This is a American wartime, low budget quickie set in the CBI theater that is more spy story than war film. Somewhat notable for having a woman of color (Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong) headline in a era when Hollywood was usually lily white. I was surprised to see she had a extensive write up in Wikipedia and been active in Europe and the US from the silent era to well after the war. The films opens in a schoolroom where a teacher (Wong) is teaching a class in Mandarin and having trouble from a scamp disrupting her class. She is called away and we get a indication she may be more than what she appears. She returns, switches to English and leads the class in a rousing, if off key, version of Yankee Doodle Dandy which is interrupted by a Japanese air raid. Here is where the low budget lets the movie down, the 'air raid' is mostly made up of stock footage, the bombers look like prewar French 'steampunk' design and a escorting fighter looks like a Brewster Buffalo. There is also newsreel footage of random Chinese fleeing in terror. During the air raid scamp is killed by the fighter strafing the school piling up the pathos. Next we jump cut to some time in the future and school teacher is in Burma about to join a bus load travelling back to China. She is joined by a diverse group of people, the driver is a hard bitten American, a young idealistic American couple, a upper crust Englishman and his Indian man servant, and a comic relief who judging by the accent is either South American or possibly Moroccan. The accent seems to waver a bit so I am not not entirely sure. During the trip the nobility of the Chinese people and the importance of keeping them in the war is stressed. The bus stops at a 'monastery' where a sinister looking monk offers them food and shelter. Many thing now occur, mostly off camera (I said it was low budget) the driver announces that the bus was sabotaged and they are stranded until a new part can be found. A Japanese 'air raid' destroys a passing supply convoy, comic relief is found dead and murder is suspected. Monk has a secret radio behind the alter and having hushed conversations with the school teacher. Englishman finds the radio and denounces the monk and school teacher as spies and orders his man servant to tie them up. School teacher and monk try to convince the driver they are not the spies, the Englishman is. We next see the Englishman (perfidious Albion!) signaling the Japanese with a hand held battery operated razor. Confronted by the diver and school teacher she says she will prove she is loyal by riding in the next convoy and dares them to do as well. So the three jump into the lead truck and they start off. Albion gets more and more nervous the further they go until aircraft engines can be heard over head when he jumps out of the truck and scrambles down a hill. School teacher gets out and whistles and a small army of Chinese farmers and peasants with farm tools slowly surround a now fearful Englishman. Eventually a peasant raises a pick axe and dispatches perfidious Albion. School teacher tells the driver (and the audience) the Englishman was a traitor working for the Germans and helping the Japanese. The planes heard were American driving off the enemy and the movie ends. This was panned by critics of the time, for its low budget, rushed production and overly 'talky' nature though Wong was given high praise. While not a great, or even a good film, I am a little more forgiving as it does show what a war time propaganda movie was like for the home front. As it is available for free on You tube it might be worth a look as something just a little different, but be warned the image quality is not great.
I seem to recall this one. Sir Roger was the traitor, right? I recall the scene where the Chinese peasants slowly, and I mean slowly, close in on him while he looks in turn at each of them closing in.
The quality of the film available makes it difficult but the bombers appear to be Mitsubishi Ki-1 of which over 100 were built. This looked very similar to the Junkers S36/K37 developed in Sweden and it has been alleged (erroneously) that the one was developed from the other. The single engined aircraft that straffs the school looks like a Seversky Type S a 2 seat version of the P35 of which Japan bought 20. This sale brought significant opprobrium upon Seversky and might have had some influence on the change to Republic. Later note - both these types took part in attacks on or around Nanking
