G-Men vs. The Black Dragon (1943)

American, British and Chinese secret agents battle the Japanese Black Dragon Society, a secretive ring that smuggles enemy agents into the U.S. disguised as mummies.

Directors:

Spencer Gordon Bennet, William Witney

Writers:

Ronald Davidson (original screenplay), William Lively (original screenplay)

Stars:

Rod Cameron, Roland Got, Constance Worth

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rod Cameron	...	Agent Rex Bennett
Roland Got	...	Agent Chang Sing
Constance Worth	...	Agent Vivian Marsh
Nino Pipitone	...	Oyama Haruchi
Noel Cravat	...	Ranga
George J. Lewis	...	Lugo (as George Lewis)
Maxine Doyle	...	Marie [Ch. 8]
Donald Kirke	...	Muller - Pier 17 Thug [Ch.1]
Ivan Miller	...	Pier 17 Customs Inspector [Ch.1]
Walter Fenner	...	Williams - Financial Agent [Ch.1]
C. Montague Shaw	...	Prof. Nicholson [Ch. 3-4]
Harry Burns	...	Tony Mills [Ch. 4, 12-13]
Forbes Murray	...	James Kennedy [Ch. 12]
Hooper Atchley	...	Harrison J. Caldwell [Ch. 5]
Robert Homans	...	Capt. Gorman [Ch. 12-13]

Storyline

American, British and Chinese secret agents battle the Japanese Black Dragon Society, a secretive ring that smuggles enemy agents into the U.S. disguised as mummies.

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Genres:

Adventure

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 January 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

O Dragão Negro

Filming Locations:

Republic Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Republic Pictures (I)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

243 min (15 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Opening and closing cast and crew credit are shown with the four flags of the principal characters: United States, United Kingdom, Republic of China and Japan.

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Goofs

Chapter seven: Rex's plane, a fighter plane, is shot and burst into flames, but, it shows a flat cowling when it crashes.

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Connections

Edited into Black Dragon of Manzanar (1966)

User Reviews

More action than you'll see anywhere else!

I love serials. Republic had the best action scenes, too. Watching G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon I saw virtually every possible cliffhanger setting: buzz saws, bombs, falling building, plane crashes, cars going over cliffs... all the things that made serials fun. Taking the context of the time period seriously, Japan was a serious threat. Making use of the stereotypical mysterious Asian character and the dedicated American law enforcement agent was a good set up at the time. The plot itself was minor, but the action in G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon was there to compensate for it.

I try to watch movies thinking in the same way that people would have at the time the movies were made. One thing that irritated me was Nino Pipitone's portrayal of the villain, Haruchi. Pipitone sounded more like a European count than a Japanese saboteur. His European ancestry could not be hidden under the eye makeup that made him Haruchi. I never really accepted the character as being Japanese. Perhaps the fact that Haruchi was almost always well dressed in a suit lessened the effect. When I saw Henry Brandon in The Drums Of Fu Manchu I knew he was not Chinese, but his character was so great that I did not care. In G-Men Vs. The Black Dragon the character Haruchi is really just a middle-man working for the Japanese government. He is a representative of the threatening evil rather than being the evil party. Haruchi commands henchmen Ranga and Lugo, who do the majority of the dirty work.

I liked Rod Cameron as Rex Bennett. He could get in a fight, an explosion, or jump from a plane and still make a suit look good. Roland Got as Chang and Constance Worth as Vivian Marsh were also good as Bennett's fellow agents. Vivian Marsh was a woman ready to face the bad guys at any time. I've seen more heroic women in serials than in westerns, so this was a nice change.