Chinatown After Dark (1931)

Director:

Stuart Paton

Writer:

Betty Burbridge (story)

Release Date:

15 October 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

See what happens in the underworld dens after dark!

Plot:

The female head of a criminal gang in Chinatown is after a valuable jewel, and lets nothing stand in her way of finding it. |

Plot Keywords:

Chinatown | Jewel | Chinese | Jewel Thief

Cast

Carmel Myers	...	Madame Ying Su
Rex Lease	...	James 'Jim' Bonner
Barbara Kent	...	Lotus
Edmund Breese	...	Le Fong
Frank Mayo	...	Ralph Bonner
Billy Gilbert	...	Horatio Dooley
Michael Visaroff	...	Mr. Varonoff
Laska Winters	...	Ming Fu (as Laska Winter)

Runtime:

59 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Ralph M. Like Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Love and Curses (1938)

A dagger, a jewel, mystery and murder . . . that's entertainment!

Detective Dooley (Billy Gilbert) explaining police procedure to Lotus (Barbra Kent):

Dooley: When I get enough evidence on him I'll send him to the pen.

Lotus: What pen?

Dooley: Well it ain't the fountain pen!

That's an example of the comedy relief in this movie and we could have gotten along very well if they had just stuck to the mystery and forgotten the . . . um . . . humour.

Chinatown had been a source of mystery and imagination from silent movie days. To hear filmmakers tell it there was danger in every restaurant and a murderer lurking in every dark alley. This thriller from 1931 is no exception. The hero Jim Barton (Rex Lease, taking a break from westerns) is trying to locate his missing brother Ralph. Said brother was supposed to deliver an antique dagger which has a priceless jewel in the hilt to a certain Mr. Lee Fong. Just before delivering the dagger a mysterious hand fires a shot in the dark and when the lights come on Lee Fong is dead and Ralph and the dagger have vanished! Now Jim must find his brother and the dagger, not necessarily in that order. Detective Dooley, who is very tough but so dumb he could not find a bucket of sand at the beach, is certain Jim is the killer so Jim must dodge both the police and Madame Ying Su (Carmel Myers) to solve the mystery.

Despite the low budget and the fact that "Chinatown" is an obvious backlot this is a well constructed picture. Jules Cronjager is a competent cameraman who makes very good use of the shadows. Director Stuart Paton does his job very well also. The lead Chinese characters are played by Caucasian actors in makeup but the "background" roles are handled by actual Chinese actors. If you like this film, and I suspect you will, you might also want to check out CAPTURED IN CHINATOWN (1933) and CHINATOWN NIGHTS (1929).