American Guerrilla in the Philippines
Encyclopedia
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (released as I Shall Return in the UK) is a 1950 war film
starring Tyrone Power
as a U.S. Navy ensign stranded by the Japanese occupation of the Philippines
in World War II
. Based on the story of Iliff David Richardson
, it was directed by Fritz Lang
and filmed on location.
, an American motor torpedo boat
is destroyed by Japanese planes. The survivors, among them Ensign Chuck Palmer (Tyrone Power), make their way ashore on Cebu
. Their commander orders them to split up. Chuck pairs up with Jim Mitchell (Tom Ewell
) and reaches Colonel Benson on Leyte
, only to be told that he has been ordered by General Douglas MacArthur
to surrender his forces soon.
Chuck helps Jeanne Martinez (Micheline Presle), a Frenchwoman married to a Filipino planter, get medical assistance for a pregnant woman. Jeanne pleads with Chuck to stay and fight, but he buys a banca
and recruits a crew of Air Corps
soldiers in a desperate, but unsuccessful attempt to sail to Australia
. When the boat founders, the crew is rescued by Miguel (Tommy Cook), a member of the Filipino resistance. The Americans evade capture and Chuck eventually meets Jeanne again, as well as her husband Juan (Juan Torena), a secret supporter of the resistance movement.
Chuck is ordered to stay in the Philippines
to help set up a network to gather intelligence on the Japanese. Later, Juan is beaten to death in front of Jeanne in an attempt to find out where the guerrillas are hiding out. Jeanne joins the resistance and is reunited with Chuck at Christmas 1943. They begin to fall in love.
After three years of fighting, Chuck, Jeanne, Jim and the rest of their band are trapped in a church by a Japanese patrol. Just when it looks as if they will be wiped out, squadrons of American planes appear overhead and explosions are heard, announcing the liberation of the Philippines
is underway. The Japanese leave to face this greater threat.
. After it was sunk by the Japanese, Richardson and a dozen fellow Americans attempted to sail a native outrigger
to Australia, but the boat was sunk in a storm. He eventually joined the Philippine guerrilla forces, setting up a radio network to keep the various bands in touch with each other and Allied forces in Australia. After the liberation of the Philippines, Richardson dictated his memoirs to war correspondent Ira Wolfert
, who published them in 1945 as An American Guerilla in the Philippines. The book became a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and was published in condensed form in the March 1945 issue of Readers Digest.
Darryl F. Zanuck
of 20th Century Fox bought the film rights and had Lamar Trotti write a screenplay by August 1945. Original plans were to film the movie in Puerto Rico
with Fred MacMurray
and William Bendix
to be directed by Henry King
, but later plans were to star John Payne
and Linda Darnell
to be filmed on Catalina Island
. The end of the war led Zanuck to shelve all films with a World War II theme.
In 1950, American Guerrilla in the Philippines was the first American film made on location in the Philippines in color. Fritz Lang was assigned the project, but said it was the least favorite of all his films. Though the story was well received in the Philippines, there was a protest that Filipino actors were left out of the credits, with the studio placing their names later. Zanuck, who also worked on the script and edited it, rushed the film's completion to tie in with the start of the Korean War
.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
starring Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
as a U.S. Navy ensign stranded by the Japanese occupation of the Philippines
Japanese occupation of the Philippines
The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was the period in the history of the Philippines between 1942 and 1945, when the Empire of Japan occupied the previously American-controlled Philippines during World War II....
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Based on the story of Iliff David Richardson
Iliff David Richardson
Iliff David "Rich" Richardson was simultaneously a US Navy Ensign and a US Army Major whilst fighting with the Philippine resistance during World War II. He recounted his exploits to author Ira Wolfert, who published them in the book American Guerrilla in the Philippines in 1945...
, it was directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
and filmed on location.
Plot
In April 1942 in the PhilippinesPhilippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, an American motor torpedo boat
Motor Torpedo Boat
Motor Torpedo Boat was the name given to fast torpedo boats by the Royal Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy.The capitalised term is generally used for the Royal Navy boats and abbreviated to "MTB"...
is destroyed by Japanese planes. The survivors, among them Ensign Chuck Palmer (Tyrone Power), make their way ashore on Cebu
Cebu
Cebu is a province in the Philippines, consisting of Cebu Island and 167 surrounding islands. It is located to the east of Negros, to the west of Leyte and Bohol islands...
. Their commander orders them to split up. Chuck pairs up with Jim Mitchell (Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell
Tom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
) and reaches Colonel Benson on Leyte
Leyte
Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...
, only to be told that he has been ordered by General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
to surrender his forces soon.
