SOUND FEATURES: BLOOD ON THE SUN (1945)
CREDITS
Released: April 26, 1945
Production Company: William Cagney Productions
Featured Cast: James Cagney, Sylvia Sidney, Porter Hall, John Emery, Robert Armstrong, Wallace Ford, Rosemary DeCamp, John Halloran, Leonard Strong, James Bell, Marvin Miller, Rhys Williams, Frank Puglia, Philip Ahn, Hugh Beaumont, Edward Biby, Oie Chan, Oy Chan, Hugh Ho Chang, Gregory Gaye, Sam Harris, Joseph Kim, Grace Lem, Arthur Loft, Harold Miller, George Paris, Emmett Vogan, Billy Wayne
Director: Frank Lloyd,
Producer: William Cagney
Associate Director: Harvey Dwight
Cinematography: Theodor Sparkuhl
Editor: Walter Hannemann, Truman K. Wood
Production Designer: Wiard Ihnen
Set Decorator: A. Roland Fields
Costume Designer: Michael Woulfe
Makeup Artist: Josef Norin, Ern Westmore
Composer: Miklós Rózsa
Sound Recordist: Richard DeWeese
Music Mixer: Paul Neal
Orchestrator: Eugene Zador
Writers: Garrett Fort (story), Frank Melford (idea), Lester Cole (screenplay), Nathaniel Curtis (additional scenes)
AWARDS
Won 1 Oscar Award.
1946
Academy Awards, USA
Won, Oscar
Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White
Wiard Ihnen, A. Roland Fields
STORY
Nick Condon (James Cagney) is a journalist for the Tokyo Chronicler. He prints a story disclosing Japan’s plan to conquer the world. The newspaper is seized by Japanese officers. Condon get the Tanaka Plan, a paper in which all the plans are laid in written. The Japanese spies who follow him think that Ollie and Edith Miller (Wallace Ford and Rosemary DeCamp) are the ones who discovered all the plan because they suddenly have a lot of money and are coming back to the USA. When Condon goes to the ship to say them farewell, he finds Edith dead. He can only see a woman’s hand with a ring with a huge ruby. Back home, he finds Ollie, in a terrible condition. He gets from Ollie the Tanaka plan.
Premier Giichi Tanaka (John Emery) wants his plans to remain secret, and sends Col. Hideki Tojo (Robert Armstrong) Capt. Oshima (John Halloran) and Hijikata (Leonard Strong) to follow him everywhere. Condon loses the document with the Tanaka plan. Ollie’s disappeared, and the police arrest them in terms of scandal and much noise while having a party with two girls in his apartment, which is a complete lie.
Condon meets Iris Hilliard (Sylvia Sidney), half American and half Chinese. At first, he suspects her of being the lady in the ship, then he doesn’t. They fall in love. She seems to be betraying him, specially when Condon sees the ring with the ruby in her hand.
At the end, it turns out she’s been sent by a politician who wants peace and was present when the Tanaka plan was devised. Condon leaves his job after ten days. When he’s about to leave Japan, he meets the politician and Iris in the harbour. The politician signs the document to prove it’s real. They are discovered by the Japanese army.
Iris runs away with the document in a cargo ship which will take her out of Japan. To distract the Japanese officers, Condon fights his greatest enemy and tries to reach the American Embassy. He’s shot at by spies dressed in street clothes, but he’s not killed. The consular adviser goes out of the Embassy and takes Condon inside still alive, and the Japanese officers can’t prevent it, because they couldn’t find the Tanaka document when searching Condon.
TECH
Runtime 94 minutes (TCM print)
Sound Mix Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Color Info Black and White
Aspect Ratio 1.37 : 1
Negative Format 35 mm
Process Spherical
Printed Format 35 mm