MGM may not have been as heavily involved as other Hollywood studios in making anti-Axis films before the U.S. entered World War II, but they more than made up for it with this low-budget action film. Or they would have had they gotten it out before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Instead, this tale of a New York cabbie (Barry Nelson, in his first leading role) shepherding supply trucks up the Burma Road to bring supplies to the Chinese Army in Chungking had some new scenes mentioning Pearl Harbor added before release. Nelson's odyssey includes fighting off Japanese attacks, negotiating landslides and wrecked bridges, and coping with female stowaway Larraine Day, out to clear her name when her estranged husband goes over to the enemy's side. Although some critics complained that the Chinese were shown as childlike creatures who had no fight in them until the American showed them how, the film should get some kind of credit for showcasing Asian-American actors like Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung and Philip Ahn, in positive roles, a rarity during the war years when most Asians were typed as villains.

By Frank Miller