1950 - AMERICAN GUERRILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES, bland Fritz Lang film.

The book American Guerrilla in the Philippines was purchased by the head of 20th Century Fox Darryl F. Zanuck towards the end of World War II.  The film version of the book was being prepared when studio head Zanuck decided to discontinue making the now exhausted genre of the propaganda film.  The film sat in limbo until it was reactivated a few years later with Fritz Lang as the director

 

For a film made five years after the war it's still mired in a 1940's World War II sensibility.  The Japanese are the demonic invaders, the American soldiers stranded in the Philippines are the usual cross section of good old GI Joe's, and there's lots of rah rah military music on the soundtrack.

The film is supposedly based on the actual experiences of a navel officer who was stranded in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion.  Along with some other stranded soldiers they set up a spy network to keep tabs on the activity of the enemy.  Since this was basically a script written during World War 2 there's the usual inappropriate love interest in this case a sexy French woman for the hero to romance.

 

The star of this film was one of Fox's biggest performers back from serving in the war, Tyrone Power.  Power was frankly starting to age out of these kinds of roles and he had started to lose his boyish good looks.  The female love interest was Micheline Presle who had been in an "ou la la" French film called Devil in the Flesh  a film about a love affair between a teenage boy and an older married woman.  Presle came over to California looking for a Hollywood career but as was typical ended up stuck in uninteresting pictures.

 

 

The director Fritz Lang had stated that this picture was his least favorite but he should be given credit for shooting this film on location and in color.  In 1950 this was still not a common occurrence and the fact that Lang turned in a professional job is worthy of some praise.  American Guerrilla in the Philippines is a mediocre film only redeemed by the on location color photography.

The film was written by Lamar Trotti, the running time is 105 minutes.