Review of Escape to Burma

My word, what a lot of old tosh this is. Barbara Stanwyck, languishing deep in the Burmese jungles with just a bunch of superstitious natives and a herd of old elephants for company, finds herself playing hostess to a fugitive Robert Ryan. Ryan's on the run from a dour David Farrar who is convinced he murdered the local rajah's son. Of course it's not long before Stanwyck's swooning in Ryan's arms – that leisurely once-over she gives him when they first meet leaves us in no doubt as to where their relationship will lead, and although Farrar is on the side of the law, he's essentially the bad guy because – guess what? – Ryan didn't kill the Rajah's boy after all! Well, actually he did, but it was a sort of mercy killing, so it doesn't count.

Stanwyck's still looked in pretty good shape here – although she doesn't look quite so good when standing next to her young native girl servant if you know what I mean. The decent work must have been running out for her by then though, because although the story is reasonably entertaining, the dialogue is almost laughable – especially in the first few minutes when Stanwyck is looking over her rag-tag legion of elephants. Early on, she's portrayed as this strong, independent woman, off hunting a tiger to ease the natives' nerves, but instead of shooting the tiger she falls over and has to be rescued by big butch Bob and after that she just melts.