Lane Bradford

The French Line movie trailer - starring Gilbert Roland, Jane Russell, Arthur Hunnicutt, Joyce MacKenzie, Mary McCarty. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Theatrical Release Date: 2/8/1954 Genre: Musical Rating: Not Rated

Claire Phillips is an American nightclub singer working in Singapore in the early 1940s, when the Japanese attack and take over the island country. Now trapped, and widowed since her husband was killed in the Bataan Death March, Claire agrees to aid an American secret agent in fighting the occupying Japanese troops. She is captured by the enemy, tortured, and sentenced to be shot, but is rescued at the last minute by her American contact. This war-time tale is based on the true story of Americas own "Mata Hari" of the South Pacific, and stars Ann Dvorak ("Scarface," "Flame of Barbary Coast") as Claire Phillips, Gene Evans ("Operation Petticoat," "Shock Corridor") as the American secret agent, and Douglas Kennedy ("Dark Passage," "The Fastest Guitar Alive"), Philip Ahn (TVs "Kung Fu," "Thoroughly Modern Millie") and Richard Loo ("The Man With the Golden Gun," "The Sand Pebbles").

An Arizona cavalry outpost is disciplined by a new commander in anticipation of an Indian attack. Troy Donahue ("A Summer Place") and Suzanne Pleshette ("The Bob Newhart Show"), who were in real life married at the time, find romance amid the turmoil. Action master Raoul Walsh ("Along The Great Divide," "Captain Horatio Hornblower") completed his directorial career with this reflective Western from the novel by Paul Horgan ("Whitewater").

A wealthy Virginia farmer's neutral stance during the Civil War is tested by his daughter's marriage to a Confederate soldier and his son's capture by Union forces. Fine performances, especially by Stewart!