(1953)
2
Bruce Eder
Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia Pictures -- who was not known for his expressions of gratitude -- should have kissed Don Siegel for what he did on China Venture. The script, co-authored by producer Anson Bond, Richard Collins, and George Worthing Yates, wasn't much, and had its problems, and Siegel was working from what was obviously a low budget, and with a cast that, except for the three leads, could not have cost any serious amount of money; but he put enough excitement, tension, and energy onto the screen to make audiences feel like they'd just seen something a lot more expensive and ambitious, embracing issues of war and morality, and devotion to duty and sacrifice. The studio-bound jungle is forgivable as well, because Siegel keeps things moving so briskly, bringing the whole thing in at 83 minutes despite a fairly complicated story and five significant players. The movie's sense of momentum wasn't even affected by the unfortunate presence of Edmond O'Brien's somewhat awkward narrator's voice, so powerful is Siegel's forward momentum. The only thing he couldn't beat was the silly tacked-on ending -- which, in 1953 probably made the movie seem suitably topical -- referring to Hiroshima and the American decision to use the atomic bomb, but that was just the final 15 seconds in 83 minutes of hard-as-nails drama and lots of first-rate action and suspense. China Venture ended up being about as good as any of the war dramas being generated by 20th Century Fox -- which had almost a patent on the subject at the time, with movies like Halls of Montezuma and The Desert Fox -- and got there for a lot less money and less obvious promise in its script and story.
China Venture on AllMovie
China Venture (1953)
