Initially, Zanuck wanted to make a film about the construction of the Burma Road, with special emphasis on two Americans heavily involved with it, commissioner Daniel G. Arnstein and engineer Danny Ryan. Bryan Foy, a specialist in B movies, was assigned to produce, with Steve Fisher and Jack Andrews writing the screenplay. At that point Henry King was slated to direct. After work on the screenplay started, Zanuck decided to model the leading man on Tyrone Power's character in A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941), an egotistical flyer whose love for a relief worker (Betty Grable) leads him to believe in the war effort.
At first, Zanuck had considered Pat O'Brien or John Payne to star, but as his vision of the film became more grandiose, he decided to cast Power. Then he realized the public would resent his appearing in a film so similar to his earlier World War II hit, so Zanuck started looking elsewhere, first to Victor Mature or John Payne (again), and then to George Montgomery, whose good looks and rugged physique were winning him female fans. The film's upgrade also brought it a new producer and screenwriter, Hecht, whose breezy writing would lend the film a distinction lacking in many other wartime adventures.
The female lead in early drafts was Captain Fifi, the Japanese agent who eventually falls for the leading man. At that time, Zanuck pursued casting Marlene Dietrich in the role. When that did not work out, the script's focus shifted to the Western-educated daughter of a Chinese patriot whose love redeems Montgomery. With Tierney's star on the rise, particularly since her electric pairing with Power in Son of Fury (1942), the role seemed a good way to build her career and expand her appeal to action fans. Working titles like A Yank in Burma, Burma Road and Over the Burma Road were dropped in order to put more focus on Tierney as the titular China Girl.
Rounding out the cast were Victor McLaglen as a double agent, stage veteran Myron McCormick as one of the already legendary Flying Tigers and Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington, in her last movie. In typical fashion, many of the key Asian roles were played by either Western actors like Tierney and the young Robert Blake (just before he started making the "Our Gang" shorts), or actors of the wrong nationality, like Korean-American Philip Ahn as Tierney's father, Indian Lal Chand Mehra as a Burmese desk clerk and Chinese actor Paul Fung as a Japanese invader. Osa Massen, a Danish actress Zanuck hired as a Garbo type then consigned to wayward woman roles, was originally cast in the now secondary role of Captain Fifi. But after 14 days of shooting, she was replaced by Fox's "Queen of the Bs," Lynn Bari.
In the days of studio production, particularly in the middle of a war, there was no question of going to the story's locations to shoot. The Burmese Road was re-created on the Fox back lot. With wartime restrictions on filming at airfields, the studio even created its own permanent airfield for military stories. The furthest they went from the lot was to the Bradbury Building in Downtown Los Angeles, where a few scenes were shot. It would later be more prominently featured in The Outer Limits TV episode, "Demon with the Glass Hand," and the cult science fiction film Blade Runner (1982).
Thanks to Hecht's script and Hathaway's tight direction, the critics accepted China Girl as a lot of fun with no real basis in reality. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote "this new picture at the Roxy is great stuff for what it is -- and that is a highfalutin movie, full of tough-guy talk, romance and bold intrigue. Provided one can take it in that vein and no other, without having any illusions about its factual likelihood, it makes fast, diverting entertainment." The studio used the film to promote Tierney, with ads hailing her as a "FIGHTING TIGRESS! In her heart...cold hate that defied the terror of the Japs...warm love for a fighting, flying Yank! Here is a tempestuous romance amid the flame and violence of today's mighty conflict!" They also put some focus on Bari's character, described, as in the screenplay, as "115 pounds of curses, crookedness and kisses!" In truth, Bari got much better reviews than Tierney, who was hailed for her beauty but often dismissed as a decorative but limited actress. But it was Tierney's name that sold tickets, so Bari went back to her B films, while Tierney's star continued to rise.
Producer: Ben Hecht
Director: Henry Hathaway
Screenplay: Ben Hecht
Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck
Cinematography: Lee Garmes
Art Director: Richard Day, Wiard Ihnen
Music: Alfred Newman
Cast: Gene Tierney (Haoli Young), George Montgomery (Johnny Williams), Lynn Bari (Capt. Fifi), Victor McLaglen (Maj. Bull Weed), Alan Baxter (Jones), Sig Ruman (Jarubi), Myron McCormick (Shorty), Robert Blake (Chinese Boy), Ann Pennington (Entertainer), Philip Ahn (Dr. Young), Tom Neal (Haynes).
BW-95m.
by Frank Miller
