It's hard to believe that this cliched, relentlessly melodramatic triangle hospital soaper had its genesis in a novel by Nobel-prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck. True, it is set against a rather realistic WW2 background. The RKO miniatures specialists and the stock footage department work overtime to blow up buildings and wreak destruction. But few people will swallow either the main plot or its two equally hackneyed sub-plots, one involving a ridiculously caricatured Japanese colonel (played with heavily theatrical over-emphasis by Richard Loo), the other featuring Anthony Quinn under Oriental make-up as a loyalist resistance fighter. Poor Philip Ahn is caught in the middle of both sub-plots, but even he can do little with his radio-serial lines and weak-kneed characterization. Ellen Drew has the thankless role of the unsympathetic wife, while Ruth Warrick dispenses blank goody-goodiness, and Randolph Scott doctors on doggedly. As for Ducky Louie, Carol Thurston and the rest of the mainly Chinese players, we will pass over their efforts in silence. By some quirk that is difficult to understand from today's perspective, China Sky was quite successful at the box-office. I would have thought it fell between two stools - too much action for the girls, far too much soppy romance for the boys.The Director: Known as a reliable work-horse, Ray Enright was under contract to Warner Bros. from 1929 to 1941. Enright commenced freelancing in 1942 with his best-known film The Spoilers, starring John Wayne and Randolph Scott. In fact he seems to have reached his stride with westerns such as Trail Street, Albuquerque, Coroner Creek, South of St Louis, Montana, Kansas Raiders and Flaming Feather.

This film is an interesting mix of what you'd expect, but then what you do not. We not only have Anthony Quinn playing an Asian, we have Korean actors playing Japanese. Scott is playing a hero, and actually brings his role as a Doctor over so much that it is convincing. Rather than list the cast, let's just say everyone is quite effective from Scott and Warrick to the young boy playing the Goat. The story is based on a novel about the war in Asia and this film is one of the earlier ones about that part of the war.. Scott, the American Doctor who is coming back a hero, from the US raising money for his Hospital, near the front with the Japanese in China. He brings a new wife who is not quite ready for the facing pf air raids, and wants to take her huband away from there back to the US. The plot gets a bit more twisted bacause of the beautiful woman doctor he works with, the Chinese Doctor and the Japanese War Prisoner. Couple those with the Chinese Undergound and there are a few twists.The best thing about the film is the fighting sequences look better here than in other war films made this decade. The diverse cast brings off a good film despite the fact they are playing roles other than the expected ones. The love and tragic story is done pretty well. One major flaw though, late in the film Scott gets shot, and then in the next scene and the rest of the film, there is no sign he was ever wounded.

If you are looking for a faithful telling of a Pearl Buck novel, my guess is (though I have not read Buck) that this is not it. If you are looking for a typical Hollywood melodrama -- albeit set in China -- then you'll probably enjoy this flick. I rather liked it.It's a love triangle between an American male doctor (Randolph Scott), a female American doctor (Ruth Warrick) who is subtly in love with him, and a new American wife (Ellen Drew) who has other plans for her new husband that do not include China.The cast here is quite strong. I always preferred Randolph Scott in this era of his career, rather than later when he mostly did Westerns. He's very good here as the romantic lead.Ruth Warrick is really good as Dr. Sara Durand. I was not very familiar with her, but -- at least here -- I enjoyed her performance.I couldn't quite decide if I disliked Ellen Drew as Louise Thompson, or I just disliked her role. At any rate, she plays it for all its worth.Anthony Quinn is very interesting here as a sort of Chinese war lord. He actually looks authentic (with the eye makeup), and of course, this was that era in his career when he played a variety of ethnic characters.Carol Thurston as a Chinese nurse is interesting. Made up well, she appeared to be Chinese.Richard Loo as Colonel Yasuda -- the evil Japanese -- overplays the role a bit by always shining his teeth in a way that's very unreal.Ducky Louie is a heck of a good Chinese child actor.Philip Ahn as a Koren-Japanese doctor is very good and brings some intrigue into the film in a sub plot.I enjoyed this film as a slightly different angle of a World War II romance.

