Daughter of the Dragon (1931)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Lloyd Corrigan

Writers:

Lloyd Corrigan (adaptation) and
Monte M. Katterjohn (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

5 September 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Princess Ling Moy, a young and beautiful Chinese aristocrat lives next door, unbeknownst to her, to Dr...

Plot Keywords:

Fu Manchu | Fight | Father Daughter Relationship | Knife | Poison

Cast

Anna May Wong	...	Ling Moy
Warner Oland	...	Fu Manchu
Sessue Hayakawa	...	Ah Kee
Bramwell Fletcher	...	Ronald Petrie
Frances Dade	...	Joan Marshall
Holmes Herbert	...	Sir John Petrie
Lawrence Grant	...	Sir Basil Courtney
Harold Minjir	...	Rogers
Nicholas Soussanin	...	Morloff
E. Alyn Warren	...	Lu Chung

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970)

Decent

Daughter of the Dragon (1931)

** (out of 4)

Third film in Paramount's series, this film follows The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu and The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu. This time out, the evil Fu Manchu (Warner Oland) goes to kill another enemy but ends up getting killed himself. Before he dies however, he gives his evil reign to his daughter, Princess Ling Moy (Ana May Wong). Soon the daughter is carrying out her father's evil deeds but a police detective (Sessue Hayakawa) is closing in on her. This is the first film from the series that I've seen and I've been told this is the weakest entry and I wouldn't be too shocked by that. One thing going for the film is that it goes by incredibly fast but sadly the direction is very flat, which makes the film rather lifeless throughout. There's no energy, no drama and certainly no suspense, which are things needed to make these type of films work. Oland only appears very briefly and the future Charlie Chan doesn't come off too well here. Oland comes off very bored as does Hayakawa. Most people only know Hayakawa from The Bridge on the River Kwai and they don't know he was a pretty big silent film star. He was certainly on the bottom of his career having to take a supporting role in this B film and you can tell he doesn't seem too thrilled in playing the part. Anna May Wong comes off very good in one of her only starring roles. Things pick up in the final ten minutes when we get some torture sequences.