Review of Escape to Burma

I suspect you have to possess a highly-developed sense of camp to truly appreciate "Escape to Burma".Judged by nearly all conventional standards it is quite dreadful.Poverty Row production values,laughable performances, sub "Sanders of the River" script and a storyline William S.Hart would have rejected as being old-hat are all presented with a straight face. It was made by a man who directed his first film in 1911 and who lived to see Ronald Reagan become president.Ludicrously considered by some back in the sixties as an auteur,Mr Alan Dwan was a journeyman director who spent 50 years doing hackwork in the studios.Whilst respecting,at least quantitavely,his output,there is very little in it that suggests he ever did more than take the money and run.He bought the product in on time and under budget;period.Presumably in the spirit of post-modern irony praise has been heaped on "Escape to Burma" for portraying its heroine as an unprincipled man-hungry bitch - a giant leap for womankind indeed. Miss Barbara Stanwyck tackles this role with gusto and strides about the set barking orders to her mahouts with barely concealed glee.She has two men to choose from,macho sneering Mr Robert Ryan or borderline closet queen(and ,worse,English borderline closet queen)Mr David Farrar. Mr Ryan oozes testosterone,Mr Farrar oozes Guerlaine's "Ode".Mr Ryan is wanted for murder,Mr Farrar is the Marshal(sorry,policeman),come to take him to jail.No contest there then. The two boys spend a lot of time fighting and trying to avoid knocking over bits of scenery .Miss Stanwyck and Mr Ryan go on a tiger hunt,their quarry clearly not even photographed on the same film stock let alone the same set.To everybody's surprise and relief Mr Ryan is revealed to be innocent after all,but not before being tortured and whipped whilst gritting his teeth bravely.Sadists and masochists are people too,you know.Where was Mr Dwan's head when he was making this?God alone knows. He was 72 at the time - I suspect he was having a senior moment.