Blood Alley (1955) Reviews

• Barrelling Down Blood Alley With The Duke At The Helm!

  gary-peterson2006-03-23

  I was sparked to comment after reading another user comment here that contended Blood Alley is one of John Wayne's worst films. It may not be at the top of the heap, but it's far from the bottom. It well accomplishes what it sets out to do--entertain: fun, engrossing, action-packed and--on the wide-screen edition DVD I have--beautiful to behold. The reviewer especially criticized Wayne's frequent side comments to "Baby" and the film's having non-Orientals playing the Chinese. I didn't find either factor a deterrent to my enjoyment. First, I took Baby to be Wayne's guardian angel more than an imaginary girlfriend. And I think his occasional comment to her was fitting. Yeah, the Captain Wilder got a little dotty after spending all those years alone in that cell. His hangup about "tennis shoes" was another example of his having gone a bit stir crazy. Having non-Orientals play Chinese or Japanese was not uncommon in the Hollywood of yesteryear. Remember Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto? And closer to our time David Carradine in Kung Fu. I never understood why this is a stumbling-block for some people. And in Blood Alley the American actors playing Chinese did a great job. Paul Fix first and foremost gets a nod. He made Mr. Tso a distinct character through mannerisms and distinctive sage-like speech. I especially liked the scene where Captain Wilder told him to toss that ornate sculpture in the furnace to fuel the ship, "That'll burn" Duke says, but Fix calmly notes how a craftsman put 10 years of his life into creating it. Here was a man who respected and had appreciation for the intangible things, like beauty and like freedom, which is what Mr. Tso was risking his life to help his townspeople regain. Mike Mazurki also gets kudos for putting in a great performance as Big Hans. No, he didn't really look Oriental, but he brought weight to his part, especially in his first scene. You could tell that he was a guy you could count on. And for film buffs familiar with Mazurki, wasn't it nice to see him playing a good guy for a change? Finally, the reviewer said Lauren Bacall was wooden. Well, was she ever among Hollywood's most dynamic actresses? I thought she did a good job with what she had to work with. She did seem tacked onto the film and her story was secondary to the main plot. I never did get a firm grasp on the subplot involving her father or why she ran off in the ship graveyard. However, she did sizzle in the scenes in the pilot house, especially when coming between Wilder and the ship's wheel. Yes, this film was not her finest hour, but Bacall certainly redeemed herself in The Shootist and proved she did indeed have an on-screen chemistry with Wayne. Admittedly Blood Alley does not have a place in the crowded pantheon of GREAT John Wayne films, but it is certainly not among his worst! And as a huge fan of the Duke I can't even suggest a film for that dishonor. For me, any film featuring John Wayne is going to be better than most anything else on at the same time.

• Atmospheric comic-strip adventure story.

  rmax3048232007-06-13

  John Wayne is an American sea captain imprisoned by the Chinese Commies for Impure Thoughts and Eating With Forks. He is sprung by Lauren Bacall, an American doctor's daughter who is also the leader of a nearby village. His Mission: To shepherd the entire village of 180 people on a stern-wheeled ferryboat down the Chinest coast to sanctuary in Hong Kong where a man can breathe free and wear something other than ballet slippers on his big Caucasian feet. Of course there is a large family of communists in the village and they must be taken aboard too, to save them from reprisals. They don't seem to appreciate this gesture because they poison the food supply aboard the boat and stage a mutiny during a terrific storm. Well, it's okay, though because they all convert in the end except the pompous, bloated family head who moans his humiliation out loud just before being blown to bits by a shell from a Chinese destroyer. The Chinese villagers are a zany laff riot. They include such dyed-in-the-wool Asians as Paul Fix (Dobbs Ferry, NY), Paul Mazurki (Ukraine), Berry Kroger (Texas), and Anita Ekberg (Sweden). Anita EKBERG? There's also one of those cigar-smoking Oriental wise guys who serves as chief engineer, a pregnant woman, lots of children and old people, and all that. Wayne took over as the star when the director, William Wellman, fired Robert Mitchum for pushing the Transportation Director into San Francisco Bay, claiming it was just "a practical joke." And Wayne hefts his bulk around effectively enough. The visuals are pretty good. The film was shot around San Francisco and Suisun Bay and on the Sacramento River but the production design gives a pretty good imitation of what we imagine the coast of China to look like. Lots of fog. The old paddle-wheeler skulks among the reeds. There is a "graveyard of ships", old hulks piled alongside one another, drying and rotting, where wood for the boiler is gathered. A kid would have a heck of a good time crawling in and out of those skeletal remains. And it's exciting too, though we don't doubt for a moment that the ship and the majority of its crew and passengers will make it to Hong Kong. Wittingly or otherwise the writers have caught some of the features of East Asian culture. When the food is poisoned and must be dumped overboard, the passengers crawl around on the floor picking up individual grains of rice. And the grand ballroom or whatever the compartment is called, serves as a giant bedroom at night with sleeping bodies all over the deck. In the morning, the mats are rolled up, stacked tidily against the bulkheads, and, lo, the bedroom is now the grand ballroom again. I lived with Koreans of modest income for a while and that's kind of how it's done. Every scrap of nutrients is made use of. When they boil rice in a pot of water, the cooking water is served as a beverage along with the rice. And the bedroom cum living room was a simple fact of life. The dialog has nothing much to recommend it. When Wayne is faced with the difficult task of telling Bacall that her father has been stoned to death by the Commies, he slaps her across the jaw and tells her, "That's right. Get mad. Get GOOD and mad. Then ya'll be ready for what I have ta tell ya." Wayne also gives the speech that converts the Commie villagers to capitalism or democracy or whatever they're converted to. "Your old China is dead!" he announces. Actually, we can't be sure he's right. China has a long long history of being conquered by internal or external agencies and it has usually taken them about 500 years to shake off the yokes. The Commies still have 442 years to be gotten rid of. You know what would have given this movie a good kick in the pants? Not that it needs one. But -- okay, Lauren Bacall is good enough in an inessential role. But imagine Gong Li as the doctor's daughter! Whew.

