The World of Suzie Wong (1960)

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

The dark side of Hong Kong exposed. I would never have imagined that in the 60s they would attempt to make such a movie. Way ahead of it's time this movie deals with racism, sexual exploitation, prostitution and refugees. Images of hungry women trying to survive in the filthy streets of Hong Kong staid with you. Brilliant performances all around. Magically this movie manages to marry a very dark drama with the shine of Hollywood... and succeeds !

I can well understand Chinese not liking the film, with its picture of Chinese women as little sexual dolls, and the racial superiority of the white HK establishment. But that was the world as it was then. For me it evokes globes where the world is 1/4 red for the British Empire and HK stamps graced by a young and newly crowned Queen Elizabeth. I love its photography of Hong Kong c. 1960. The love story is somewhat contrived and the Suzie character not entirely believable. But the plot moves swiftly along and William Holden is usually fun to watch, and only slightly ridiculous. It's not surprising American males with fond memories of their R&R in the Pacific liked the story; I'm not sure if their wives felt the same way. But I think those that are oh-so-offended have decided they want to be offended, just because a place and a time and a people do not happen to reflect the values they hold most dear.

When William Holden and Jennifer Jones scored well in Love Is A Many Splendored Thing about an interracial romance set in Hong Kong on a loan out to 20th Century Fox, the folks at Holden's home studio at Paramount figured that the long running Broadway play, The World of Suzie Wong was a natural for Bill. They bought the property and took a one scene play in the cheap Hong Kong hotel room into big production. So big it kind of dwarfs the tender love story.But the worst part of Suzie Wong is that Bill Holden is so terribly miscast. The then 43 year old Holden is playing a part that on Broadway was done by William Shatner then age 28. The part of the architect who wants to become an artist and goes to Hong Kong to discover his talent would have been better for someone like Paul Newman or Marlon Brando or even Montgomery Clift.However newcomer Nancy Kwan who is from Hong Kong scored well in the title character that France Nuyen did on Broadway. Back in the day Kwan and Nuyen seemed to do just about every young beautiful oriental woman role that came to the screen. Also well cast was Sylvia Sims who's carrying a torch for Holden as the banker's daughter trying to help him in art circles and Michael Wilding the two timing cad who enjoys Kwan's favors as a prostitute and would like to make the arrangement semi-permanent.Love Is A Many Splendored Thing made a lot more sense because Holden was romancing a professional woman his own age in Jennifer Jones. He comes off more a like a dirty old man in this film.Jen and Bill have their high windy hill in that other film and in The World of Suzie Wong there's another hill where Suzie lives part time and which sustains a mudslide after the monsoon. Let's just say it's not something to write a romantic hit song about.The World of Suzie Wong does have some nice location photography of Cold War Hong Kong. The plot has some similarities to Some Came Running, but it isn't half as good.Come to think of it, I thought Frank Sinatra was miscast as the lead in that film as well.

If there was one beautiful face on the screen that mesmerized me in 1960--it was Nancy Kwan as Suzie Wong in "The World of Suzie Wong". Forty five years later, I bought the DVD and I treasure this movie as much as I did in 1960. This was the time when Stars were Stars and beauty was not skin deep. Nancy Kwan stole the scenes from her "Permeanent boy friend, Lobert!" (Chinese version of Robert!). William Holden who was at the peak of his career at that time gave a subtle but memorable perf. There is more romance in this movie than "Casablanca" and "Sound of Music" combined. The location is beautifully captured, with background music embellishing the landscape. This was produced by Ray Stark and masterfully directed by Richard Quine. This was when Hollywood was the glamor capitol of the world and artistry and talent took higher billing. This movie is an attestation to the fact, that-you make good movies, people will see them no matter what, when and where. The movie was a visual treat, with an old fashioned romance and an innate beauty that the newer movies will never capture. "To who it may concern," Why can't Hollywood make more movie's like this?-"For Goodness Sake"!!!.