Del Rio was such an exotic and classically elegant actress that it's a pity when she gets stuck donating blood to a man who just tried to strangle her, stuck with a entire stock of absurd situations with bombs bursting in air during the Sino-Japanese war. It is unsettling to see the actual bombing and destruction of a major city used as a backdrop for "B" movie melodrama, even if George Sanders does get to wear a mustache and affect something other than world-weary attitude; the "B" film had great possibilities, but too much footage is given over to a pair of silly romantic magpies, one a Sacramento reporter trying to snag an important story but getting hung up on a budding romance. There are plenty of incidental pleasures, of course: the appearance of John Carradine doing his Irish best, Harold Huber and Leon Ames as greedy baddies, and a short running time. But I'd rather see Del Rio as Madame Dubarry any day!
Review of International Settlement
