Escape to Burma (1955)

i must have seen a different film!!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A better title would have been Escape IN Burma. A Technicolor jungle adventure, starring Barbara Stanwyck, as American teak forest queen Gwen Moore, and Robert Ryan, as American mining engineer/entrepreneur, Jim Brecan. Brecan had a 50-50 partnership with the prince of the local principality. They seemed to mostly mine precious gems, such as rubies. However, the prince was recently shot to death for unknown reason, and Brecan is the prime suspect. Perhaps robbery was a prime motive, as he took a sack of high value rubies with him when he fled into the jungle....... There is conflict over whether the justice system of the British or of the local Swabwa(ruler) should define the fate of Brecan. Cardigan, the British investigator chosen to bring in Brecan, wants a British trial, whereas the Swabwa wants to execute him without a trial, as he appears to be surely guilty. Alternatively, searchers have the right to shoot him dead if he resists arrest.......Brecan steals a horse from the local native policeman, and heads for Gwen's compound, in her teak forest. He claims he's Jim Martin. For some reason, Gwen takes an immediate liking to him, despite it not being clear why he came. Soon, she makes him her manager. When Cardigan shows up and accuses Martin of being Brecan, Gwen can't believe he's a murderer. Cardigan points to Brecan's luger pistol, noting that the bullet taken out of the prince was from a luger. Eventually, Brecan admits that he did shoot the prince, but that he felt he had to, as the prince was better off dead than alive. We would not get a more specific explanation until the finale. Brecan, Gwen , and Cardigan would continue to interact for most of the rest of the film. Gwen didn't want Brecan to kill Cardigan, as that would be a capital offense, should he be declared not guilty of killing the prince. Brecan escaped several times, either from Cardigan, or from thieves, only to be caught again. The Sawbwa's posse was also out looking for Brecan. I'll let you see the film, to find out what Brecan meant by "better off dead than alive". I will say that things turn out well for Brecan and Gwen, as Brecan's excuse, surprisingly, is accepted, both by the Sawbwa, and by Cardigan....... There are occasional shots of jungle animals, mostly Gwen's tame elephants, used in hauling teak logs to the river. However, at one point, her workers refused to venture into the forest, because they claimed the forest tiger spirit had killed a large elephant, and might kill them. Gwen and Brecan took their rifles on a tiger hunt. Gwen was nearly mauled by a tiger after she slipped and lost her rifle. But, Brecan came to the rescue.. Another scary moment is when a large black panther is following Gwen, on her horse......... About the primates that frequented inside and outside Gwen's compound: I saw 2 chimps. Of course, their natural range is confined to central Africa. An orangutan was evident. Again, it's not native to Burma(Myanmar). I also saw what looked like capuchins, native to South America. On the other hand, I didn't see any macaque monkeys, leaf monkeys, nor gibbon apes: all native to Myanmar........Historically, the Sawbwa were hereditary rulers of the semi-independent Shan States, of east Burma...... Apparently, the filming mostly took place in the World Animal Jungle Compound, in California........Robert Ryan's flat personality always bothers me. .......Again, this film is available at YouTube

Ace photographer John Alton contributes the main reason a movie enthusiast would want to watch this Escape to Burma (1955). Certainly Alton tried his best to make the film look interesting by continually fogging his lens with vines, lattices, trees and what-have-you, but the incredibly stupid script (the deathless dialogue includes this classic of instant informative advice: "The monsoon's coming this way. We'd better find shelter.") is something of a letdown.A selection of ham's delight performances also defeat all of photographer Alton's efforts. Oddly, the movie is currently available on a 5/10 VCI DVD that is not presented in SuperScope and is vastly inferior to the trailer in color saturation. On the same VCI disc is the more noirish "Appointment in Honduras" (1953) in which the players led by churlish Glenn Ford just manage to breathe a bit of life into an implausible screenplay. Solid action footage also helps.

The BBC aired this recently and as it was directed by super veteran Allan Dwan I happened to tape it.Ryan plays the typical US macho hero of the fifties, a fightin',shootin'(a Luger no less!) and kissin'guy. Mrs. Stanwyck is the owner of a plantation near Rangoon and she is not to be messed with. Third character is your run-of-the mill British, slightly repressed policeman, on the hunt for Ryan who supposedly has murdered the son of the local potentate.If you are a fan of Dwan's work better skip this one. The only good thing about it is the crisp clear color photography, the rest is pretty embarrassing. Clichéd would be putting it mildly. The script seems to be written in an afternoon and the same can be said of the movie itself.It is a bit unfair to Allan Dwan, as he made countless movies and still turned out some excellent stuff near the end of his very long career, as the classic marine epic "The Sands of Iwo Jima" and the sexy "Slightly Scarlet". So do not judge him on this silly jungle epic.

Direction, acting and virtually everything else about this mid-fifties pulp action flick are too flat to make it more than mildly enjoyable in a camp way. Ryan and Farrar fare better than Stanwyck, whose performance here unintentionally verges on self-parody. Stanwyck is very watchable here, but the script is so lazy and routine that her typical (and admirable) energy in tackling the role works against her. Ryan more appropriately gives the script its due,expressing obvious contempt for some of his lines. For a fifties flick, the quick sexual hookup of Ryan and Stanwyck is surprising (though a 10-year-old kid could see the film and not know what was happening between them).I think this and "Cattle Queen of Montana" are Stanwyck's only color films. Black and white works better for her; the heavy makeup here makes her look inappropriately feverish, even for a jungle flick. "Escape to Burma" is enjoyably bad in a mild way. I loved the back-lot jungle sets and obvious tropical foliage decoration. Nice house Stanwyck has there in the jungle too. Super art direction (always an RKO forte)."Slightly Scarlet," "Silver Lode" and "The River's Edge" are far more enjoyable and interesting Allan Dwan efforts from the fifties.