Rent Visa to Canton (1960)
2.8 of 5 from 48 ratings
1h 15min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Don Benton (Richard Basehart), a former World War II combat pilot, now running a travel agency in Hong Kong, refuses to take political sides and flatly rejects an offer to do espionage work for the United States. When Mao Tai Tai (Athene Seyler), an old Chinese woman who more or less adopted Benton during the war years, asks him to try to find her missing grandson. Benton sets out on a dangerous mission, flying into Communist-controlled China to try to rescue a girl and take her back to Hong Kong. Knowing that the grandson was piloting a Formosan aircraft that disappeared over mainland China, Benton obtains a passport through a Russian friend, Ivano Kang (Eric Pohlmann). Flyings to the mainland, he rescues the downed pilot. To clear the young man's name, Benton goes to Canton to bring back one of the aircraft passengers, an American agent, Lola Sanchez (Lisa Gastoni), who has memorized a vital scientific formula and is willing to sell it to the highest bidder. Kang tries to get the formula from her, but she kills him. Benton hopes to get Lola out of the city, but as they work their way through holiday street crowds, she is fatally wounded by Kang's bodyguard and dies with her secret. Back in Hong Kong, Benton once more turns down an offer to do undercover work for the U.S. government. - Actors:
- Richard Basehart, Athene Seyler, Lisa Gastoni, Eric Pohlmann, Marne Maitland, Bernard Cribbins, Alan Gifford, Kevin Scott, Burt Kwouk, Hedger Wallace, Sorata Ra Fat, Ronald Ing, Zoreen Ismail, Robert Lee, Paula Li Shiu, Milton Reid, Yvonne Shima, Jerry Lee Yen
- Directors:
- Michael Carreras
- Producers:
- Michael Carreras
- Writers:
- Gordon Wellesley
- Aka:
- Passport to China
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- People of the Pictures, Remembering Bernard Cribbins
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 30/03/2020
- Run Time:
- 75 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Two presentations of the film: 'Visa to Canton', and 'Passport to China', with the alternative US titles
- Audio commentary with film historian Kevin Lyons (2020)
- Hammer's Women: Lisa Gastoni (2020): profile of the Hammer star by critic and writer Virginie Sélavy
- Ticket to Ride (2020): film historian Vic Pratt discusses ethnocentrism in sixties British cinema
- David Huckvale on Edwin Astley (2020): appreciation of the film's score by the author of Hammer Film Scores and the Musical Avant-Garde
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials
- World premiere on Blu-ray
