American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) on Netflix
Japanese planes destroy an American motor torpedo boat in the Philippines in April 1942. Ensign Chuck Palmer and Jim Mitchell reach Cebu, where their commander orders the survivors to scatter.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.0/101,484 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes60%
Plot summary
Ensign Chuck Palmer is on an American motor torpedo boat in the Philippines in April 1942 when Japanese planes destroy it, and he reaches Cebu with the other survivors, who are told by their commander to split up. Chuck and Jim Mitchell make their way to Colonel Benson on Leyte, and learn that General Douglas MacArthur has ordered his forces there to surrender soon. When Jeanne Martinez, a French woman whose husband Juan owns a plantation, needs medical help for a pregnant woman, Chuck helps her get it, and she asks him to stay and fight. He buys an outrigger canoe and gathers a crew of Air Corps soldiers for a run to Australia; the boat founders, and Miguel, who belongs to the Filipino resistance, helps the men.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When the film premiered in the Philippines, protests and a threatened boycott arose because the names of Filipino actors had been omitted from the credits. The studio responded by replacing the onscreen credits of several crew members with a new Technicolor card crediting 17 Filipino actors.
- In 1950 the film became the first American film to be shot on location in the Philippines in color.
- The film is based on U.S. Navy ensign Iliff "Rich" Richardson, executive officer of PT 34, which the Japanese sank; he joined the Philippine guerrillas and built a radio network linking the bands to Allied forces in Australia. He later dictated his memoirs to war correspondent Ira Wolfert, who published them in 1945.
- The film was originally planned for Puerto Rico with Fred MacMurray and William Bendix under Henry King; the plan later changed to John Payne and Linda Darnell, to be filmed on Catalina Island.
