AMERICAN GUERRILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES **

Fritz Lang made "American Guerrilla in the Philippines" on location on the islands themselves which lends it a whiff of authenticity but among Lang's American films it's also one of the least known. It may be poorly acted but it's so unusual it holds your attention and there are moments here as good as any in Lang's work. It's about a group of US servicemen stranded in the Philippines during the Japanese invasion and it's unlike almost any other war film of the period. (It shows a different side to life on the islands than most war films and it times it might even remind you of  "Apocalypse Now Redux" which may suggest that one war is very much like another). There isn't a great deal of action but when it does come the action scenes are superbly handled; rather it's in the relationship between Tyrone Power's American guerrilla and Micheline Presle's French settler that proves to be the film's strong point. Coming as it did in 1950 you could hardly say it was just a flag-waving piece of wartime propaganda. It's certainly ripe for rediscovery.