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Escape to Burma More at IMDbPro »

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
B-movie fun as only the 50s could deliver., 2 April 1999

Author: dinky-4 from Minneapolis

Homer Dickens in his book, "The Films of Barbara Stanwyck," suggests this is one of the low points in Stanwyck's film career but it's entertaining in a Saturday-matinée sort of way and has --considering its low budget -- colorful and exotic backgrounds. (True, these backgrounds have the look of studio sets but that only adds to an air of calculated escapism. The tiger hunt scenes, by the way, were filmed in Thousand Oaks, California, at the World Animal Jungle Compound.) The movie reaches a climax in the last reel when Robert Ryan, stripped to the waist and looking pretty good for a man in his 40s, is flogged across the back by a pair of enthusiastic whippers. Apparently he's been sentenced to death-by-flogging by the local potentate but this apprehension may not be quite correct. Some evidence suggests that the script's original plan was to have the potentate's men flog Ryan and then execute him by beheading but any mention of the "beheading" part of the potentate's sentence got left on the cutting-room floor. In any case, it's a memorable flogging scene and it ranks 20th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies."

13 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining adventure fare., 27 May 2004

Author: Hotstar from Stockport, England

Escape to Burma is just one of a series of adventure features starring the estimable Barbara Stanwyck. However, where this film stands out above many of her other pictures from this period is that the supporting cast can actually act.

In fact, the male actors Robert Ryan and David Farrar, are so good in their roles as outlaw and law enforcer that they almost overshadow the matriarch Stanwyck herself. Almost.

Escape to Burma is standard Hollywood fare, but entertaining nevertheless; ideal for a rainy day. There are much worse ways to spend 85 minutes.

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
stanwyck and ryan in color, exotic-locale movie, 4 September 2009

Author: ksf-2 from southwest US

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.

8 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A strange, refreshing film from undervalued maestro Dwan., 19 April 2001

Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland

It is one of the cliches of mainstream Hollywood cinema that the desire of the hero is limited to two options - a good girl (marriage, security, family, society), and a bad girl (lust, transgression). In this scenario, women are barely people at all, more embodiments of Law and Desire, the socially acceptable and unacceptable.

Not the least of this brilliant film's achievements is the way it transfers this cliche to the heroine, making it new and strange. It is the two male characters who represent the two options open to the woman - Robert Ryan is the outlaw, suspected murderer and jewel thief, sexually direct; David Farrer is the policeman, punctiliously obeisant to the law, sexually repressed.

Ryan hasn't stepped foot in Barbara Stanwyk's elephant ranch before he's made himself at home, made her frankly voracious and got her talking about 'marriage', which we suspect has little to do with religious ceremonies. Farrer no sooner arrives then he wants to take a man home with him. The film's most striking scene occurs near the climax, in the symbolic space of an abandoned, monkey infested Buddhist temple, the two men grappling like Lawrentian blood brothers, and Stanwyk gaping hungrily on, absolutely thrilled.

This central twist is part of the film's wider iconoclasm. Like more renowned peers (Minnelli, Sirk etc.), Dwan takes reactionary material and dismantles it. Firstly, the film offers an odd mish-mash of genres. The film is supposedly set in Burma and its environs, but this is an Orient in the tradition of Powell and Pressburger, the hero of whose 'Black Narcissus' stars here (Farrer).

Whereas 'Narcissus' was a work of complete, defiant artifice, 'Escape' offers a disturbing clash between real location footage and cramped studio sets, often within the one scene which, especially in action sequences, has a jarring, alienating effect. The most notable example occurs early on, when Ryan and Stanwyk hunt a marauding tiger - the effect takes us out of the 'realistic' adventure and alerts us to a more symbolic plane.

Although the film is set in the east, the three genres it evokes originate much further away. Even though the film is an action adventure - and a very exciting one, full of chases, gun-fights and dangerous animals - it is also a melodrama, about a lonely woman stranded in the middle of nowhere, powerful but so starved of 'companionship' she'll attach herself to the first man who comes along. Some of the lighting effects and careful compositions recall the contemporary melodramas of Sirk. The film also belongs to the jungle sub-genre, full of thick forests and animals being cute.

Most important, however, the film is a transposed Western, with Ryan as the outlaw hiding out in Stanwyk's ranch, and Farrer the sherriff sent to being him back. Except, like Ray's 'Johnny Guitar', the colour, the mise-en-scene, the extravagant sexual rituals tend to undermine macho Western self-importance; a female 'Eastern' reflecting back the male Western.

