China

Set in 1941, China is an explosive wartime epic starring Loretta Young and Alan Ladd that "stirringly and impressively tells many truths" ( The Hollywood Reporter ). Ladd plays an American gasoline salesman in China who supplies his wares to the highest bidder, in this case, the enemy Japanese. His unbiased business philosophy is tested on a trip to Shanghai when he meets an American schoolteacher (Young) and her Chinese students who tell him of Japanese cruelty. In a surprise show of fierce allegiance, he joins a band of Chinese guerillas on a heist in this action-packed tale, which at the time, carried a Hollywood record of using seventy pounds of precious, rationed gunpowder.