Fritz on Fridays: American Guerrilla in the Philippines

On the first Friday of every month, this column by critic Joshua Polanski will feature a short review or essay on a film directed by Fritz Lang (1890-1976), the great Austrian “Master of Darkness.” Occasionally (but not too occasionally), Fritz on Fridays will also feature interviews and conversations with relevant critics, scholars and filmmakers about Lang’s influence and filmography.

Don’t lie: You didn’t know Fritz Lang directed a film set in the Philippines during World War II. American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) has largely been forgotten by time and not just by the legendary director’s standards; the film, an adaptation of a novel of the same written by Ira Wolfert (and based on the experiences of Iliff David Richardson), generated comparably little discourse when it came out and is by most standards just a typical war film. The New York Times called it “hackneyed as a comic book adventure yarn and not nearly so well played.” Lang even considered this war picture his least favorite. In a conversation with critic and programmer David Overbey, who named the film as his least favorite, the director responded with vigor. “American Guerrilla? I never made such a film! It would never fit into the Fritz Lang world vision.”

The film tells the story of the Battle of Leyte through the efforts of Navy torpedo boat Ensign Chuck Palmer (Tyrone Power) and his ensemble crew of leftover soldiers (mostly Army) and native militants. The United States surrenders early on, and the soldiers choose to sail to Australia instead of awaiting the arrival of the Japanese. Their naive venture into the sea gets them stranded only three days in and they find themselves right back where they started, stirring negligible emotions in the process. With the Japanese soldiers now patrolling the islands, Palmer and his men find themselves at the center of what becomes the Battle of Leyte, in which the forces of General Douglas MacArthur “liberate” the Philippines from its three-year Japanese occupation.

Continue reading at the Midwest Film Journal.