As the scene I mentioned earlier suggests - the brawl in the temple - the idea of play figures throughout, with narrative action turned into ritual or theatre, with extras, ceremonial gestures, and, most importantly, an audience. The most alarming of these is Ryan's torture, but throughout there is an emphasis on people watching, usually obscurely, through gaps and grills, or being framed in proscenium arches within the narrative frame.

Another motif alerting us to mistrust appearances is the mirror- so often a symbol of metamorphosis or revelation; actual mirrors co-exist with mirroring scenes, for example the symmetrical skulking of Stanwyk and the tiger watched by Ryan (doubly mirrored and reversed in the temple scene)

10 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Camp as a row of tents or Alan Dwan's senior moment?Or both., 2 May 2006

Author: ianlouisiana from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I suspect you have to possess a highly-developed sense of camp to truly appreciate "Escape to Burma".Judged by nearly all conventional standards it is quite dreadful.Poverty Row production values,laughable performances, sub "Sanders of the River" script and a storyline William S.Hart would have rejected as being old-hat are all presented with a straight face. It was made by a man who directed his first film in 1911 and who lived to see Ronald Reagan become president.Ludicrously considered by some back in the sixties as an auteur,Mr Alan Dwan was a journeyman director who spent 50 years doing hackwork in the studios.Whilst respecting,at least quantitavely,his output,there is very little in it that suggests he ever did more than take the money and run.He bought the product in on time and under budget;period.Presumably in the spirit of post-modern irony praise has been heaped on "Escape to Burma" for portraying its heroine as an unprincipled man-hungry bitch - a giant leap for womankind indeed. Miss Barbara Stanwyck tackles this role with gusto and strides about the set barking orders to her mahouts with barely concealed glee.She has two men to choose from,macho sneering Mr Robert Ryan or borderline closet queen(and ,worse,English borderline closet queen)Mr David Farrar. Mr Ryan oozes testosterone,Mr Farrar oozes Guerlaine's "Ode".Mr Ryan is wanted for murder,Mr Farrar is the Marshal(sorry,policeman),come to take him to jail.No contest there then. The two boys spend a lot of time fighting and trying to avoid knocking over bits of scenery .Miss Stanwyck and Mr Ryan go on a tiger hunt,their quarry clearly not even photographed on the same film stock let alone the same set.To everybody's surprise and relief Mr Ryan is revealed to be innocent after all,but not before being tortured and whipped whilst gritting his teeth bravely.Sadists and masochists are people too,you know.Where was Mr Dwan's head when he was making this?God alone knows. He was 72 at the time - I suspect he was having a senior moment.

5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Mediocre camp, mildly enjoyable, 23 February 2008

Author: dallesmac from United States

Direction, acting and virtually everything else about this mid-fifties pulp action flick are too flat to make it more than mildly enjoyable in a camp way. Ryan and Farrar fare better than Stanwyck, whose performance here unintentionally verges on self-parody. Stanwyck is very watchable here, but the script is so lazy and routine that her typical (and admirable) energy in tackling the role works against her. Ryan more appropriately gives the script its due,expressing obvious contempt for some of his lines. For a fifties flick, the quick sexual hookup of Ryan and Stanwyck is surprising (though a 10-year-old kid could see the film and not know what was happening between them).

I think this and "Cattle Queen of Montana" are Stanwyck's only color films. Black and white works better for her; the heavy makeup here makes her look inappropriately feverish, even for a jungle flick.

"Escape to Burma" is enjoyably bad in a mild way. I loved the back-lot jungle sets and obvious tropical foliage decoration. Nice house Stanwyck has there in the jungle too. Super art direction (always an RKO forte).

