Dragon Seed (DVD-R)

US Import

During World War II, U.S. studios released numerous films lauding the nation's allies. Greer Garson persevered in the Battle of Britain in Mrs. Miniver, Humphrey Bogart fought with the Free French in Passage to Marseille, Robert Taylor saluted Soviet allies in Song of Russia. And Katharine Hepburn headlined a convincing tale of the Chinese war effort -- Dragon Seed.

Hepburn portrays heroic Chinese peasant woman Jade in this grandly scaled film based on the best-selling novel by Pearl S. Buck (who also authored The Good Earth). A talented ensemble supports Hepburn, including Walter Huston and Aline MacMahon (an Academy Award nominee for her stirring performance) as a long-married couple whose peaceful farm life is disrupted by enemy troops -- and plunged into a tumult of hardships, wartime atrocities and fiery resistance.