job. There is some action in the movie to boot. The little orphan in the movie is adorable for lack of a more macho word from a manly man such as myself. LOL.

If you are fond of the Paramount adventures movies, and there are plenty of them, directed by the likes of Lewis Foster, Edward Ludwig, Jerry Hopper...this one is realy a waste. Ok, there is the atmosphere and the presence of the glamorous, gorgeous Rhonda Fleming, but the story is so lame and predictable. This is the worst of Lewis Foster for me, concerning his adventures yarns. His best was CROSSWINDS, but this one.... It deserves to be watched for a movie buff searching gems from the fifties. So, if you try it, please do it only for the atmosphere. It remains a good time waster. Paramount Pictures usually provided good stuff.

Ronald Reagan has a heart of gold; isn't that swell? In Hong Kong, he plays a thief sent to rob a Chinese boy of a valuable artifact, only to soften up and join forces with his guardian from the orphanage, Rhonda Fleming. He tries to come off as Mr. Smooth at first, but Rhonda doesn't fall for it. Her first priority is always to protect the children, so as she and her charge travel through Hong Kong, Ronnie has to tag along and pretend to be an ally instead of a crook.

If you guess that somewhere along the way, his pretending turns to genuine caring, you're probably a very smart person. Or you've just seen a lot of B-pictures. No offense to the two leads, but they both specialized in B-pictures, so it's a cinch that the four they made together weren't going to win any Oscars. I'm always up for some eye candy, but even I wouldn't recommend this one. It's predictable and neither well written nor believable.

If you're wondering where Indiana Jones came from, here it is. The picture starts off with an American adventurer on a cargo plane in China, a husky, middle-aged Irish-American brunette. He's wearing a brown leather pilot's jacket and a matching fedora, and finds a young Chinese boy stowing away behind some cargo. Except for the extravagant action shots, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom follows the Reagan plot more or less perfectly for the first twenty minutes. I wonder if it was a deliberate rip-off on the part of Spielberg, or a subconscious "homage"?

After that, it's a reasonably pleasant 1950's spy thriller, with the good guy holding off the insidious red menace until the next time, saving both the foxy damsel in distress and the cute little Chinese boy.

A fun watch in and of itself, typical of the times and genre, and interesting as a bit of history, a probably unwitting building block for one of Hollywood's best known series.

Ronald Reagan is teamed with with Rhonda Flemming in this a movie about a jeweled statue during the Chinese war. Reagan gives a fairly wooden performance as the criminal that has a change of heart. I

I did like the fact that it was in color and some of the Hong Kong exterior street scenes appeared to have been done in a studio. It is listed as filmed on location such as the boat scenes.

Reagan wears a leather jacket and Fedora hat that made Harrison Ford famous in the Raiders of the Lost Ark.