Manila Calling

Manila Calling is a 1942 American black-and-white World War II war film drama from 20th Century Fox, produced by Sol M. Wurtzel, directed by Herbert I. Leeds and starring Lloyd Nolan, Carole Landis, Cornel Wilde, James Gleason, Lester Matthews, Louis Jean Heydt, and Ted North.

The film concerns American civil engineering forces struggling to establish an operational radio base on the Philippines, with Japanese army forces resisting, and with the complication of the arrival of a beautiful nightclub singer.

Plot

After the Japanese army invades the Philippines and captures the radio station owned by the American Radio Communications Company, the staff manages to escape into the jungle, where they meet up with a band of determined Filipino Scouts (Moros). Together, they eventually cut their way through the jungle and make it to the coast.

The ARCC staff, made up of radio technician Jeff Bailey (Cornel Wilde) and communications men Lucky Matthews (Lloyd Nolan) and Tom O'Rourke (James Gleason), find an advance Japanese force occupying the plantation of an old friend. Working with the Moros as a guerrilla unit, they attack and kill the Japanese, seizing the plantation for its radio transmitter.

Solidifying their defense positions, the group quickly discovers there is no food or water and that the plantation is now largely surrounded by elements the Japanese army. A night club singer, Edna Fraser (Carole Landis), escaping from the Japanese, has also made it safely to the plantation. Jeff is working to repair the damaged radio set in order to send messages of hope and courage to the conquered Filipinos. The hope is to rally them against Japanese enslavement by joining the Philippine resistance.

The Japanese quickly become aware of this possibility, and using all means at their disposal, they launch a determined campaign to find and destroy the radio station.

Cast

• Lloyd Nolan as Lucky Matthews
• Carole Landis as Edna Fraser
• Cornel Wilde as Jeff Bailey
• James Gleason as Tim O'Rourke
• Lester Matthews as Wayne Ralston
• Louis Jean Heydt as Harold Watson
• Ted North as Walter Jamison
• Martin Kosleck as Heller
• Ralph Byrd as Corbett
• Charles Tannen as Fillmore
• Elisha Cook Jr. as Gillman
• Harold Huber as Santoro
• Victor Sen Yung as Armando
• Uncredited actors include Rudy Robles as a Moro warrior,

Richard Loo, and Leonard Strong

Reception

Critical response

T. S. of the New York Times (September 28, 1942) wrote: "Probably no one will be permanently deafened by 'Manila Calling,' now at the Globe. Assuredly, war is accompanied by a great deal of noise, and in that respect the producer, Sol Wurtzel, has gone all-out for realism. With all the enthusiasm of a youngster on the Fourth of July, he has filled his film with loud reports, concussions, flame and explosion. Machine guns chatter violently and at length. Actors grow hoarse shouting at each other above the uproar. If Mr. Wurtzel's tribute to the guerrillas of the Philippines could be measured by decibels alone, he would have a triumph. But drama, even in a disastrous inferno, sometimes has a still, small voice. In 'Manila Calling' it would been a hard time making itself heard."

"As a man who keeps up with the headlines, Mr. Wurtzel has seized upon the idea of using the Japanese invasion of the Philippines as the background for a story similar to that of 'Lost Patrol.' A small band of fighting men seize a commanding height and after being augmented by several assorted civilians hold the position until their ranks are thinned out, one by one, and the last survivors blasted from the rock by bombers—the last two being Mr. Lloyd Nolan, a hard-bitten fellow, and Miss Carole Landis, erstwhile Ping Girl, who pops into the story without reasonable cause. Together they broadcast a brave message to the world before they are wiped out."

"But neither the authors nor the director have capitalized on a sound dramatic device. They have simply made use of the clichés which require (a) that one man go berserk from the strain, (b) that one man try to escape at the expense of the others, and (c) that the tight-lipped hero has a heartbreaking story locked in his memory somewhere. From time to time Mr. Nolan dose succeed in creating a credible hero, but for the most part the characters are hackneyed in writing and performance. As an action film of the more rudimentary kind, 'Manila Calling' is continuously noisy. But considering" the subject and the times, that hardly seems enough."

("Ping Girl", period Hollywood slang/sexual innuendo, adapted from a car motor oil ad: "The Ping Girl: She really makes you purr".)

External links

• Manila Calling at the Internet Movie Database
• Turner Classic Movies page
• Manila Calling film clip on YouTube