Filmed as WWII in the Pacific was coming to a conclusion, this adaptation of the Pearl Buck novel of the same name deals with the Japanese invasion of China some years before WWII began. The reviews here thus far have been pretty negative, sometimes scathing. My review will be more positive.I haven't read the novel. However, I did consult a summary. The film follows the novel in most respects , until the last part, when the Japanese paratrooper invasion is added, and the ending is changed to more conform to the expectations of a morality play. Buck's traitorous Chinese Dr. Chung is transformed into the traitorous Korean-Japanese Dr. Kim, apparently for political reasons. His equally traitorous brother is deleted, as is Ya-ching: a nurse having an affair with Dr. Chung, while he is courting the more desirable intern Siu-mei, as dramatized. Siu-mei's father, who doesn't like Dr. Chung, and approves her infatuation with guerrilla leader Chen-ta, is also deleted. The Englishman in a nearby town, who develops an affair with Louise: the bored socialite wife of missionary Dr. Thompson, is also deleted. Thus, the several romantic triangles in the film are actually more complicated in the novel, with deleted characters also involved.The screenplay takes place exclusively in and around a fictional Chinese village, in a region with many caves, which come in handy as safe havens when bombs are dropped on the village(a frequent occurrence). They also serve as hideouts of the local guerrilla forces, and for making and storing their munitions and other necessities.Dr. Gray Thompson(Scott), from a wealthy family, chose to spearhead the building of a mission hospital in this village, which the Japanese consider rather important, but their ground troops haven't yet reached it. However, he's back in the US, securing additional funding and equipment. Meanwhile, American doctor Sara Durand is in charge of the hospital, with supposedly full Korean Dr. Kim in charge of the men's section. Kim is disgruntled that he is under the authority of a woman: something unheard of in Korea. Sara clearly is upset when she receives a telegram that Gray will arrive, with his(new ) wife, Louise . It doesn't take Louise long to imagine that Sara was hoping to eventually become Gray's wife, although Gray had shown no signs of thinking of her in a romantic way. Louise becomes increasingly paranoid about a denied romantic relationship between the 2, as they spend most of their waking hours in the hospital. Also, she much fears (with good reason) the frequent bombings, and feels no connection with the Chinese or her surroundings. Gray tries to reassure her of his love, and balks at her demand to quit this life and return to the US.Meanwhile, Dr. Kim feels alienated by the evidence that his girlfriend , intern Siu-mei, actually more likes guerilla chief Chen-ta. Thus, he finally gives in to the requests of captured hospitalized Japanese Colonel Yasuda that he make him seem more sick than he is, to delay a public trial as a war criminal, and to arrange for a telegram to be sent to the Japanese military. Louise unknowingly becomes involved in this plot when Kim claims he can arrange for a plane to take her and Gray safely out of China. Kim thinks Yasuda's idea is that he will also be on this plane., But actually, the coded telegram that Yasuda has written asks for a paratrooper drop. After house boy 'Little Goat' reveals what he has seen, Gray gets very suspicious of some dealing between Kim and Yasuda, and confronts them. Yasuda pulls out a stolen pistol and shoots at them, killing Kim, escaping to meet the paratroopers. Gray quickly organizes a village defense against the Japs, and Chen Ta rallies his cavalry to ride to the village. A battle ensures, with the Japanese presumably eventually being vanquished, although this is not shown. During the battle, Louise, in the hospital, becomes hysterical, partly from her indirect role in summoning the paratroopers. She rushes outside, into the line of fire, presumably trying to reach Gray, and is shot dead by the Japs, thus ending Gray's romantic dilemma. Siu-Mei's romantic dilemma is also solved by Kim's death.(In the novel, Louise returns to the U.S. without Gray).Most reviewers here decry the casting of Mexican Anthony Quinn as Chen-Ta, as an intolerable phoniness. Well, in his career, Quinn was cast as many types of ethnics, including a Berber chieftain, and even the Prophet Muhammad. But, he always looked basically Mexican. At least, he was made up to look more oriental than was Peter Lorre, in "They Met in Bombay", and later in "Around the World in 80 Days". Caucasian Carol Thurston, who also commonly was cast as various ethnics, was acceptably made up to look Chinese. Young Ducky Louie, as houseboy 'Little Goat', provided some reprieve from the tense drama, with his charm and rapport with Scott. I thought Scott, Ruth Warwick, as Sarah, and Ellen Drew, as Louise, played their roles well. Richard Loo overdoes his characterization of a despicable Japanese, but consider the mindset of most Americans and Chinese at this time. Some complain there's not enough action. How many times do you want the Japs to bomb his village? What about the battle near the end, not to mention the frequent battles between the main characters before. With a little more care in the screenplay and production, this could have been a first rate drama, with an exotic setting, to add interest.