Complete credited cast: | |||
Clark Gable | ... | Hank Lee | |
Susan Hayward | ... | Mrs. Jane Hoyt | |
Michael Rennie | ... | Inspector Merryweather | |
Gene Barry | ... | Louis Hoyt | |
Alexander D'Arcy | ... | Rene Dupont Chevalier (as Alex D'Arcy) | |
Tom Tully | ... | Tweedie | |
Anna Sten | ... | Madame Dupree | |
Russell Collins | ... | Icky | |
Leo Gordon | ... | Big Matt | |
Richard Loo | ... | Gen. Po Lin | |
Soo Yong | ... | Dak Lai | |
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Frank Tang | ... | Capt. Ying Fai - Chicago |
Jack Kruschen | ... | Austin Stoker | |
Mel Welles | ... | Fernand Rocha |
During the 1950s an American journalist disappears in China. His wife, Jane Hoyt, arrives in Hong Kong, determined to find him. There are rumors that Louis Hoyt might be held by the Communist Chinese as spy. Jane Hoyt asks shady shipping magnate Hank Lee for his help but Hank tries to dissuade her from venturing into Red China. Desperate, Jane asks another local, Fernand Rocha, for his help and pays him money. After dishonest and sleazy charlatan Rocha spends her money and forcibly confines her, Hank Lee finally takes pity on her and decides to go searching for her husband himself. Illegally entering Red China Hank finds plenty of trouble. Written by nufs68
Good-looking in that bland sort of way that DeLuxe Color productions of the 50's tended to, 'Soldier of Fortune's depiction of the dastardly red Chinese marked a further step in former blacklistee Edward Dmytryk's continuing atonement for his politically incorrect past.
Despite its attractive Hong Kong locations and Hugo Friedhofer's emphatically 'Chinese' music on the soundtrack, the interiors are obviously shot back in Hollywood, as well as being very talky. (Sam Fuller made much better use of Tokyo in the same year's 'House of Bamboo'.)
Seventh-billed amidst a good cast is the ill-starred Anna Sten, who despite playing a barfly and wearing unflattering makeup can still just be recognised as the lovely girl from the Ukraine who showed such promise in silent films before crashing and burning in Hollywood during the thirties. In her only colour film she has a vivid scene early on dancing on a table in a green dress and matching shoes, which even gets her a proposal of marriage; whereupon she promptly disappears from the film.