Not one to see a lot of war films, I have to say I enjoyed "American Guerilla in the Philippines," starring Tyrone Power and directed by Fritz Lang. Power plays a real-life navy man, Chuck Parsons, who helped organize guerrilla forces in the Philippines after MacArthur promised to return. There are some exciting and tense scenes, and also, the film is a tribute to the courage of the Filipinos. There are obvious non-actors in small roles, which is a little distracting, but I suppose this was done for the sake of realism. Power is rugged and handsome as Parsons, and Tom Ewell gives an excellent performance as a wisecracking soldier. Micheline Presle is the de rigeur love interest - it's Tyrone Power who's starring, after all, and their love scenes are great, as are their scenes where she subtly fights her attraction to him. Of course, I'd have caved right in.

Power did not get to meet the real Chuck Parsons until a few months after filming, when Parsons appeared, unannounced, in Power's dressing room when the actor was performing "Mr. Roberts" in London. One must assume Parsons was pleased to have been portrayed by a matinée idol.

Fritz Lang did a wonderful job of directing, but of course, this film is a far cry from Metropolis. It was a hard shoot for Power, as his wife, Linda Christian, miscarried while visiting him on location.

Despite other reviews on this page, Amrican Guerrilla is very watchable. You have to take it for what it is - propaganda to get the U.S. ready for the Korean war.

A great director like Fritz Lang is reason enough to see any film, regardless of its reception. It is hard though to not expect much when you see Lang's name attached. Also Tyrone Power, while not one of my favourite actors, is always watchable, although not every film he starred in was great (though few were "bad" strictly speaking). They were the two reasons for me watching 'The American Guerilla in the Philippines', as well as appearing in my more like this section with no prior knowledge of it.

Watching it, 'American Guerilla in the Philippines' didn't strike me as a bad film and there are a fair share of good elements. It also didn't strike as a particularly good film with an equal amount of bad things, and the main reason to see it in the first place is if you are wanting to see everything that Power and Lang did, so completest sake really. Power doesn't come off too badly here, being in a role that suits him (that actually has been the case more than once in his overall lesser films),but this is not a good representation of Lang in one of his weaker efforts.

There are good things here in 'American Guerilla in the Philippines'. It is shot beautifully in striking Technicolor, which enhances the already beautiful Philippine locations extremely well. The music is suitably rousing and lush, while the action sequences are truly exciting (especially the climax).

Power plays his role with the right amount of brooding charisma, he is not too lightweight for it and his strengths are at least played to. Tom Ewell does surprisingly too playing against type, while the Japanese officer is chilling in parts.

However, the dialogue, which can be too talky, often ranges between bad and painful and in the non-action scenes 'American Guerilla in the Philippines' tends to go dead pace-wise. The romance is particularly tedious in this regard, and not helped by a Micheline Presle and hardly any chemistry between her and Power, it doesn't add very much either and seemed to be there because it is seemingly obbligatory to have one. The acting from the rest of the cast is rather amateurish

It is hard to believe that this came from the same director who directed masterpieces like 'M' and 'Metropolis', am really trying to be fair here but it is hard not to compare. It is always nice to see a director do something atypical and there have been numerous instances of that happening and the film being good and even great, but Lang was well and truly out of his depth here shining only in the action scenes with the romance especially betraying that notion. The story execution is very hit and miss, leaning towards miss with the momentum mostly not being there and the same can be said for any tension. There is even some patriotism thrown in and it felt heavy-handed and unnecessary.

Concluding, watchable for the technicolor and Power but a big disappointment by Lang standards. 5/10

Had BACK TO BATAAN and BACK TO BATAAN not been made, then I assume that American GUERILLA IN THE PHILIPPINES would probably be a better remembered film. That's because it's an excellent movie in just about every way, but the earlier John Wayne and Robert Taylor films about the Philippines during WWII were very outstanding films and tend to overshadow this Tyrone Power flick.

While the plot is not identical to these other two films, there are many similarities. All three document the heroic efforts of the Philippino partisans as well as that of Americans stuck in this land during the war. About the only noticeable difference was that the Power film was in color and I really think for this subject matter, black and white actually worked better--looking more like what you'd expect a WWII film to look like. Plus, the other two films are just a little more exciting and involving--but this isn't to say this Power film is bad--it just isn't quite as involving.

Still, among the many, many WWII films, this one is a bit better than average and well worth a peek. And, yes, I also noticed the line that said a Navy Ensign is equivalent to an Army Major! I'm surprised that Power, with his WWII experience, would have said such a stupid line. An ensign is most closely equivalent to an Army Lieutennant--a much lower rank.