Chinatown Squad
Director: Murray Roth
Year: 1935
Rating: 4.0
The Chopsticks
theme during the opening credits, gongs, Buddhas and Lion Dancers, let you
know that you are in Chinatown USA. The fog tells you that it is San Francisco.
This B film from Universal was scripted by Dore Schary who at the time was
pumping out a bunch of B film scripts - but over the next 20 years he was
to have a major role in films on the production side. After this as the head
of the MGM B production Unit - then as head of RKO and then heading up MGM
in the late 1940s. Not that you would know from this script. It is a mess
that makes little sense but has to do with a fellow receiving $70,000 from
a Chinese Society to buy planes for the Chinese Communists. Which kind of
surprised me. Were people in America aware of the Chinese Communists in 1935?
And were the planes to fight the Japanese or the Kuomintang? Never
explained. That fellow is killed while sitting in a Chinese restaurant, the
money stolen and a murder mystery is underway.
Lyle Talbot is less dull than normally and
is a Chinatown Tour Guide, ex-cop who was booted out for some reason. He
is in the restaurant at the time and decides to investigate. He falls for
a dame who was also there - played by Valerie Hobson, Hobson was a British
actress who signed up with Universal for Bride of Frankenstein, Mystery of
Edwin Drood and Werewolf of London. Years later having headed back to England,
she was Estella in Lean's Great Expectations. This film was not a highlight.
At one point she disguises herself as a Chinese female to hide from the police.
But her acting skills shine through by having to pretend to be in love with
Talbot. One of the murder suspects is the great Andy Devine, who had yet
to begin his great run as a sidekick in Westerns. 75 minutes.
