all of a sudden, we're in a war

I was stunned that a film released in June of 1941, (6 months before Pearl Harbor!) would have an American lobbing grenades at Japanese soldiers wearing those dark green shiny helmets, near (?) Hong Kong.

Amazed again to read that it was shot in Alhambra, Culver City, and Malibu Hills, California. It looked authentic Asia to me.

So why were we so unprepared for Pearl Harbor?

I miss Big Band music and talented singers. Leonard Cohen is my idol. Civility, harmony, unity!

It's crappy because there are practically three different stories in this movie, and none of them mesh. I knew the twists and turns, but when I sat down to watch this movie, I was utterly bored. Gable was Gable, and Roz was still trying to shed her "Lady Mary" persona despite success in His Girl Friday and The Women, but the script was lackluster and dull. Where I usually find Gable amusing as he comes on to women he's attracted to, he was irritating here, and Rosalind's volte face at the end, regarding their life as thieves, was so cloying and made me realize that geez, the 1930s type of heroine was gone for good. But what really makes this movie dull and trite is that it doesn't live beyond its time period. I recognize that the US was on the brink of entering WWII and many films of this time period could be considered propaganda pieces (the sainted Casablanca included), but They Met in Bombay had no overarching, timeless theme to keep the movie centered and grounded, as well as timeless. Casablanca, once you look past its shameless patriotism and propaganda, is timeless because it's about duty, love and honor. What the hell was They Met in Bombay about?

It goes in a lot of various directions, and sometimes entirely different genres, but I liked it for what it was.