Shadow of Chinatown (II) (1936) User Reviews

Chinatown's Shadow.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 4/10 · 2 October 2015]

With the October Horror Challenge taking place on IMDbs Horror board,I took a look at a Mill Creek box set that a fellow IMDber has kindly sent me,and I was pleased to spot an overlooked Bela Lugosi title,which led to me getting ready to enter Chinatown.

The plot:

Seeing the businesses in Chinatown eat into their profits,some US businessmen decide to hire Victor Poten & Sonya Rokoff to go undercover and destroy the Chinese businesses.As they start to attack the businesses,local newspaper reporter Joan Whiting decides to investigate the strange events taking place in Chinatown.As she starts to uncover what has been taking place,Poten & Rokoff start to think that along with shutting down businesses,that they need to shut Whiting down before she finds them.

View on the film:

Hired to take on the Chinese,Lugosi gives a bemused performance as Victor Poten,thanks to Lugosi making Poten appear dazed over the gang war he has become caught in the middle of.Chopped from a 300 minute running time into a 70 minute movie,co-writer/director Robert F. Hill offer some brief glimpses of style,with the fight scenes having a rough & tumble appearance,and Hill also including some (unintended?) physical comedy,such as a guy entering a building by gliding down a telephone pylon and smashing the window.Whilst Hill offers some glimmer of hope,the screenplay by "continuity" writers Isadore Bernstein/William Buchanan/Basil Dickey are unable to pull a cohesive movie out of the 300 minute tangles,as the film jumps from gang war battles to flying screwball comedy dialogue which stops and starts without a moments notice,which leads to this being a disappointing visit to Chinatown.

There Must Be Something Nice To Say About This

[boblipton · 3/10 · 11 July 2021]

Luana Walters comes to Bela Lugosi with a plan to destroy Chinese merchants and, I guess, take over their businesses. Bruce Bennett -- still called Herman Brix -- and Joan Barclay are their opposition.

The first thing I noticed about this feature version of the serial directed by Robert Hill for Sam Katzman was that the sound seems to have been recorded in an echo chamber by Hans Weeren. His was a name new to me. He was the sound man for 140 movies between 1932 and 1943, when he seems to have died at age 49, or perhaps he was assassinated. If so, I don't approve, but I understand. His list of films is not distinguished by anything except being almost entirely B westerns of which I have never heard.

Given this is Hill directing, I was mildly pleased by the decent movement and speed of editing; even if you could see that the clip of the guy who leaps over a fence begins while he's standing around waiting for his cue, editor Charles Henkel Jr. Seems to have made an effort to cut down the 280 minutes of the serial to a manageable length, and largely succeeded, even though Bennett does not know how to throw a punch. The modern crowd might be pleased that they actually used ethnic Chinese for the appropriate roles. I suspect that is because they were cheaper to hire and make up than otherwise.

Lack of continuity destroys what ever credibility the original serial had.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 8 November 2019]

I have no intention of sitting through the 4 hour + original serial, so I was glad to find the much edited 71 minute version which still care by. At least it has the benefits of the typically over the top Bela Lugosi villain and a line spouted by Luana Walters that refers to Lugosi as "a Frankenstein monster". Walters plays the typical Eurasian dragon lady, a poor man's Gale Sondergaard and no threat to the real Chinese born Anna May Wong. In the first scene, she's convincing Lugosi to join her in destroying the Chinatown business district, yet just 20 minutes later acting contrite and aiding sparring reporters Bruce Bennett and Joan Barclay. Of course, they are smarter than police lieutenant Forrest Taylor, and find more clues during the 70 minutes than Taylor did in his entire career.

Once again, Lugosi seems to have supernatural abilities, able to put people he stars at into a trance and come up with all sorts of dangerous gadgets and disguises. He also seems to be everywhere when Bennett and Barclay are discussing the case. This is watchable, if creaky, and it's easy to see where the serial chapters stopped and began. It isn't as campy as Lugosi's heroic turn at playing Chandu or his later serial, "The Phantom Creeps", but does its job of keeping the audience entertained.

Bad feature version of a bad serial. Containing possibly the worst Bela Lugosi nonperformance, this is a movie to avoid unless you like to torture yourself

[dbborroughs · 2/10 · 6 July 2006]

Feature version of a serial of the same name has Bela Lugosi turning tables on a woman who hired him to help with her evil plans in Chinatown while a reported and her beau hunt down the villains.

One of the few things worse than this movie is the full length serial version. That monstrosity put me to sleep with its wild over length (15 chapters with enough plot for 2) and the same poor production values that make this film just as bad. I've seen almost every sound serial ever made, but the original serial was a chore and a half to get through and I never finished it (its one of the few). I have no idea what possessed me to try the feature version other than, perhaps selective amnesia about the original. Here the story unfolds in approximately one fifth the time but its a hopeless mess with an attempt to get a good portion of the "good bits" into it. Making matters worse is the cheapness of the film, this was an independent production and had a limited budget. There's tons of stock footage, almost no music and a technical quality (especially the sound) thats lacking.

