This is a grossly underrated feature by Frank Borzage on the threshold to his last period and before the Second World War, dealing with a young doctor's medical education and development into a real doctor getting his hands thoroughly trained in the horrible mess of the war in China under constant attacks by the Japanese. The contrast between the safe idyllic student years and the war reality is overwhelming. He makes the acquaintance of a young Chinese nurse in America brought up and adopted there, and he meets her again in China: their love story is the main theme of the film. Dorothy Lamour is surprisingly good as the young Chinese student and nurse, but the great character of the film is Akim Tamiroff, in a role of a kind that usually Edward G. Robinson used to play, a grumpy veteran surgeon who usually scolds all his students with bitter sarcasms, but his character undergoes a great change as he also comes to China and find it necessary to reevaluate his entire attitude and position. I have never seen Akim Tamiroff so good. John Howard is all right as the young doctor, and the story is typical of Frank Borzage: outrageous crisis and redemption. It's a great human story well performed and convincingly realized.
Disputed Passage
1939
Action / Drama / Romance / War
Disputed Passage
1939
Action / Drama / Romance / War
Plot summary
A doctor's medical studies are threatened by his infatuation with a Chinese girl. The girl returns to China, but complications ensue when she runs into him in Nanking during a Japanese bombing raid.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
March 17, 2021 at 12:38 PM
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Baptism of fire through love and war
Father, Son and the Holy Spirit
Father represents the OLD: The art of the miracle (medical treatment/well-being/health) is practiced in the temples (hospitals) and the masses should visit the temple to receive the miracle.
The Holy Spirit puts the idea in the Son's head that the miracle should not be confined to the temples and be taken to the masses.
The Son is drawn to a MISSION in a remote location by the Holy Spirit where he receives his spiritual/religious/shamanic initiation by sharing his GIFT with the masses.
The Holy Spirit was a mystery to me in its role until recently when I had a revelation that one of the sure-shot sign of its role is to guide the Son into doing what he would never had thought of doing himself AND TO MAKE HIM DO IT ALL BY HIMSELF. You see, A GHOST: only the son can see it and receive guidance from it, but the son is doing all the work himself. Like Tyler Durden in Fight Club.
Here, the role of The Holy Spirit is played by Audrey. Watch this film and do a thought experiment: what if Audrey is Tyler Durden? The revelation doesn't change the story at all. Because all the charitable work is shown to be done by The Son. She just puts the idea in his head... that's all.
And in the end, it's his head where she impresses her presence and revives him AFTER the father acknowledges her role.
A brilliant story!