I rented this because of the presence of William Holden and Clifton Webb. It turns out that they are completely undone by a hopelessly wretched script. The relationship between Holden's Father O'Banyan and the ingenue Siu Lan, played by France Nuyen, could have been treated as a serious conflict between the dictates of priestly celibacy and the temptations of the flesh. Instead Holden and Nuyen play it as low-grade bedroom farce, because that's what the script calls for. The dialogue throughout is weak, jejune, and pedestrian. And Nuyen's portrayal of Siu Lan, despite the commendations of others here, is one of the most annoying characterizations I have ever seen. Nuyen's over-the-top sexy mugging becomes terminally cloying. Clifton Webb seems to have been hired to fulfill his reputation as an expert in portraying crotchety and fussy old queens, a task he discharges here with his usual panache. As far as the political aspects of the story, I am as anti-Communist as they come, but the Commies in this flick are as phony as the mustachioed villains in Victorian melodrama. The characterization of the Russian interloper Kuznietsky invokes laughter rather than fear. The final spiritual conversion of the central villain, Ho San, is as unconvincing and contrived as the hokey happy ending.
But the cinematography was nice.
But the cinematography was nice.