In the "of note" column, and its not really a good thing, is the fact that this stands as one of the worst performances Bela Lugosi ever gave. I'm not even sure its a performance. Even in the final days Bela was never this disconnected to what he was doing. Its mind numbingly awful. Fortunately he's not alone since a good many of the other actors are clearly collecting a pay check not to act. Herman Brix, who would soon change his name to Bruce Bennett and move on to better things does give a performance, even if its phoned in.

Bad film lovers may want to see this on fast forward, but otherwise I'd avoid it at all costs.

This is an unwatchable 'movie'.

[junk-monkey · 1/10 · 18 March 2007]

The serial from which this piece of drek was edited runs at 300 minutes. Given that that 300 minutes will include a certain amount of duplication and easily losable material: the opening, and end credits, a wee reprise before the cliffhanger ending, and maybe one of the scrolling Flash Gordon / Star Wars "Episode 4 the bad guys have trapped..." intros, there is still no way on Earth anything of that length could have been edited down to a mere 65 minutes and retained any kind of coherence it may have possessed. Not having seen the original I can't comment on the story as it was intended to play over the 15 chapters but what is left doesn't leave much hope for it having been any better.

The hero, plucky girl reporter heroine and side-kicks move around as if they were all glued together in some way. The direction is so clumsy, and the movie making so cheap, that often they will move across a room en masse to where the next set-up is to be so that they can all crowd into the same frame and do away with the need for any matching shots or close ups. The high spot of this technique was the moment when, realising the man they were searching for was in the next room, all four of them left the villains they had been pursuing forever, unguarded and went through to look at his comatose body for just long enough for the arch-villain (Lugosi) to appear put his minions under the 'fluence and escape with one of them.

This is dross. It was dross when it was made. It does however hold some sort of record for the number of 'people lurking outside half-open doors listening to conversations' shots in any feature film of the 20th century.

Avoid.

Lugosi Hits the Wong Note

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 20 June 2008]

"A group of Chinese merchants and importers are the target of a European import firm that uses a beautiful Eurasian girl and a mad scientist as the means to put them out of business. A newspaper reporter and her dashing boyfriend learn of the problems the Chinatown businessmen are dealing with and decide to investigate," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

"Shadow of Chinatown" is a feature length version of the recently released 15-part serial; its shortened length is a welcome digestion, considering the lack of quality on display.

Super hypnotist Bela Lugosi (as Victor Poten) is more stupefying than hypnotic. Though Mr. Lugosi gets top billing, Bruce Bennett stars (as Martin "Marty" Andrews); and, he is a serviceable serial hero. Joan Barclay and Luana Walters add feminine wiles. The players appear to have blocked their scenes, and know their lines well enough for a quick read through. Mr. Bennett has some good fighting scenes; for example, the one atop a building, with Charles King. There is a semi-cool car chase, with 1930s automobiles and an old "Stop"/"Go" traffic signal.

Very underwhelming Bela Lugosi potboiler

[Red-Barracuda · 2/10 · 26 October 2015]

Merchants in the Chinatown district are targeted by evil European business people intent on taking over their territory. The obvious answer? To hire a mad scientist of course! An inquisitive male/female duo investigates and try to thwart the dastardly plan.

Shadow of Chinatown was edited into feature length from a fifteen part serial of the same name. It's only real selling point nowadays is its star actor Bela Lugosi. But before anyone gets too excited about this, it has to be said that it's a very lacklustre performance from the Hungarian star. Even by 1936 he was slumming it in cheap undistinguished b-pictures like this one. I've seen a few films from various eras that were made from editing episodes of serials together and, with few exceptions, they usually end up being really poor. This one is no exception to this general rule and ultimately is a pretty forgettable viewing experience.

Fair

[Michael_Elliott · 11 March 2008]

Shadow of Chinatown (1936)

** (out of 4)

Feature version

European businessmen want the China trades shut down so they hire a madman (Bela Lugosi) to destroy Chinatown. This was originally a 15-part serial but this here is the feature version of that and it isn't too bad. I haven't seen the serial version but the feature runs pretty fast, although you're left with a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense due to all the editing that was done. Sometimes these feature versions can be good but this isn't one of them. Another bad thing is the performance from Lugosi who really sleepwalks through his role. Had he gone over the top then that would have made the film somewhat better.

Condensed...in order to make it even more nonsensical!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 18 March 2017]

Originally, "Shadow of Chinatown" was a four hour plus serial and was then condensed to the length of a full-length film...much, much shorter at only 71 minutes. Now you would THINK this would make the film fast- paced and interesting...and you'd be thinking wrong! It still manages to be sluggish and dull...and probably not worth your time. Imagine how bad it would be watching the UNCUT serial version!

The Dragon Lady wants to ruin the local Chinese-American merchants in order to get rich. So, she hires the crazy Eurasian chemist/inventor, Poten (Bela Lugosi) to do his evil best and create a tong war.

