Runtime: 70 minutes
Directed by: Lloyd Corrigan
Starring: Anna May Wong, Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher,
Warner Oland
From: Paramount
I was happy to experience more Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa… if only this would have been better. Both performers I’ve seen precious little of; this pulpy B movie is leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of the month, along with some others from the 30’s through 50’s you’ll see reviews of later in the month. My rating is probably generous; Wong and Hayakawa together is enough for me to make up for the odious “comic” character of a butler who has horrible eyesight along with some other flaws in this creaky tale.
Via one heck of a text information dump, the audience learns of the Fu Manchu character who mistakenly blames the Petrie family for the death of his family during the Boxer Rebellion. Fu is believed to have died 20 years ago; of course that wasn’t the case, and of course he was played by the totally white Warner Oland, as he was wont to do. His daughter was none other than Ling Moy, the entertainer played by Wong; she became the attempted instrument of destruction for the bland white meat babyface that was the remaining Petrie son. What misfortune for her that Hayakawa is a Chinese detective assisting Scotland Yard.
It's a shame that the two leads (both popular during the silent era before that faded away due to racism) couldn’t have starred in an awesome picture-a real classic. Be that as it may, this pulpy nonsense was nominally entertaining… mainly due to Anna and Sessue rather than either the white people or the white people in yellowface. To be fair, I should mention that the Paramount sets and costuming were both aces; so was the prop in the opening then closing credits which was a dragon statue w/ glowing eyes that… breathed fire. That was rad. Aside from some wild moments (I don’t mean the material that is problematic or racist) and a rainy finale, I wish the film as a whole would have been rad.
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