Chuck helps Jeanne Martinez (Micheline Presle), a Frenchwoman married to a Filipino planter, get medical assistance for a pregnant woman. Jeanne pleads with Chuck to stay and fight, but he buys a banca
Jukung
A jukung or canoe is a small wooden Indonesian boat. It is a traditional fishing boat, but newer uses include "Jukung Dives", using the boat as a vehicle for small groups of SCUBA divers...
and recruits a crew of Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
soldiers in a desperate, but unsuccessful attempt to sail to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. When the boat founders, the crew is rescued by Miguel (Tommy Cook), a member of the Filipino resistance. The Americans evade capture and Chuck eventually meets Jeanne again, as well as her husband Juan (Juan Torena), a secret supporter of the resistance movement.
Chuck is ordered to stay in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
to help set up a network to gather intelligence on the Japanese. Later, Juan is beaten to death in front of Jeanne in an attempt to find out where the guerrillas are hiding out. Jeanne joins the resistance and is reunited with Chuck at Christmas 1943. They begin to fall in love.
After three years of fighting, Chuck, Jeanne, Jim and the rest of their band are trapped in a church by a Japanese patrol. Just when it looks as if they will be wiped out, squadrons of American planes appear overhead and explosions are heard, announcing the liberation of the Philippines
Battle of Leyte
The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the invasion and conquest of the island of Leyte in the Philippines by American and Filipino guerrilla forces under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by...
is underway. The Japanese leave to face this greater threat.
Cast
- Tyrone PowerTyrone PowerTyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
as Ensign Chuck Palmer - Micheline PresleMicheline PresleMicheline Presle is a French actress also known in English language films as Micheline Prelle.Born Micheline Nicole Julia Émilienne Chassagne in Paris, she wanted to be an actress from an early age. She took acting classes in her early teens and made her film debut at the age of fifteen in the...
as Jeanne Martinez (as Micheline Prelle) - Tom EwellTom EwellTom Ewell was an American actor.-Early life and career:Born Samuel Yewell Tompkins in Owensboro, Kentucky, where his family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers....
as Jim Mitchell - Robert Patten as Lovejoy (as Bob Patten)
- Tommy Cook as Miguel
- Juan Torena as Juan Martinez
- Jack ElamJack ElamWilliam Scott "Jack" Elam was an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies .-Early life:...
as The Speaker - Robert BarratRobert BarratRobert Harriot Barrat was an American stage, motion picture, and television character actor.-Career:Born in New York, Barrat's theatrical debut was in a stock company in Springfield, Massachusetts...
as General Douglas MacArthur
Production
US Navy Ensign Iliff "Rich" Richardson was the executive officer of PT 34PT 34
Motor Torpedo Boat PT-34 was a commissioned on 12 July 1941.The commander of PT-34 was Ltjg. Robert B. Kelly, the executive officer of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, based in the Philippines from late 1941 through April 1942....
. After it was sunk by the Japanese, Richardson and a dozen fellow Americans attempted to sail a native outrigger
Outrigger
An outrigger is a part of a boat's rigging which is rigid and extends beyond the side or gunwale of a boat.In an outrigger canoe and in sailboats such as the proa, an outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilise an inherently unstable main hull. The outrigger is positioned rigidly and...
to Australia, but the boat was sunk in a storm. He eventually joined the Philippine guerrilla forces, setting up a radio network to keep the various bands in touch with each other and Allied forces in Australia. After the liberation of the Philippines, Richardson dictated his memoirs to war correspondent Ira Wolfert
Ira Wolfert
Ira Wolfert was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and writer.He was born and grew up in New York City. In 1930, he graduated from the Columbia University School of Journalism with a bachelors degree....
, who published them in 1945 as An American Guerilla in the Philippines. The book became a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and was published in condensed form in the March 1945 issue of Readers Digest.
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
of 20th Century Fox bought the film rights and had Lamar Trotti write a screenplay by August 1945. Original plans were to film the movie in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
with Fred MacMurray
Fred MacMurray
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....
and William Bendix
William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, best remembered in movies for the title role in the movie The Babe Ruth Story and for portraying clumsily earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and television's The Life of Riley...
to be directed by Henry King
Henry King (director)
Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...
, but later plans were to star John Payne
John Payne (actor)
John Payne was an American film actor who is mainly remembered as a singer in 20th Century Fox musical films, and for his leading roles in Miracle on 34th Street and the NBC western television series The Restless Gun.-Background:Payne was born in Roanoke, Virginia...
and Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
to be filmed on Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
. The end of the war led Zanuck to shelve all films with a World War II theme.
In 1950, American Guerrilla in the Philippines was the first American film made on location in the Philippines in color. Fritz Lang was assigned the project, but said it was the least favorite of all his films. Though the story was well received in the Philippines, there was a protest that Filipino actors were left out of the credits, with the studio placing their names later. Zanuck, who also worked on the script and edited it, rushed the film's completion to tie in with the start of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
.