Ace photographer John Alton contributes the main reason a movie enthusiast would want to watch this Escape to Burma (1955). Certainly Alton tried his best to make the film look interesting by continually fogging his lens with vines, lattices, trees and what-have-you, but the incredibly stupid script (the deathless dialogue includes this classic of instant informative advice: "The monsoon's coming this way. We'd better find shelter.") is something of a letdown.A selection of ham's delight performances also defeat all of photographer Alton's efforts. Oddly, the movie is currently available on a 5/10 VCI DVD that is not presented in SuperScope and is vastly inferior to the trailer in color saturation. On the same VCI disc is the more noirish "Appointment in Honduras" (1953) in which the players led by churlish Glenn Ford just manage to breathe a bit of life into an implausible screenplay. Solid action footage also helps.

My word, what a lot of old tosh this is. Barbara Stanwyck, languishing deep in the Burmese jungles with just a bunch of superstitious natives and a herd of old elephants for company, finds herself playing hostess to a fugitive Robert Ryan. Ryan's on the run from a dour David Farrar who is convinced he murdered the local rajah's son. Of course it's not long before Stanwyck's swooning in Ryan's arms – that leisurely once-over she gives him when they first meet leaves us in no doubt as to where their relationship will lead, and although Farrar is on the side of the law, he's essentially the bad guy because – guess what? – Ryan didn't kill the Rajah's boy after all! Well, actually he did, but it was a sort of mercy killing, so it doesn't count.Stanwyck's still looked in pretty good shape here – although she doesn't look quite so good when standing next to her young native girl servant if you know what I mean. The decent work must have been running out for her by then though, because although the story is reasonably entertaining, the dialogue is almost laughable – especially in the first few minutes when Stanwyck is looking over her rag-tag legion of elephants. Early on, she's portrayed as this strong, independent woman, off hunting a tiger to ease the natives' nerves, but instead of shooting the tiger she falls over and has to be rescued by big butch Bob and after that she just melts.

The BBC aired this recently and as it was directed by super veteran Allan Dwan I happened to tape it.Ryan plays the typical US macho hero of the fifties, a fightin',shootin'(a Luger no less!) and kissin'guy. Mrs. Stanwyck is the owner of a plantation near Rangoon and she is not to be messed with. Third character is your run-of-the mill British, slightly repressed policeman, on the hunt for Ryan who supposedly has murdered the son of the local potentate.If you are a fan of Dwan's work better skip this one. The only good thing about it is the crisp clear color photography, the rest is pretty embarrassing. Clichéd would be putting it mildly. The script seems to be written in an afternoon and the same can be said of the movie itself.It is a bit unfair to Allan Dwan, as he made countless movies and still turned out some excellent stuff near the end of his very long career, as the classic marine epic "The Sands of Iwo Jima" and the sexy "Slightly Scarlet". So do not judge him on this silly jungle epic.

it must have been quite impressive for it's time - Color film, old-time film noir star B. Stanwyck and film military hero Robert Ryan were the big attractions in this far-away-location B movie; one of the 2-movie pack in the discount bin from TCM. it DOES have crystal-clear color photography andexcellent sound. Lots of messing about with elephants and tigers, and actors reciting monotone lines; the script needed some more zing or something - not much of a plot in the first half, but it gets better as it goes along. This was made about 10 years before Stanwyck's starring role in "Big Valley". Robert Ryan redeemed himself by doing "Longest Day" and "Battle of the Bulge" after this. Directed by Allan Dwan, who had started in 1911 in silents, and had worked his way up in every occupation in the film industry.