The film is filled with faux Chinese folks who are obviously just American actors made up to look kinda Chinese. This was sadly the norm at the time but doesn't help the film at all. It also is full of terrible acting...so bad that leading man(?) Herman Brix ('Bruce Bennett') is far less wooden than the rest. Overall, a difficult to watch and impossible to enjoy film. You could EASILY do better!!

Not Bad

[Rainey-Dawn · 6/10 · 21 October 2015]

Shadow of Chinatown (1936) is actually a 15-part serial but the movie is a condensed/edited version of it. Basically, 15 shows edited to create one movie. I have not seen the serial only this film version.

With the serial being condensed into a movie I'm sure the viewer is missing out on some interesting scenes by watching only the movie version but I feel they did a good job with the movie to cut through the chase and get to the heart and soul of the serial.

I liked this film. It's not the greatest Lugosi film but it's actually a fun crime-drama to watch. Victor Poten (Lugosi) will hypnotize and terrorize the people that get in his way of destroying Chinatown - he is a vengeful madman.

The movie is interesting enough that I would like to watch the the entire 15-part serial. For me it's just to watch Lugosi in something different.

6/10

Decent poor-boy's 'Charlie Chan' knockoff serial edit worth a look for adventurous Lugosi fans!

[talisencrw · 6/10 · 18 April 2016]

Bela Lugosi is one of my favourites of the first stage of horror presences (not including silent cinema), but compared to his contemporaries (Boris Karloff, Vincent Price and Lon Chaney Jr.), he had more than his share of turkeys. The atmospheric, Hungarian-born, quite charismatic actor starred in one of them here, in this 'Charlie Chan'-knockoff serial. I tend to love them, but this is a minor, 70-minute editing of the 15-episode, 281-minute edition. It has decent supporting players, in Joan Barclay and Bruce Bennett, a woman trying to become an exciting news reporter, rather than simply the newspaper's society column editor, and her boss, respectively, who end up, predictably enough, romantically entangled as they try to discover what and who's behind raids threatening competitor merchants in San Francisco's Chinatown from the business interests of Lugosi's employer, the gorgeous Dragon Lady (Luana Walters). Lugosi gives your money's worth as the despicable and ruthless villain.

My copy came from my legendary Mill Creek 50-pack 'Nightmare Worlds', and if you enjoy serials, Lugosi or 30's detective films such as the 'Charlie Chan' series, it's a decent poor-boy's version and worth a watch. I would prefer to see the full version, but that's just me. If you're just marginally interested in them or prefer Lugosi in his more horrific fare, this may prove boring for you, and I would suggest that instead, you stick to his better-known projects with more money behind them and better directors--they offer you much more meat to sink your *ahem* teeth into.

passionate Eurasians

[Cristi_Ciopron · 7/10 · 6 May 2016]

There are hypnosis, allusions to 'Frankenstein' (and we see an imposing robot; but the hypnosis suggests zombies, anyway there's the slavery of the kidnapped racketeer), a device used by the mastermind to spy on everybody, and the mirror used by the reporter girl in captivity. What could of been a large scale sabotage becomes quickly a mere tale of revenge and hypnosis, set in motion by the jealous mastermind's anger against an imprudent courtesan of his desired lady and employer, and this dark passion gives a new, adult dimension to the fun-house of wimpy fights, etc., explaining the plot's shift from the business war to a maniacal revenge, and making it a quirky storyline of unrequited love; though she claims that his insanity is fueled by hatred against both races (while in effect it's triggered by jealous anger). The scheming leads are both Eurasians (hence, their names); he's betrayed by the woman he loves, and whom he tries vainly to control, and whom he kills. Anyway, the reporter lady was funnier than the businesswoman. The storyline is an action pulp; but the implied passions give it some depth. The rushed fights have the silly childishness passable in the '30s. But the tycoon lady's demise is shocking. Brix's behavior towards Joan Barclay has the dismissive rudeness and roughness also very common in the '30s.

Brix is mediocre (and as WASP as it gets; I would of liked Maurice Liu in the lead), Luana Walters is over-glamorized.

The title is a cheat, because, after an introduction with mayhem in a bazaar and the reporter girl's gags, the plot follows with the ordeal of the kidnapped racketeer, and he's not Asian. Despite this, the movie shows a couple of passionate beings, and serves as a foretaste of the eponymous serial. Lugosi's character seems more of an extraordinary, merry prankster.

Last evening, after a colorful sunset, the respite, the quietness of the house has been visited by a story with Lugosi and his companions. I enjoyed it.

Shadow Of Tedium...

[azathothpwiggins · 29 May 2022]

In this ultra-condensed, 71 minute version of the original 15-part, 440 minute (!) serial, Bela Lugosi plays the maniacal Eurasian mastermind, Victor Poten, who plots to destroy both European and Asian people in Chinatown.

Astonishingly, even after being cut down by 80%, SHADOW OF CHINATOWN is a real chore to watch. Lugosi is his old, reliable self, but there's just not enough plot or action to keep things interesting.

There are other serials starring Lugosi (THE PHANTOM CREEPS, WHISPERING SHADOW) that are far superior to this...