Post by neferetus on Sept 18, 2010 16:43:49 GMT -5
Not one of John Waynes better films, BLOOD ALLEY may be remembered as the first film from the Duke's BATJAC production company.
Wayne stars as a sea captain who gets broken out of a Chinese communist prison so that he can help a fishing village of free Chinese escape to Hong Kong on an old paddle wheeler. Lauren Bacall plays the daughter of a missionary doctor and is Wayne's love interest throughout the picture. At least they seem to have some believable chemistry onscreen.
Unfortunately for the picture, Wayne chose to cast some of his old cronies like Paul Fix, Mike Mazurki, and Berry Kroeger to portray very unconvincing Chinese characters and this hurts the story's believability. Then he chose blonde bombshell Anita Ekberg to portray one of the Chinese women. Now-a-days, you could never get away with such miscasting.
BLOOD ALLEY is a film that you might not mind watching one time, but it's certainly not one you will want in your DVD player ever again. So, as a word to the wise, RENT, don't BUY.
Wayne stars as a sea captain who gets broken out of a Chinese communist prison so that he can help a fishing village of free Chinese escape to Hong Kong on an old paddle wheeler. Lauren Bacall plays the daughter of a missionary doctor and is Wayne's love interest throughout the picture. At least they seem to have some believable chemistry onscreen.
Unfortunately for the picture, Wayne chose to cast some of his old cronies like Paul Fix, Mike Mazurki, and Berry Kroeger to portray very unconvincing Chinese characters and this hurts the story's believability. Then he chose blonde bombshell Anita Ekberg to portray one of the Chinese women. Now-a-days, you could never get away with such miscasting.
BLOOD ALLEY is a film that you might not mind watching one time, but it's certainly not one you will want in your DVD player ever again. So, as a word to the wise, RENT, don't BUY.
