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KING OF CHINATOWN
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Akim Tamiroff plays the title role, an underworld leader who controls
all illicit operations in Chinatown. Tamiroff is toppled from power by
two members of his own mob (Anthony Quinn and J.Carroll Naish).
He
is left for dead, but is saved by a dedicated Chinese-American doctor
(Anna May Wong). In gratitude, Tamiroff turns over his fortune to a
Chinese war relief fund. |
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Cast
| Anna May Wong | - Dr. Mary Ling | | Akim Tamiroff | - Frank Baturin | | J. Carrol Naish | - The Professor | | Sidney Toler | - Dr. Chang Ling | | Philip Ahn | - Robert "Bob" Li | | Anthony Quinn | - Mike Gordon | | Bernadene Hayes | - Dolly Warren | | Roscoe Karns | - Rep. Harrigan |
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DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI| In an unidentified airplane flying over the ocean in which six aliens are huddled, alien-smugglers Frank Barden (J. Carrol Naish) and Andrew Sleete (Buster Crabbe as Larry Crabbe)
are trying to evade a government pursuit plane. They dump the screaming
"evidence" into the sea. Escaping pursuit, they later approach wealthy
merchant Quan Lin (Ching Wah Lee)and demand he take some aliens off of their hands. They kill him when he refuses. Lan Ying Lin (Anna May Wong), his daughter, goes to wealthy society matron Mrs. Mary Hunt (Cecil Cunningham) for help. She introduces her to an inspector and Kim Lee (Philip Ahn),
a government agent. Unknown to all, Mrs. Hunt is the power behind the
smuggling ring. Turning detective to catch her father's killers, Lan
Ying Lin finds herself on a remote island where she takes a job as a
dancer in a honky-tonk operated by Otto Hartman (Charles Bickford),
and discovers the island resort is a blind for an alien receiving
station. She gets the evidence on Hartman and flees the island with
agent Lee, disguised as a man, in the hold of the smuggling vessel.
They are discovered by the ship's captain (Lee Shumway)
who radios for a sea plane. They are loaded into the plane, piloted by
Barden and Sleete, and are being flown out to sea to be disposed of. |
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Cast
| Anna May Wong | - Lan Ying Lin | | Philip Ahn | - Kim Lee | | Charles Bickford | - Otto Hartman | | Larry "Buster" Crabbe | - Andrew Sleete | | Cecil Cunningham | - Mrs. Mary Hunt | | J. Carrol Naish | - Frank Barden | | Anthony Quinn | - Harry Morgan |
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DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGONPrincess
Ling Moy, a young and beautiful Chinese aristocrat lives next door,
unbeknownst to her, to Dr. Fu Manchu, a brilliant but twisted genius
who is out to rule the world.
She is involved with Ah Kee, a
handsome young man, who also unbeknownst to her, is a secret agent out
to thwart the heinous plots of Fu Manchu. As it turns out, Fu is not
only her next-door neighbor, he is also, (unbeknownst to her), her
father.
When she finds out, will she take her father's part
and fight the men out to get Fu, or will she become a brave heroine and
save the world even if it is from the devious doings of her own Dad?
Yes,
it's dated, and there isn't nearly enough of Warner Oland in it; but it
moves along well, has a lot of action, Wong and Hayakawa were fine
actors, and if you're a Charley Chan fan, it's worth it to how much, if
any, of Fu Oland used when creating Charley Chan. |
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Cast
| Anna May Wong | - Ling Moy | | Warner Oland | - Fu Manchu | | Sessue Hayakawa | - Ah Kee | | Bramwell Fletcher | - Ronald Petrie | | Frances Dade | - Joan Marshall |
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ISLAND OF LOST MEN
Teutonic expatriates Kurt Neumann (director), Karl Struss
(cinematographer), Hans Dreier (art director) combine skills in this
very loose remake of the 1933 Charles Laughton/Carole Lombard WHITE
WOMAN with Anna May Wong cast as Kim Ling, determined to find a way to
cleanse her father's discredited name, and J. Carroll Naish is Gregory
Prin, in this version a part-Asian overlord of a jungle labor
settlement to which visitors are given only one-way passage.
Created
as unabashed melodrama, the work begins with a first meeting of Prin
and Kim Ling where she is performing as "Lily" at a Singapore night
club, and when she notices that Prin wears a medallion of her family
crest, she accepts his invitation to accompany him to his plantation as
guest, where she is introduced to sundry felonious outcasts, one of
whom, however, is Chinese "Secret Service" agent Chang Tai, played by
Anthony Quinn.
Kim Ling discovers among her host's effects the
proof that she requires to restore her father's honour, whereupon she
and Chang Tai endeavour to bring about Prin's downfall, but the canny
villain's informants keep him knowledgeable of this activity, as the
rapidly paced affair moves to its highly charged conclusion, at times
bereft of logic but never dull.
ISLAND pleases on many
accounts, notably the efficient direction and utilization of some
clever script business, along with artistic cinematography and
atmospheric sets and scoring, but the playing is sterling as well, with
Naish capturing acting laurels with his nuanced reading of the
inconsistent Prin, and there are outstanding turns from Eric Blore and
Broderick Crawford, Wong playing Wong and singing nicely; efficient
editing by Ellsworth Hoagland benefits this crisply done motion
picture.
DANGEROUS TO KNOW
Racketeer Steve Recka (Akim Tamiroff), art patron and political
power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying (Anna May Wong), his
beautiful Oriental friend and hostess (read:mistress), with an iron
hand. He meets Margaret Van Kase (Gail Patrick), a socialite not
impressed by his power nor his wealth, having no money herself, and
Steve makes frantic efforts to win her and turns away from the loyal
Lin Yang. Margaret ignores him as she plans to wed Philip Easton
(Harvey Stephens), a penniless bond salesman. The furious Recka, poses
as a friend to Easton, while planning to ruin him. His henchmen kidnap
Easton when he is carrying a large assignment of bonds, and he is
branded as a runaway thief. The only doubters are Margaret and Police
Inspector Brandon (Lloyd Nolan), who knows Recka's methods and suspects
foul play. Easton is found in an abandoned house and arrested as the
gangsters have taken the bonds and tipped the police where to find him.
Recka offers to clear Easton if Margaret will become his bride and,
while her hatred for Recka is intense, her love for Easton is greater
and she consents. Recka, however, has reckoned without Lan Ying.
LIMEHOUSE BLUES
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Location- London's Limehouse district. George Raft stars as Harry
Young, a half-caste saloonkeeper who shelters beleaguered white girl
Toni (Jean Parker) from her tormentors (shades of Broken Blossoms).
Harry
falls in love with the girl, but mixing of the races was still a
Hollywood no-no in 1934, so tragedy results -- except for Toni, who
finds happiness in the arms of Eric Benton (Kent Taylor), a man of "her
own kind."
The highly eclectic cast includes Anna May Wong as
Raft's obligatory cast-off sweetheart Tu Tuan, former 2-reel comic
Billy Bevan, and in a tiny uncredited role, Ann Sheridan. To avoid
confusion with another Limehouse Blues, this one was retitled East End
Chant for television. |
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Cast
| George Raft | - Harry Young | | Jean Parker | - Toni | | Anna May Wong | - Tu Tuan | | Kent Taylor | - Eric Benton | | Montagu Love | - Pug Talbot | | Billy Bevan | - Herb |
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