Who is Connie? That's what the smart men of the FBI want to find out. Of course, they assume he is a man, considering that "he" is the mastermind behind human smuggling ring. You know that because we see an Asian man in a box (marked "fragile" of course). What they do with them once they are shipped to America is never explained, but when you've only got 53 minutes in which to unravel a plot and wrap everything up, there's not really time for details.
But Connie is a woman, a dragon lady (of course) played by a non-Asian, here Evelyn Brent sporting a severe hairstyle, not Medusa-like as was given to Ona Munson's Madame Gin Sling in "The Shanghai Gesture", stuck with a chop stick like Bea Lillie's in "Thoroughly Modern Millie", or black widowed like Gale Sondergaard's in "The Letter", yet she's no dangerous flower like Anna May Wong's various more feminine villains. Brent is laughable in the part, sneering throughout with a mid-western dialect, and is surrounded by mostly Caucasian underlings, although there are a few stereotypical Asian characters in her circle as well who hide behind jobs usually given to Asian villains in "B" movies. The result is a silly, somewhat offensive film, that is thankfully over quickly.
But Connie is a woman, a dragon lady (of course) played by a non-Asian, here Evelyn Brent sporting a severe hairstyle, not Medusa-like as was given to Ona Munson's Madame Gin Sling in "The Shanghai Gesture", stuck with a chop stick like Bea Lillie's in "Thoroughly Modern Millie", or black widowed like Gale Sondergaard's in "The Letter", yet she's no dangerous flower like Anna May Wong's various more feminine villains. Brent is laughable in the part, sneering throughout with a mid-western dialect, and is surrounded by mostly Caucasian underlings, although there are a few stereotypical Asian characters in her circle as well who hide behind jobs usually given to Asian villains in "B" movies. The result is a silly, somewhat offensive film, that is thankfully over quickly.