Originally a USSR screenplay, then rendered by Shanghai film industry renowned for its realistic/leftist propensity, early romance and metropolitanism before the communist takeover, this 1950s-NewYork-KoreanWar-McCarthyism background story is purely acted by Chinese troupers with astonishing makeup artisanship, soon after Chinese civil war and during "Great Movement to Resist America and Assist Korea".
It’s also one of my favourite films (another one is Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man 《哀乐中年》) starring 石挥, the dynamic performance prodigy extremely active and revered in 1940s-1950s and committed suicide ("went missing to escape punishment", officially) one night off a ferry named "Democracy" just 5 years after this film. I can hardly recognise him (Mr Butler) in this film, as if it’s the formal and final chance to disguise himself and sublimate all the slyness, without a trace of cliche, by performing a typical grasping American capitalist, which had been indecent in such a puritanical stalinised (with MAO’s proud signature of course) atmosphere. While watching this “New Yorker”’s flawless performance, his passing images like the dirty old rich man (Long Live the Wife《太太万岁》 1947), the sad primary school teacher (Sorrows and Joys of a Middle-Aged Man《哀乐中年》1949), the Chekhovian desolate Peking cop (My This Lifetime《我这一辈子》1950), and the aggressive human trafficker for brothels (Stand Up, Sisters 《姊姊妹妹站起来》 1951)…are striking me wildly for one heart-stopping moment. Never seen any face like his kind in Chinese film history since his disappearance.
When it comes to cliche, I found that only those goodies (the trade unionist) are so old chestnut who had since then flooded all the communist Chinese propagandas for decades, no wonder.
