Lady From Chungking (1943)
In Japanese-occupied China, Madame Kwan Mei is the leader of a resistance organization based in a rural village. When two American airmen are shot down near the village, she makes plans to rescue them and have them help her organization. Then, when Japanese General Kaimura arrives in the village, she realizes that a major operation is imminent. She decides to impersonate an aristocrat, in order to win the general's confidence and learn his plans.
BLOODY REBELLION AGAINST SAVAGE CONQUERORS!
Hans Gruber: You Japanese are wonderful marksmen.
Lt. Shimoto: That was a Japanese plane which came down.
Talisman Studios - 4516 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
(Studio)
Iverson Ranch - 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA
(Exterior scenes.)
During World War II (when this film was made) Anna May Wong went out of her way to clarify that she was of Chinese heritage and not Japanese. This included regularly supporting and doing volunteer work for organizations raising funds for Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion and domination of China.
Blonde Mae Clarke who plays the singer sympathetic to the Chinese resistance's cause, had both of the best known roles in the same year. In 1931, she was featured as both the gun moll in whose face James Cagney mashed half a grapefruit in The Public Enemy (1931), and as the bride of Victor Frankenstein, who was terrorized by the monster in the original Frankenstein (1931).
During World War II, with the negative attitude toward Asians, accomplished Chinese-American Hollywood star Anna May Wong was reduced to making only two feature films, including this one, both for the poverty row PRC (Producers Releasing Corporation).
This was one of several war-era films in which Harold Huber was cast as an Asian, even though he was of Russian-Jewish descent.
It's in all likelihood a coincidence, but Ludwig Donath's character is named Hans Gruber, which 46 years later became famous as the name of Alan Rickman's villain in Die Hard (1988).
Continuity
During the aerial battle near the beginning of the picture, all the planes have one engine. But Rodney and his partner are suddenly depicted as jumping out of a plane with two engines.
Character error
When Gruber goes to show the bottle of champagne to General Kaimura for his approval, he does not remove the towel from the bottle so the General can see the label.
Lt. Shimoto (Ted Hecht) wears three stars on his collar, signifying the rank of Captain in the Imperial Japanese Army.