American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)

Beautiful, moving film.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

well...he couldn't have. Man this was pretty darn bad. Terrible casting and severely bad script make for a film Mr. Lang probably phoned in the directing.The main cast was just fine but the secondary cast must have been made up of totally unprofessional actors....and they were terrible. I'm guessin they used actual GI's not far out of the war for the scenery but even their few lines these guys talked like cigar store indians. Totally wooden and their lines were just totally corny. The script was just bad. This was almost like a post-war propaganda film the way Tyrone Power narrates all throughout it. The only thing I got from this one was the Philippines scenery. Very beautiful place.If someone offers you this one to watch...just say,..." I'll pass."

There were hundreds of these cheap-ish World War Two quickies in the decade following the close of the conflict itself. They differed little from those produced during the war, still being in a kind of adulatory propagandistic mode, except that they were a little more vague usually having no direct message. What's more, as more time went by the seemed to get further and further from the realities of the conflict.An American Guerrilla in the Philippines sees Tyrone Power, swashbuckling idol of the pre-war years, as an officer battling Japs in the Philippine jungle. Power has matured as an actor since his pictures a decade earlier, appearing tougher and less boyish, although he has also become less interesting in the process. His performance is steady and natural, but he is unable to make anything of what is admittedly a rather bland character on paper anyway. His buddy Tom Ewell is an unusual addition to the cast. He was in later years a very fine comedy actor, but it's hard to tell if he's appearing here as comic relief or not. In some moments, such as his burbling in the water trying to stay afloat, seem as if he is trying to play them for laughs, inappropriately if so, and certainly not at all funny. The rest of the cast is simply plain bad or plain boring.Director Fritz Lang is normally someone who can give a nice baroque touch to even the most American of film formats, while still remain true to genre and tone. He seems uncertain however quite what to do with this one. He gives many shots in the jungle an abstract feel, with no familiar points of reference, giving them a threateningly wild look. Often his camera takes a spectator's position, peeping out through foliage. It's hard to tell what purpose this serves, as it distances us from the events on screen. Incidentally, Lang was a very good director of crowds and action, as evidenced in his big-budget silent pictures. There are some very powerful moments, with characters moving straight towards us down the middle of the shot and memorably stylised movements. However for a director who is normally so good at imbuing his work with a dark and nightmarish feel, An American Guerrilla in the Philippines has none of the bleak terror of, say, Operation Burma, a picture which really worked because it made us the audience feel lost within the jungle ourselves.And ultimately An American Guerrilla in the Philippines is too light, and too sparing on any true sense of tragedy. It's lack of a real feeling of danger gives it many dull stretches, and its lack of realism does a disservice to those involved in the conflict. All of which is rather odd because the picture is also far from being a comedy. The only thing which saves it and makes it watchable is Fritz Lang's strong, vibrant imagery, such as dozens of hats waving in the air or a soldier's dying scream just inches from the lens. Having said that, there are far better Fritz Lang pictures to see these brilliant touches in.

As an ex-military person, the discrepancy of rank in this movie is very glaring to me. Chuck Palmer is an Ensign (the lowest navy officer rank), but wears silver clusters (the rank of a Lt. Commander). At one point he is talking to an army Major and mentions that, although he is in the navy, they are of the same rank (the navy equivalent of an army major is a Lieutenant). It's an interesting movie to watch when you're up at 2 am and can't sleep. But, overall, I think this is a very sanitized version of the guerrilla fight in the Philippines during World War 2. If you've just tuned into the film at some parts, you'd think you were watching a documentary. An interesting trivia note: Jack Elam is the narrator in this film, but he also has a cameo in which he plays a con artist who bilks the locals of money in order to "buy guns and ammunition to fight the Japanese".

An entertaining film, filmed in the Philippines where the story is set and with some excellent local colour. And Micheline Presle, in one of her few non-French films, reminds me of a former girl-friend! At 37, Tyrone Power looks a little old. (Quinlan's notes that "when he returned from war service, his face had hardened into earnestness and gravity".) But he fills the starring role well.I feared early on that the film might descend into the cliché of "attractive woman among hardbitten men in trouble" when Power invites Presle to accompany his motley crew on their primitive craft, but luckily she declines (and she looks too classy to have had the experience of such craft that she claims).Some producers might have been tempted to make more of the American "phonies" (led by the ever impressive Jack Elam) Power observes collecting money from the villagers - a showdown between the good and bad Yanks, perhaps, but they're allowed to slink off. And I wondered if the woman with her head hidden as she denounced collaborators to the Japanese might later be identified and dealt with. Lesser films might have made more of these incidents in the interests of drama The end of the film was a bit unconvincing, with the Japanese soldiers withdrawing just as the survivors of Power's band look to be beaten; they had enough time to finish the job before getting away.