Bombs Over Burma

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Movie
Original title Bombs Over Burma
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1942
length 65 minutes
Rod
Director Joseph H. Lewis
script Joseph H. Lewis
George Wellington Pardy
Milton Raison
production Alexander-Stern Productions
music Lee Payers
camera Robert E. Cline
cut Charles Henkel jun.
occupation

Bombs Over Burma (too dt . Bombs over Burma ) is an anti- Japanese American propaganda film by director and screenwriter Joseph H. Lewis of 1942.

action

Chungking during the Sino-Japanese War : The school teacher Lin Ying is recruited by the Chinese resistance to protect an Allied transport of aid that is supposed to reach China from neighboring Burma . When one of her young students is killed in front of her eyes in a Japanese bombing raid, her determination to fight for China only grows.

A little later she is part of a group of bus travelers who travel from Lashio in Burma back to Chungking via the “ Burma Road ”. The other travelers are Sir Roger, an envoy from the British government who is accompanied by his sinister Indian servant, the blonde glamor girl Lucy, daughter of an American doctor who gave selfless medical help in the Sino-Japanese War, the American traffic expert Tom, who with Lucy begins a romance during the trip together, the fat Pete Brogranza, who offends everyone else with his vulgarity, and the bus driver Slim, a bitter loser, who gradually becomes friends with Lin Ying as he works for the Chinese Thing increasingly discovered the meaning of life that was previously lacking.

When the bus cannot continue on a destroyed bridge, the group is forced to spend the night in a monastery on the road. During the night, the travelers watch with horror an attack by Japanese airmen who bomb an Allied convoy with such precision that everyone realizes that they must have a spy in their own ranks. Me-Hoi, the Buddhist monk who maintains the monastery, is also initially considered a traitor, but then turns out to be a Chinese campaigner and comes to an understanding with Lin Ying. When Pete observes Sir Roger secretly sabotaging the bus, he takes the opportunity to attempt an extortion, which ends with the Indian servant stabbing him. Although this murder takes place in the presence of all fellow travelers, the perpetrator cannot initially be determined.

By chance, Sir Roger discovers that Me-Hoi is hiding a radio device behind a secret door in the prayer room and claims that the monk must be the traitor. When Lin Ying turns against Sir Roger, he declares her to be Me-Hoi's accomplice. Slim initially believes this accusation and is deeply disappointed in Lin Ying, whom he trusted. But then he discovers that Sir Roger also has a Morse code machine hidden in his electric razor. Now that Slim no longer knows who to believe, Lin Ying asks Sir Roger to prove his innocence by voluntarily taking part in the next aid shipment. Slim and Lin Ying then witness Sir Roger jump out of the truck cabin just as the sounds of an aircraft formation approach. He does not know that Lin Ying set a trap for him: she knew from the start that these were not Japanese, but Allied aircraft. At a signal from Lin Ying, Sir Roger is surrounded and killed by Chinese street workers. The transport can safely reach its Chinese destination.

Stylistic devices

Bombs Over Burma contains documentary footage with everyday Chinese scenes and images of the Sino-Japanese War . The artistically otherwise insignificant film offers the most haunting images in the scene in which Sir Roger, who has been exposed as a traitor, is surrounded by Chinese road construction workers. These workers were previously characterized as heroes who tirelessly repair the streets destroyed by Japanese bombs, thus forming living symbols of the invincibility of stoic China. In a long series of shot-reverse-shot shots, the faces of the honest Chinese - characterized more by curiosity and objectivity than by cruelty - are contrasted with the view of Sir Roger, who finally sinks to his knees, with panic in his deranged clothes and face is written.

Production and theatrical release

As a director and screenwriter for Bombs Over Burma , Alexander-Stern Productions hired the 34-year-old Joseph H. Lewis , who had previously directed mostly westerns and whose best-known film was the film noir Dangerous Passion (1950). As before in Lady from Chungking , Anna May Wong was given the opportunity to play a heroine of the Chinese struggle for freedom who was consistently positive and did not have to die - as Wong's characters almost always did in American films. Noel Madison, who appeared as a Chinese monk in the film, is one of the many white actors who have repeatedly played Asian roles in Hollywood. The previous year he appeared as Japanese in Irving Pichel's thriller Secret Agent of Japan . Leslie Denison played a tiny role in Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 classic To Be or Not to Be . His role as a British traitor was one of the greatest this supporting actor has ever played; The same applies to Nedrick Young, who plays the bus driver Slim in Bombs Over Burma . Dan Seymour is also little known, but had small appearances in Bogart classics such as Casablanca (1942), haben und nichthaben (1944) and Gangster in Key Largo (1948). Teala Loring also belonged to the second guard in Hollywood . She played her most important role in 1946 in Phil Karlsons crime film Dark Alibi .

Bombs Over Burma premiered on June 5, 1942. The Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) took over the distribution. Today the exploitation rights are exercised by the companies Better Television Distribution (television), Oktoberfest Video (video) and Teakwood Video (DVD).

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