Atrocities of the Orient (1948)

Original title: Outrages of the Orient

AKA: Beast of the East

Directors: Carlos Vander Tolosa, William H. Jansen

Writer: Carlos Vander Tolosa

Composer: Julio Esteban Anguita

Starring: Linda Estrella, Alma Rosa Aguirre, Teddy Benavidez, Bimbo Danao, Mona Lisa, Fernando Royo

More info: IMDb

Tagline: See women tortured with unspeakable barbarity!

Plot: Filipinos fight the Japanese in 1944 but the enemy doesn't go lightly.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again?  Nope.

Promoted as a film that shows the horrors of the Japanese soldiers defiling the Filipino women, we only get a taste of that in the opening village attack.  After that we follow a small group of locals fighting the Japanese and another group of locals in a makeshift POW camp.  The Japanese are portrayed as cold hearted evil bastards and the Filipinos are heroic, lovable and fun.  Naturally.  It's the good guys against the bad guys.  The picture quality of the print I have is horrible but there's no mistaking some late '40s sleaze...

This is from the opening attack.  After that there's no sleaze and it's all war drama and action and it's pretty bad, too.  The script and some of the dialogue are corny, especially in the death scenes.  The actors milk it for all they can.  Some of it is groan-inducing.  Something Weird Video's site says this was a film that American producer put together from two films he bought, BEAST OF THE EAST and OUTRAGES OF THE ORIENT.  One some level I guess it's somewhat interesting to see a different part of WWII than what we're used to but overall the movie is just OK with the only thing worth seeing is the opening attack...you know, the sleazy shit.