Passport to China

Passport to China (also known as Visa to Canton) is a 1960 British adventure spy film released by Columbia Pictures; directed by Michael Carreras and starring Richard Basehart, Lisa Gastoni, Eric Pohlmann and Bernard Cribbins. The screenplay, which concerns a pilot who tries to rescue a girl from Communist-controlled China, was based on a story by Gordon Wellesley and made by Swallow Productions and Hammer Films.

Passport to China
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Carreras
Written by	Gordon Wellesley
Produced by	Michael Carreras
Starring	Richard Basehart Athene Seyler Lisa Gastoni
Cinematography	Arthur Grant
Edited by	James Needs Alfred Cox
Music by	Edwin Astley
Production companies	Swallow Productions Ltd. Hammer Film Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (UK & US)
Release date	26 December 1960 (1960-12-26) (UK)
Running time	75 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom France
Language	English

Plot

Don Benton, a former World War II combat pilot, now running a travel agency in Hong Kong, refuses to take political sides and flatly rejects an offer to do espionage work for the United States.

When Mao Tai Tai, an old Chinese woman who more or less adopted Benton during the war years, asks him to try to find her missing grandson.

Knowing that the grandson was piloting a Formosan aircraft that disappeared over mainland China, Benton obtains a passport through a Russian friend, Ivano Kang. Flying to the mainland, he rescues the downed pilot.

To clear the young man's name, Benton goes to Canton to bring back one of the aircraft passengers, an independent agent, Lola Sanchez, who has memorized a vital scientific formula and is willing to sell it to the highest bidder.

Kang tries to get the formula from her, but she kills him. Benton hopes to get Lola out of the city, but as they work their way through holiday street crowds, she is fatally wounded by Kang's bodyguard and dies with her secret. Back in Hong Kong, Benton once more turns down an offer to do undercover work for the U.S. government.

Cast

• Richard Basehart as Don Benton
• Lisa Gastoni as Lola Sanchez
• Athene Seyler as Mao Tai Tai
• Eric Pohlmann as Ivano Kang
• Alan Gifford as Orme
• Bernard Cribbins as Pereira
• Burt Kwouk as Jimmy
• Marne Maitland as Han Po
• Milton Reid as Kang's bodyguard (uncredited)

Production

Location scenes for Passport to China were filmed in Hong Kong. Released in Great Britain in Technicolor in December 1960 as Visa to Canton, the film was shown in the US in black-and-white. Although the male lead, Richard Basehart had starred in a number of prestigious feature films in the 1950s, by this point in his career, his prospects had faded.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Hammer's incursion into the exotic East (authentic backgrounds but Athene Seyler playing a Chinese matriarch), and the territory of the spy thriller, is badly let down by an involved plot and an excess of sentimentality (the hero's attachment to a friendly Chinese family) and melodrama. Basehart and Pohlmann give respectable performances, but the picture tries too hard for an overly broad appeal."

Film reviewer Sandra Brennan, described the spy drama as one of a "reluctant hero" who becomes involved in the Cold War tensions surrounding Communist China. Ultimately, "he refuses to do any more work for American intelligence."

References

Bibliography

• Aylesworth, Thomas and John S. Bowman. World Guide To Film Stars. London: Brompton Books, 1991. ISBN 0-861-24873-2.
• Quinlan, David. Quinlan's Film Stars. Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, 1996. ISBN 978-1-5748-8318-3.

External links

• Passport to China at IMDb
• Passport to China at the TCM Movie Database