Came Out Just In Time
The only reason this film gets as high as a five from me is because of
James Cagney who made everything he was in a little bit better or appear to be so. Blood on the Sun, coming out as it did in 1945 as World War II was ending focused on an incident from 1929. A document called the Tanaka Memorial which was purportedly a memorandum by the then Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi to Emperor Showa was leaked to U.S. media. It laid forth Japanese intentions to dominate the Pacific, Asia, and even the USA. Problem was that when the Americans did occupy Japan, General MacArthur sent Army intelligence into sifting through Japanese files. Guess what? No Tanaka Memorial. A lot of people now consider the thing to have been a big old hoax perpetrated by the Chinese who were looking for friends back in 1929 because they rightly suspected Japanese intentions towards them. So Blood in the Sun came out just in time as the belief in the Tanaka Memorial was still credible. The brothers Cagney, William and James, produced this. But without the production values of the brothers Warner, this film looks like it was shot on the cheap. Jimmy Cagney played Nick Condon, a reporter who got a copy of the Tanaka Memorial and smuggled it out of Japan. A lot of the cast played Eurasian roles and looked pretty silly too. Sylvia Sidney, John Emery and especially Robert Armstrong who may have conquered King Kong, but couldn't sound Oriental to save his life.. 
Tokyo, Mon Amour
James Cagney (as Nick Condon) is a reporter in Tokyo; a dutiful,
precognizant American, he confronts the increasing grip of Fascism on the Japanese people, during the reign of Tanaka Giichi. Sylvia Sidney (as Iris Hilliard), is a mysterious part-Chinese woman, who provides Mr. Cagney with intrigue and romance. While Ms. Sydney is somewhat successful in her portrayal, the other Japanese impersonations are embarrassing. The movie bases much of its storyline on the existence of the "Tanaka Document", a Hitler-type blueprint for evil, which was more likely a propagandist's creation. Under these circumstances, Cagney and company's attempt to produce convincing entertainment collapses.. |
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