"Slightly Scarlet," "Silver Lode" and "The River's Edge" are far more enjoyable and interesting Allan Dwan efforts from the fifties.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Agreeable adventure film in which a fugitive takes refuge at a plantation of a wealthy colonial owner, 4 April 2013

Author: ma-cortes from Santander Spain

This adventure movie produced by RKO , Radio Picture Inc , deals with a man on the run for a killing he did not commit and he finds refuge and romance in an isolated jungle mansion . As a local prince in British Burma has been murdered , apparently by his prospecting colleague called Jim Brecan (Robert Ryan) . The bereaved daddy wants Brecan's head , no questions asked , but Captain Cardigan (David Farrar) of the colonial Rangoon District Force hopes to encounter him first for a fair trial . As the fugitive in British Burma hides on a teak plantation and find solace in the arms of a rich owner called Gwen Moore (Barbara Stanwick) . Brecan finds certain protection , thanks to a mutual attraction with Gwen and help each other , soon makes him indispensable . In the plantation Jim works as a right-hand man . Later on , they flee and find shelter in a Burmese jungle temple . The jungle , of course, is endangered by some kind of wild life , for this reason they find themselves in a strange atmosphere . There takes places a searing story of sudden love and sudden death in the hot green hell of the Burma jungle.

Burma's balmy jungles provide the backstage for a torrid love between Barbara Stanwick and Robert Ryan , in this post-prime Allan Dwan effort . ¨Escape to Burma¨ is a B-adventure movie , a menace melodrama with a wide view of a huge tropical bungalow , exotic scenarios with rage excessively colorful , big bull elephants , an amazing mansion , a love story , chases and many other things . A monsoon , a violent as well as spectacular fighting between Robert Ryan and some bandits , elephants doing pirouette , a likable chimpanzee (though only live in Africa) and an orangutan are among the movie's extra added attractions . Action fans will enjoy the continuous pursuits and confrontations between Robert Ryan and David Farrar . Furthermore, an exciting final climax at the mansion in which the protagonists are besieged by an army . This picture bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Elephant walk¨ (1954) by William Dieterle that contains a similar jungle scenario (Sri Lanka) , elephants and known actors as Elizabeth Taylor , Peter Finch and Dana Andrews . ¨Escape to Burma¨ packs a colorful cinematography print in Technicolor by John Alton who along with Nicholas Musuraca are considered to be two of the best cameraman specialized in Noir cinema . Thrilling as well as evocative musical score by Louis Forbes .

This quickie was professionally directed by Allan Dwan , a craftsman working from the silent cinema . He was Gloria Swanson's favorite director and after he began to work for Triangle in 1916 , he also won the respect of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford , who were , at that time, the most powerful couple in the film business . Dwan directed over 1400 films , including one-reels, between his arrival in the industry (circa 1909) and his final film in 1961 . Among them some good Western as ¨ Restless breed¨, ¨The rivers edge¨, ¨Cattle Queen of Montana¨ and ¨Montana Belle¨ , being ¨Silver Lode¨ is his unqualified masterpiece . ¨Escape to Burma¨ results to be an acceptable and passable picture . Watchable results for this classic adventure movie .

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Elephants walk., 25 August 2007

Author: dbdumonteil

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Allan Dwan seems more interested in filming the elephants than he is in directing his actors.Most of the time,excellent actors such as Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan are left to their own devices:it's obvious in their first meeting and in the intimate scenes.

As for the story,if you have not guessed that Ryan is not guilty long before the extravagant "explanation" ,you are very naive.At times,it looks like an Asiatic western,the elephants replacing the horses.It's an interminable chase ,with a stubborn English cop,nasty natives, a meal in the jungle where the heroes eat elephant stuffed with tiger or the reverse and precious stones .

1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Escape from Reality with Stanwyck, 9 November 2011

Author: allaboutlana from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Barbara Stawyck, Robert Ryan, and David Farrar star in "Escape to Burma," an escapist over-the-top adventure. We open in court and the king is throwing his weight around, telling David Farrar to find Robert Ryan, who has been identified as the one who shot the prince. From the get go, I couldn't stop laughing at the music. It all seemed like an Arabian music video. After ten minutes or so, it got serious and David went on his way through the jungle and vast lands to get his man, and we see Robert Ryan battling the brush (on a stage set, maybe) to run from the law. Along the way, he meets Barbara and makes a conquest. After falling for him, she decided he couldn't possibly be as mean as he's purported to be. So she defends him. Will she fight for her man to the death? Is Robert wrongfully accused? While the film does manage to keep your attention in this anything-can-happen (and will) unintentionally funny and campy film, it still feels like an embarrassment to all considered and is far from the best material that any of the stars have been in. (By the way, anyone looking for quicksand, crocodiles and piranhas won't get them here.) If you love obvious eye-candy adventures, then this is a quick fix for you with no thinking involved.

1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Entertaining tosh, 21 June 2011
Author: JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

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