In the scene immediately following the opening credits, as Father O'Banion leads a donkey carrying Siu Lan along a mountain path overlooking a valley, their shadows are plainly visible on the painted backdrop of the valley.
In the baptism scene at the end, Holden pulls the white garment over his head just as the name of the child is revealed.
His hair is very tousled as his head subsequently emerges.
The scene cuts to the proud/happy parents, then right back to Holden and his hair is miraculously restored to its customary neatness with no apparent time elapsed.
William Holden and Clifton Webb make an engaging pair of priests in China at the time of the 1949 Communist take-over.Since Holden arrives late to replace Webb at the mission, the latter isn't able to get out in time as the Communist forces invade.
While others have discussed their concern regarding the "reward" of Ho San as escaping with the woman that he raped to a free Hong Kong, no one so far has addressed the impact of Ho San's parents on the overall story - nor the impact of their deaths on his ultimate reversal.Throughout the story, whether it is their attendance at Mass during Ho San's speech or assisting during birth of Siu Lan's child or their ultimate murder during the response to the villagers' riot in the mission's chapel, Ho San's parents were the anchor of the faithful, the always believing Chinese catholics.
I saw this film over 20 years ago and remembered it very well. I just purchased the blu ray and thoroughly enjoyed the film again.
Passably entertaining, but often unconvincing, silly, and down-right hokey, Leo McCarey's film of Pearl S. Buck's original screenplay "China Story," "Satan Never Sleeps" takes place during the Communist takeover of China in the late 1940's.
This movie, Satan Never Sleeps, would best be enjoyed by those 30 and older. Although there is no fast pace action, that is OK for there is a lot of emotion caught up on film which would be drowned if if were a fast paced action film.
Yes, the screenwriter might well have been Joe McCarthy. I don't know how closely it follows the then recently published novel of the same title by Pearl Buck.
This movie was released in 1962, the same year I was born, and it's one of the few things that has aged less gracefully than I have.The plot involves a Catholic mission in Revolutionary China, where a couple of priests find themselves caught up in the machinations of the local Communist boss.
I rented this because of the presence of William Holden and Clifton Webb. It turns out that they are completely undone by a hopelessly wretched script.
"Satan Never Sleeps" is a truly horrible film and there is little I can say positive about it. It's often dull and promotes a VERY dangerous message--and, while it's meant to be anti-communist, you can't help but think that crap like this actually makes America look really, really stupid.
