Konterr
Brilliant and touching
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
Tobias Burrows
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
liscarkat-2
"i think they just want to evilize the Chinese communist government (they may be or not be, now their people are manufacturing for the world)"This, posted above, reflects the attitude of several commenters whose left-wing sphincters reflexively contracted the second they read the name "John Wayne". "Blood Alley" isn't great, and it isn't one of Wayne's best movies, but it's well-made and entertaining enough to be worthy of at least one viewing. As for "evilizing" the Chinese government, Mao Zedong and his regime did a fine job of doing that themselves when their actions resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of their own people, not to mention brutal imprisonment of non-criminals, slavery, stupid agricultural policies that resulted in mass starvation, etc., etc. It's no wonder the people in the film's village wanted to escape. But damn John Wayne and his conservative cronies for making it the background of an escapist adventure movie. Because after all, the death and oppression of countless innocent people that is the legacy of the communists in China is okay, because "now their people are manufacturing for the world", and who is the Duke to say otherwise?
oldblackandwhite
But not the only reason. Blood Alley is actually a very well made old time, action, adventure movie with the anti-communist angle in the background most of the time. It is hardly the "right wing propaganda" some questionable sources have labeled it. Salty skipper John Wayne taking a boatload of freedom-loving Chinamen and Chinawomen down the coast in a rickety tub of a ship to Hong Kong with Lauren Bacall along as an unlikely if pleasant love interest. The concentration is on the adventure, not the politics. Adventure movie was a genre excelled in by both star Wayne and director William A. Wellman, a tough, old World War I veteran, whose credits went back to the silent days and included such top-notch numbers as Wings (1927 AA winner), The Public Enemy (1931), and Battleground (1949).Wellman's direction, if not exactly taut, is precise and on target all the way through. The picture has excellent production values and is impressively filmed. Cimemascope and other 2:35:1 ratios are not exactly the ideal screen shape for good composition, but Wellman and cinematographer William H. Clothier make good use of the extra-wide screen, filling it with full-length shots of ships and panoramic views of the California coast ( well-disguised as the Chinese coast). This movie just missed the gorgeous three-strip Technicolor era, but the Warner Color, which bathes the colors in a nice, unifying blue wash looks better than most other versions of Eastman Color.Good support is given to the stars, especially by an unrecognizable Paul Fix as the Chinese villagers' wise leader, Mike Mazurki as Wayne's right-hand man, and Henry Nakamura as the cigar chomping, Americanized chief engineer. Of course the politically correct gestapo has complained about Occidentals playing Orientals, but, I'm sorry, Fix made a better Chinaman than any real one could have, and he was a reliable character actor already on the payroll. Mazurki makes the best of one of his few good guy rolls and steals practically every scene he is in.One wonders why all the little fellow-travelers, useful fools, and European socialists who find the anti-commie theme so offensive would watch this movie other than to carp about it. Any perusal of literature available describing the picture, including what's on the DVD jacket would reveal its nature. Am I the only veteran who despises that bunch even more that the actual commies? Cold war paranoia, they like to say. A paranoia is defined as an unreasonable fear. It was hardly unreasonable in the 1950's or any other time from 1917 to the fall of the Berlin Wall to think we might have reason to fear the communists. That gang of snot-nose socialist punks who creep around IMDb would be better off taking in some crude pro-commie propaganda movie such as The Battleship Potemkin or Earth, then all agree what great "films" they were -- while holding their wrists flipped and their snouts up in the air.Blood Alley isn't a great movie, but it is a very entertaining adventure story. One more thing -- I don't normally thrive on violence, but I loved it when John Wayne gave it to the Chicom who was raping Laren Bacall in the back with a cuneiform Mosin-Nagant bayonet. Ouch! and good riddance!
romanorum1
Captain Tom Wilder (John Wayne), languishing in a southern Chinese Communist prison and kept sane by his imaginary girlfriend "Baby," is freed from his jailers by a bribe raised by the efforts of local villagers. There is a price. As an experienced sea captain, Wilder is expected to convey the 180 villagers 300 miles down Blood Alley (really the Pearl River or Zhu Jiang: just check a map) to the safety of Hong Kong so that they may escape the machinations of the brutal Chinese Communists. Wilder is initially reluctant: His ship is just an old ferryboat (1885), and he has no maps or charts to navigate a river that has many boat wrecks. The ferryboat is flat-bottomed and reaches a grand total of 8 knots (nautical miles per hour). And yet Wilder is intrigued by the opportunity to outwit the Reds. Time is short, as the ruthless Communist soldiers, searching for Wilder, are terrorizing the villagers. After a trick that ensnares the Communist patrol boat on a high riverbed, Wayne and his passengers are soon on their way down river. Wilder is accompanied by a doctor's daughter, Cathy Grainger (Lauren Bacall), fellow-escapee and love interest. Along the way are many obstacles: gunboats, stormy weather, mutiny, poisoned food, etc. There is a final escape through shallow water aided by a human tow. Through it all you just knew that Wilder would see things through in the end. After all, even though there were over 600 million Chinese, they did not stand a chance against the Duke. Colorful and Entertaining.
ianlouisiana
Sprung from prison to rescue villagers from the grip of the bad guys, Mr Wayne - with a wry grin and a cold eye,gets the job done.Not a cactus,a horse,nor a dancing girl in sight,a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost abandoned in the yard rather than a covered waggon.It's 1955 and the beautiful,tragic country of China is once again being raped by Warlords,this time the Communists. Unlike Gladys Ayward in "The Inn of the sixth happiness",who took "her" Chinese overland,Mr Wayne takes "his" Chinese to freedom by ferryboat,aided by village elder Mr Paul Fix and doctor's daughter Miss Lauren Bacall. "Blood Alley" is a pretty good movie reflecting the time when it was o.k. to think communism a "bad thing" and freedom a "good thing". It has since been beasted by proponents of moral equivalence,but such subtleties were not available to most folk 55 years ago. Subsequently history has judged Mao Tse Tung much more harshly than those who hung his picture on their walls a few years after this picture was made.Clearly he was up there with the other giants of their profession,messrs Stalin and Hitler. Propaganda it may have been,but it had a strong foundation in actuality. Mr Wayne - a year away from his Magnum Opus The Searchers" - fits very comfortably into his role of the slightly eccentric Sea Captain.Miss Bacall seems a little lost,as if she is looking for a hook to hang her characterisation on but failing to find one. Mr Fix in the decidedly politically incorrect part of the village elder is rather touching. I was fully expecting "Blood Alley" to be a Republican rant with a rabid Mr Wayne spitting Commies out of his teeth but was pleasantly surprised. A lot of care has been taken all round in its production and it if far better than you might anticipate.Well worth watching.
