This is a good, not great, adventure done in Cinemascope in the mid-50's showing off the sights of Hong Kong and the talents of a good cast in a reasonably involving story. One point of order: Gable is not a 'Soldier of Fortune' - a guy who hires out to perform daring tasks. He's a former soldier with a fortune - a GI cashiered from the Army when he punched an officer who got involved in the underworld of trading in the far east with such great success that a decade later, he's living like a potentate and master of all he surveys. We see him viewing Hong Kong from on high in the first shot, atop a mountain that can only be accessed by a train that climbs up the side, looking down on all the people who haven't made it as big as he has. He should be an arrogant man, unconcerned with other people's problems. But then we see him descending in the train, looking out the window with a look on his face as if something's missing in his life. It's a brilliant scene, one that establishes something important about the main character.
Later, when he meets Susan Hayward, a woman searching for her adventurous photographer husband, who has been captured by the Red Chinese, you might think he'd take a Rick Blaine-type attitude and tell her that her problems are not his concern, (only to be persuaded later that they are). Instead he's more like an older Rhett Butler, (of course he's older- it's 1955!), who is something of a rogue himself but recognizes quality in other people. He falls for her immediately, perhaps because he admires her perseverance in trying to get her husband back. The script requires that he at first turn her away but it isn't long before they are re-connected. The fact that he's never been married but thinks that it's time he did something about it is made clear. In this initial scene, we see that he's father to three orphaned children, although we meet only one who tells the lady, ('Jane Hoyt') that someday they are going back to where their father was born. Gable's 'Hank Lee' plays a tape recording he had made of the sounds of Chicago, his home town just so he can listen to it. The flagship of his fleet of Chinese Junks is also called 'Chicago'. He's done everything he wanted to do in Asia. Now he wants a wife and he wants to go home.
Ms. Hoyt tells him that her husband's desire for adventure has made their marriage difficult but that she's never wanted to change her husband into some other kind of man. That's a statement that would appeal to a strong man like Hank Lee who wants a wife but doesn't want to be someone else. A spy takes a picture of them drinking a toast in a restaurant. The picture finds it way to the Red Chinese commandant who is holding Mr. Hoyt, (Gene Barry in an early role) prisoner. The commandant uses it to try to demoralize his prisoner but it also gets him to thinking that perhaps his wife deserves better than him and maybe she's found it.
The biggest weak points of the film are the suddenness of Lee and Mrs. Hoyt, (Hayward was in the competition for Scarlett O'Hara and probably would have made a good one), falling for each other and the ease which which Lee and a small band rescue Mr. Hoyt in a 20 minute finale. The strong points are Hong Kong, the performances of the cast, with strong leads and several excellent character actors and the deft way the desires of the main characters are incorporated into the script, leading to the 'reverse Casablanca' finale where Lee is again seen in his perch high above Hong Kong only to have Mrs. Hoyt get off the train to be with him.
Later, when he meets Susan Hayward, a woman searching for her adventurous photographer husband, who has been captured by the Red Chinese, you might think he'd take a Rick Blaine-type attitude and tell her that her problems are not his concern, (only to be persuaded later that they are). Instead he's more like an older Rhett Butler, (of course he's older- it's 1955!), who is something of a rogue himself but recognizes quality in other people. He falls for her immediately, perhaps because he admires her perseverance in trying to get her husband back. The script requires that he at first turn her away but it isn't long before they are re-connected. The fact that he's never been married but thinks that it's time he did something about it is made clear. In this initial scene, we see that he's father to three orphaned children, although we meet only one who tells the lady, ('Jane Hoyt') that someday they are going back to where their father was born. Gable's 'Hank Lee' plays a tape recording he had made of the sounds of Chicago, his home town just so he can listen to it. The flagship of his fleet of Chinese Junks is also called 'Chicago'. He's done everything he wanted to do in Asia. Now he wants a wife and he wants to go home.
Ms. Hoyt tells him that her husband's desire for adventure has made their marriage difficult but that she's never wanted to change her husband into some other kind of man. That's a statement that would appeal to a strong man like Hank Lee who wants a wife but doesn't want to be someone else. A spy takes a picture of them drinking a toast in a restaurant. The picture finds it way to the Red Chinese commandant who is holding Mr. Hoyt, (Gene Barry in an early role) prisoner. The commandant uses it to try to demoralize his prisoner but it also gets him to thinking that perhaps his wife deserves better than him and maybe she's found it.
The biggest weak points of the film are the suddenness of Lee and Mrs. Hoyt, (Hayward was in the competition for Scarlett O'Hara and probably would have made a good one), falling for each other and the ease which which Lee and a small band rescue Mr. Hoyt in a 20 minute finale. The strong points are Hong Kong, the performances of the cast, with strong leads and several excellent character actors and the deft way the desires of the main characters are incorporated into the script, leading to the 'reverse Casablanca' finale where Lee is again seen in his perch high above Hong Kong only to have Mrs. Hoyt get off the train to be with him.