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'''Blood Alley''' is a 1955 seafaring adventure movie starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. Set in China, Wayne plays a Merchant Marine captain in a role originally intended for Robert Mitchum prior to an altercation with the producers [1]. Swedish actress Anita Ekberg and movie thug Mike Mazurki play Chinese roles. The film was written by Albert Sidney Fleischman from his novel and directed by William Wellman.
Two decades later, John Wayne and Lauren Bacall would make one more film together, ''The Shootist'' (1976).

Contents

Plot

Critical reception

Plot

''Blood Alley'' tells the story of Captain Tom Wilder (Wayne) whom locals rescue from the Chinese Communists. He ends up attempting to take the people of the village to Hong Kong by a small, rotten paddle steamer.
Wayne's love interest is the tough and determined Cathy Grainger (Bacall) whose father is a medical missionary.

Critical reception

Despite the star power of its lead actors and director, ''Blood Alley'' received a lukewarm reception from critics[2]. The New York Times proclaimed, "''Blood Alley'', despite its exotic, oriental setting, is a standard chase melodrama patterned on a familiar blueprint."[3]
Today's critics have focused on ''Blood Alley's anti-communist aspect, website sover.net calling it "only a banal actioner" [4] and DVDtalk proclaiming it "preposterous but entertaining" and claiming that "Wayne and Bacall have no chemistry at all" [5].
The film is estimated "80 per cent rotten" by users of the Rottentomatoes.com website [6].