Daughter of the Dragon

This Grade B film offers a rare opportunity to see the underused Anna May Wong in a lead role as a noted Chinese dancer on tour in London who also happens to be the daughter of the sinister Fu Manchu. Playing a Chinese detective is the Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa no less. One can see why Hayakawa would have been a successful silent film actor with his elegant physical presence and one can simultaneously hear why he didn't cut the mustard in talkies - the accent is so thick that one must strain to understand him. He never improved. Even in late films such as THREE CAME HOME and THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI the accent blunted the power of his performances to some extent. Warner Oland, the Swedish actor best known for playing Charlie Chan, is Fu Manchu. Finally, we also get a chance to see the fine actor Bramwell Fletcher in a rather substantial role as one of Fu Manchu's intended victims. He is probably best known as the archaeologist who screams so memorably well in THE MUMMY when the monster approaches him in a tomb. Otherwise, this film is just a passable crime melodrama with some colorful exotic touches of costuming and decor. Editing and continuity are noticeably clumsy. Wong makes a spectacular entrance dressed in a sparkling Chinese goddess gown with a huge Ziegfeld-style headdress. If this were a silent it would be worth watching just to look at her in an array of flattering outfits from scene to scene. Her emoting is as good as one could expect from the comic book-level material she is given. She had a beautiful, somewhat deep speaking voice similar to that of Claudette Colbert with just the slightest trace of an accent, making it all the more enchanting to the ear. Judged on its own terms, DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON is a reasonably diverting suspense offering with some real excitement in the final reel as the bad guys fight it out with the heroes as well as a beautiful and romantic closing shot which I won't give away.