• Satisfying adventure film with a not too subtle political point

  bh_tafe32008-12-11

  Firstly, ignore some of the nonsense complaints about right wing propaganda. If ever a government deserved to have themselves demonised, it was the Communist Chinese Government of the 1950s. Bringing a slant on communism that more closely resembled fascism, they destroyed countless lives and offered the nation very little in return. Secondly, at heart this is a boy's own adventure. Despite the political point all this really does is give John Wayne the chance to cannon down Blood Alley, cracking one liners, not to mention skulls as he tries to get a boat load of hard working, wise cracking Chinese people to the border. And then of course, there's baby. Wayne's imaginary friend who he created to help him survive years of torture. The film is held up by the constraints of the time, getting a lot of Western actors to play the Chinese characters. This was not uncommon, and given that that the yanks weren't supporting China at the time that's another complication. But they do a nice job. Lauren Bacall is the film's weak point, struggling for a reason to be there, she simply comes off looking like a token love interest. That having been said, what's a good adventure without the damsel in distress? This is a good movie, satisfying, wholesome, and only a 20 year old first year uni student who believes that they are the gateway to true knowledge would have a problem with its politics. This is not a snapshot of history trying to show a believable look at Chinese culture and the harrows of torture, it's an action flick. Suspend your disbelief and don't nit pick, John Wayne films are a gift. Just sit back and enjoy. Not essential, but it is an interesting change of pace for the Duke, and if you have two hours free, there's plenty worse films you could invest in.

• The Bleeding Heart of China

  bkoganbing2006-10-18

  When I watch Blood Alley it does make me wonder that if all these people are so dead set on leaving Communist China than who was it that supported Chairman Mao. My answer is a lot of people who wished they hadn't. When Blood Alley came out in 1955 the Chinese Communist takeover was in 1949 and we in this country, rightly or wrongly, were not recognizing them. Maybe the policy was bad, didn't mean the Chinese Communists were any good. Anyway the film is about a sea captain who gets freed from jail in the People's Republic by a village who have hit upon a plan to take themselves to Hong Kong and freedom bag and baggage. The idea is to steal an old river steamboat and have Captain John Wayne pilot the craft down the Formosa straits, or Blood Alley as its called. Lauren Bacall who is the daughter of a medical missionary is along for the ride. Too bad that the Duke and Betty could not get a better film though they sure did do a winner later on in The Shootist. Nevertheless in her memoirs she spoke with great affection for Wayne and how much she enjoyed working with him. One other interesting thing has always struck me. John Wayne did three films with William Wellman and this was the least of them. The other two, The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky are classics containing two of the Duke's best performances. But for whatever reason the Wayne family estate withheld them until last year it rendered discussion about Wayne's acting abilities totally off base. This one which is just a routine action adventure film despite the right wing political message. In addition Wayne is miscast, but in fairness he was pinch hitting for the originally cast Robert Mitchum. Back in those days Wayne and his Batjac production company did produce films with other people in them. One they did produce was Track of the Cat that starred Mitchum and was directed by Bill Wellman. Wellman also directed Mitchum in his breakthrough role in The Story of GI Joe. But Wellman and Mitchum came to a parting of the ways just before the film was to start shooting and Mitchum got canned. That left producer Wayne in a bind and after reportedly offering the role to Humphrey Bogart and Gregory Peck, he did it himself with no changes in the script to accommodate his less cynical screen persona. In fact according to Lee Server's biography of Mitchum, Wayne was to go on his honeymoon with wife number 3, Pilar. It was postponed and Pilar Wayne would not allow the Mitchums in the Wayne home for the time she was married to the Duke, though Mitchum and Wayne were friends. They could be friends, but Mitchum was forbidden to enter her home. Such occidentals as Paul Fix and Mike Mazurki were cast as Chinese in this film as was Berry Kroeger. It could never happen that way again, though Mazurki in fact did have some Oriental blood in his background. As for Communist China or Red China if you prefer, you never hear it referred to in that way any more. That's because the second Mao Tse tung couldn't fog a mirror the Chinese set about becoming good capitalist oligarchs. They pay lip service to the 1949 revolution, but that's about all. Good for them.

