sol1218
**SPOILERS** A chunky looking pre-Ramar of he Jungle Jon Hall as the on the lamb and hard drinking sailor McMillan gets himself snookered out of his last dollar in the Green Dragon gambling den when croupier Tamara, Lisa Ferrad, mistakenly knocks his chips on to another number. Angry as hell and demanding his $500.00 in winning McMillan has it out with the Green Dragon's proprietor Hu Chang, Earnest Borgnine, who has a couple of his henchmen as well as himself, Hu has a devastating right karate chop, work him over and throw him out of the place without out a penny to his name.Looking for work at a local bar McMillan empresses ship Captain Frenchy,Douglas Kenndey, so much by belting one of his shipmates out cold that he gives him a job on his boat the Sally Ann on the spot. It's later that the Sally Ann will be contracted by Tamara's fiancé Paul Lowell, Ron Randell, to ship a number of valuable Jade pieces to Hong Kong. Lowell lifted the Jade pieces, dating back to the Ming Dynasty, from Tamara's uncle Wong San, Philip Ahn, who he murdered after Wong refused to accept his IOU instead of cash which Lowell earlier agreed to give him.It's when Tarama, now revealing herself to be lady pirate Liu Ming, finds out that her lover and future husband Lowell not only murdered her uncle Wong but two timed her by checking out on her she gets together with Hu Chang to stop the Sally Ann from making back to the safety of Hong Kong. Hu Chang gets his gang of cut throats to head the Sally Ann off at the pass and ends up not only bordering the ship but giving the double-crossing Lowell everything that he has coming to him; a shiv in the back by Liu's sister Lotus, Marya Marco.Planning to take the now recovered Jade pieces to Indocina and sell them with the money going back to her Uncle Wong's village in China Liu is again doubled-crossed by her fellow pirate Hu Chang who, together with his crew of scalawags, plans to take off, after murdering Liu and Lotus, with the precious Jades himself.McMillan being he knows how to sail a ship is given the opportunity the sail Hu Chang's raider pirate ship back to Indochina but later together with Liu and Lotus smells a rat with Hu Chang planning to murder them and steal the Jades. After fighting off Hu Chang and his men with Lotus getting shot and killed and Liu badly wounded McMillan realizes that he'll have to abandoned ship and leave the Jades to the murderous Hu Chang gang. Booby-trapping the pirate raider McMillan secretly slips, together with the dying Liu Ming, out to shore as he watches the ship blown to pieces, together with the Jades, as Hu Chang and his boys enter it.
espohi
I saw China Corsair when it first came out in 1951. Ernest Borgnine playeda curio shopkeeper in Chinatown. Soon after this we saw him catapulted tofame in From Here To Eternity, and eventually in Marty and others.This is Borgnine's third feature film, according to the imdb. It has apparently never been available on video. It would be instructive to have it on VHS orDVD, even as just a curiosity. Among other things, does he pass easily for aSouthern Chinese? From my distant childhood memory, I think so.
