Blood Alley
Encyclopedia
Blood Alley is a 1955 seafaring adventure movie starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...

 and Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...

 set in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

.

Background

The film was written by Albert Sidney Fleischman
Sid Fleischman
Albert Sidney Fleischman , pen name Sid Fleischman, was a Newbery Medal-winning author of children's books, screenplays, novels for adults, and books on magic. His works for children are known for their humor, imagery, zesty plotting, and exploration of the byways of American history...

 from his novel, directed by William Wellman and was produced by Wayne's Batjac Productions
Batjac Productions
Batjac Productions is an independent film production company founded by John Wayne in the early 1950s as a vehicle for Wayne to produce as well as star in movies. Its first release was Big Jim McLain with Warner Brothers in 1952, and its final film was also with Warner Brothers, McQ, in 1974...

. Location filming took place in and near China Camp, a shrimp fishing village in the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

.

The real Blood Alley was located in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 where Fleischman had visited as a sailor on the USS Albert T. Harris (DE-447)
USS Albert T. Harris (DE-447)
USS Albert T. Harris was a acquired by the U.S. Navy during World War II. The primary purpose of the destroyer escort was to escort and protect ships in convoy, in addition to other tasks as assigned, such as patrol or radar picket. Post-war she proudly returned home with two battle stars to her...

. He was paid $5000 for the rights for his novel and allowed to do the screenplay.

Casting

Wayne plays a Merchant Marine captain in a role originally intended for Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...

 prior to an altercation with the producers. Mitchum was fired from the production by Wellman. Wayne took over the lead after Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

 turned the film down and Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

 requested a large amount of money to assume the role.

Swedish actress Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...

 and movie thug Mike Mazurki
Mike Mazurki
Mike Mazurki was an Austrian-born American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in over 100 movies. His towering 6' 5" presence and intimidating face usually got him roles playing tough guys, thugs, strong men, and gangsters.Mazurki was born as Mikhail Mazurkevych in Tarnopol, Galicia,...

 play Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 roles.

Plot

Blood Alley tells the story of Captain Tom Wilder (Wayne,) whom locals rescue from the Chinese Communists. He ends up attempting to take the people of the village to Hong Kong in a small, rotten paddle steamer.

Wayne's love interest is the tough and determined Cathy Grainger (Bacall,) whose father is a medical missionary.

Promotion and critical reception

The film was promoted by the appearance of Wayne on the number-one rated television show I Love Lucy. In an unusual two-episode arc airing as the show's season opener on October 10, 1955, Lucy and Ethel steal Wayne's footprints from the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theater the night before the premiere of Blood Alley, and complications ensue. At one point early in the episode, a studio employee interrupts Wayne's "rubdown" by showing him a poster for Blood Alley.

Despite the star power of its lead actors and director, Blood Alley received a lukewarm reception from critics. The New York Times proclaimed, "Blood Alley, despite its exotic, oriental setting, is a standard chase melodrama patterned on a familiar blueprint." Today's critics have focused on Blood Alleys anti-communist aspect, website sover.net calling it "only a banal actioner" and DVDtalk proclaiming it "preposterous but entertaining" and claiming that "Wayne and Bacall have no chemistry at all".
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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