• A seafaring soldier of fortune well played by John Wayne takes on a cargo Chinese refugees towards Hong Kong

  ma-cortes2013-07-27

  Exciting flick on the danger waters of the Orient with Wayne as a seasoned merchant Marine Captain undertaking several adventures and risks in Communist China . It deals with a merchant marine captain, named Tom Wilder (mid-career John Wayne, though Robert Mitchum was originally cast but he was fired from the film after an altercation) rescued from the Chinese Communists by local villagers , as he is assigned by Mr Tso (Paul Fix) to carry out a risked mission to transport the whole village to Hong Kong on an ancient paddle steamer . As he must smuggle throughout enemy territory plenty of nasty communist soldiers and cruisers . Along the way Wilder is helped by the sympathetic Big Han (Mike Mazurki , usual partner in John Wayne-John Ford films) and accompanied by a beautiful as well intelligent woman called Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall , she later starred with him again in his last movie 'The Shootist' ,1976,). This enjoyable picture packs thrills , drama , action , sea battles , and results to be pretty entertaining . John Wayne's good vehicle , though Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart turned down the role and to keep his new production company Batjac afloat, Wayne agreed to play Capt. Wilder. Enjoyable acting by Lauren Bacall , there was some surprise when Lauren Bacall agreed to make the movie since she was a left-wing Democrat and the film was right-wing Cold War propaganda ; while John Wayne took the role after Mitchum was fired she expected to clash with him since she was a left-wing Liberal and he was a right-wing Conservative . Having Wayne already disposed of all unfriendly Japanese in the WW2 such as ¨Sands of Iwo Jima¨, ¨Operation Pacific¨ and ¨Flying Leathernecks¨ , this one marked the start of new assignment against any Oriental with Communist leanings such as subsequently did in ¨Green Berets¨ . Agreeable support cast such as Paul Fix playing as Mr. Tso , Mike Mazurki as Big Han and brief appearance by Anita Ekberg as Wei Ling and James Hong as a communist soldier . Colorful and evocative cinematography by William H. Clothier , John Wayne films' usual cameraman . Emotive as well as thrilling musical score by Roy Webb . The motion picture was professionally directed by William A Wellman . Wellman was an expert in all kind of genres as Gangster, drama , Film Noir , Western and adept at comedy as he was at macho material , helming the original ¨ A star is born ¨(1937) (for which he won his only Oscar, for best original story) and the biting satire ¨Nothing sacred¨ (1937) , both of which starred Fredric March for producer David O. Selznick . Both movies were dissections of the fame game, as was his satire ¨Roxie Hart¨ (1942), which reportedly was one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films. During World War Two Wellman continued to make outstanding films, including ¨Ox-Bow incident¨ (1943) and ¨Story of G.I.Joe¨(1945), and after the war he turned out another war classic, ¨Battleground¨ (1949). In the 1950s Wellman's best later films starred John Wayne, including the influential aviation picture ¨The hight and the mighty¨ (1954), for which he achieved his third and last best director Oscar nomination. His final film hearkened back to his World War One service, ¨The Lafayette squadron¨ (1958), which featured the unit in which Wellman had flown . He retired as a director after making the film, reportedly enraged at Warner Bros.' post-production tampering with a movie that meant so much to him .