King of Chinatown

Akim Tamiroff is King of Chinatown. At least, he's head of the gang that is currently setting up a protective agency, which everyone knows and no one says. Lawyer Philip Ahn asks him to use his 'influence' to protective loved pharmacist and herbalist Sidney Toler, whose daughter, Anna May Wong, is a newly minted doctor, about to head off to work for the Red Cross in China. Tamiroff is considering the impact, when a gang war catches him in the crossfire. He's wounded, and nursed privately by Miss Wong.

It's a very interesting little programmer from Paramount that looks like it might have been planned at some stage for Josef von Sternberg, but its handling is far too conventional for Von. Tamiroff plays his usual tough mobster, but under the dignified ministrations of Miss Wong, he falls in love, and becomes more thoughtful. Meanwhile, his underlings, led by J. Carroll Naish and Anthony Quinn, take advantage of Tamiroff's absence to push him off.

It's the conflict between these two threads that make the story, and that looks pretty standard. What is not standard is the redemption thread, which humanizes both the leads very nicely in interesting variations of their usual roles.