Details

Release year: 1960

Storyline

A US Army Major stationed in East China in 1944 is ordered to blow up military installations in order to slow down the advancing Japanese Army.

Top credits

Directors

Daniel Mann

Writers

Cast

James Stewart — Maj. Baldwin
Lisa Lu — Madame Sue-Mei Hung
Glenn Corbett — Collins
Harry Morgan — Sgt. 'Mike' Michaelson

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Did you know

• This was the only real war movie which James Stewart starred in. He had vowed never to make one, since he complained they were hardly ever realistic. Harry Morgan said he believed that Stewart made an exception for this film because it was definitely anti-war.

• Lisa Lu, who played Madame Sue-Mei Hung , recruited some faculty members from the Army Language School, Chinese Mandarin Department, to appear in the film. These faculty members were: P.C.Lee, Leo Chen, C.N.Hu and Richard Wang.

• This film is based on Theodore H. White's novel, The Mountain Road, published in 1958, in New York.Theodore White served as the Chinese Bureau Chief for Time magazine during World War II. White found his stories depicting the corruption of the Nationalist government and warning of the growing threat of Communism being rewritten by Chinese government officials with the cooperation of editors at his magazine. He interviewed former OSS Major Frank Gleason Jr., who was the leader of the demolition crew featured in the novel and film and served as a technical consultant for the film.In 1944, Major Gleason led a demolition team that stopped the Japanese advance by blowing up over 150 bridges and destroying some 50,000 tons of munitions in Dushan County, Guizhou, China.