The World of Suzie Wong

United States, United Kingdom

1960

126 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.3/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

SCR Paul Osborn, Richard Mason, John Patrick

CAST William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Michael Wilding, Jacqui Chan, Laurence Naismith, Yvonne Shima, Andy Ho, Lier Hwang, Bernard Cribbins, Edwina Carroll, Dervis Ward, Marian Spencer, Lionel Blair, Ronald Eng, Calvin Hsia, David Langton, Shan Lawrence, Robert Lee, Anthony Parker, Toke Townley

PROD DES John Box

American architect Robert Lomax is an aspiring artist who relocates to Hong Kong for a year to see if he can make a living as a painter. On the Star Ferry en route to Hong Kong Island, he meets Mee Ling, a seemingly proper young woman of lofty social status. She mischievously tries to have him arrested for stealing her purse, but the misunderstanding is resolved and they go their separate ways.With limited financial resources at his disposal, Robert looks for inexpensive rooming in the infamous Wan Chai district. By chance, he sees Mee Ling leaving a run-down hotel in the district, and he astounds proprietor Ah Tong by renting a room for a month rather than the usual hour or two. Robert quickly discovers the true nature of the establishment. In the bar next door, he is bemused to find Mee Ling again, this time dressed in a slinky red cheongsam and in the company of a sailor. This time, she calls herself Suzie Wong, and she unabashedly admits she really is a prostitute. The following day, Robert visits a banker to set up an account. The banker’s secretary and daughter, Kay O’Neill, immediately is attracted to the newcomer.

Robert asks Suzie to model for him. As they get better acquainted, he learns she was forced into her profession as a means of survival when she was ten years old. She begins falling in love with him, but he tries to dissuade her, although he finds her very appealing. Meanwhile, he also is pursued discreetly by Kay. At a dinner party she hosts, Robert meets Ben Marlowe, whom he recognizes as one of Suzie’s clients, with his wife. Ben offers to make Suzie his mistress, and she accepts in order to make Robert jealous. When Ben reconciles with his wife, he asks Robert to break the news to Suzie. She is so hurt by the rejection that Robert finally admits he loves her.

Initially, the two are very happy, but their relationship becomes strained. One day, Robert follows Suzie on one of her periodic disappearances. He finds her visiting the infant son she has kept hidden from him, and he accepts the child. When his paintings fail to sell, he finds himself facing financial difficulties, and both Kay and Suzie offer to give him money, but his pride will not let him accept. When Suzie pays his rent and offers to resume prostitution to help him, he drives her away in a fit of anger. Realizing his mistake, Robert searches for Suzie. When he finally finds her, he learns her baby has died in the annual flooding, and the two commit themselves to each other. —wikipedia

Director

Richard Quine

Richard Quine (November 12, 1920 – June 10, 1989) was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director. Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year. His screen acting credits include The World Moves On (1934), Jane Eyre (1934), Babes on Broadway (1941), My Sister Eileen (1942), and Words and Music (1948), among others. At MGM he became friends with Mickey Rooney and later directed several of Rooney’s films.

During World War II, Quine served in the United States Coast Guard, He married actress Susan Peters in November 1943. After the war, he tried directing, first as co-producer and co-director on Leather Gloves (1948), with William Asher, before his first solo effort on the musical The Sunny Side of the Street (1951). His directing credits include Pushover (1954), My Sister Eileen (1955), Operation Mad Ball (1957), Bell, Book and Candle… read more

Richard Quine (November 12, 1920 – June 10, 1989) was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director. Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year. His screen acting credits include The World Moves On (1934), Jane Eyre (1934), Babes on Broadway (1941), My Sister Eileen (1942), and Words and Music (1948), among others. At MGM he became friends with Mickey Rooney and later directed several of Rooney’s films.

During World War II, Quine served in the United States Coast Guard, He married actress Susan Peters in November 1943. After the war, he tried directing, first as co-producer and co-director on Leather Gloves (1948), with William Asher, before his first solo effort on the musical The Sunny Side of the Street (1951). His directing credits include Pushover (1954), My Sister Eileen (1955), Operation Mad Ball (1957), Bell, Book and Candle (1958), Strangers When We Meet (1960), and The World of Suzie Wong (1960).

He also produced such films as the comedy Paris, When It Sizzles (1964) with Audrey Hepburn and William Holden, How to Murder Your Wife (1965) with Jack Lemmon, Synanon (1966), and Hotel (1967).

By the late 1960s, his output fell, and in the 1970s, Quine made only a few disappointing films. Turning to television, he had in the 1954-1955 season created with Blake Edwards the first Mickey Rooney series, The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan, which aired on NBC. Quine later directed three episodes of Peter Falk’s Columbo, including Dagger Of The Mind, an episode set in Britain which some UK fans of that series regard as an embarrassment. He also worked on, another, much less successful NBC Mystery Movie series, McCoy starring Tony Curtis.

His final work was on The Prisoner of Zenda (1979) with Peter Sellers, although he was briefly part of the crew for another Sellers film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu (1980), for which he received no credit.

His first wife, whom he married on 11 July 1943, was actress Susan Peters, who was crippled from the waist down on a hunting trip with Quine in 1945 with Quine when she reached to the ground for her 22-caliber rifle, and it accidentally discharged. The bullet lodged in her spine. They divorced in 1948, and she died of the effects of anorexia nervosa in 1952, at age 31. On 17 April 1946, the couple adopted an infant, whom they named Timothy Richard Quine.

Quine was later engaged to Kim Novak, but the two did not marry. He also married Barbara Bushman (by whom he had two daughters, Katherine and Victoria), Fran Jeffries, and Diana Balfour.

After an extended period of depression and poor health, Quine committed suicide by shooting himself in Los Angeles on June 10, 1989. —Wikipedia

read less