Sun 25 Feb 2018
Reviewed by Walter Albert: Two Early WARNER OLAND Films from Cinevent 1990.
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[11] Comments
THE BLACK CAMEL. Fox Film Corporation, 1931. Warner Oland (Inspector Charlie Chan), Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Dorothy Revier, Victor Varconi. Based on the novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Director: Hamilton MacFadden.
DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON. Paramount Pictures, 1931. Anna May Wong, Warner Oland (Fu Manchu), Sessue Hayakawa, Bramwell Fletcher (Ronald Petrie), Frances Dade, Holmes Herbert (Sir John Petrie). Based on the novel Daughter of Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer. Director: Lloyd Corrigan .
As it turned out, Cinevent 1990 featured a number of films with Oriental characters and settings. The first of these was The Black Camel, featuring Warner Oland as Charlie Chan in the first film version of the Biggers’ novel. We were warned about the noisy sound track which did not, however, significantly reduce ny enjoyment in this well-made, atmospheric classic.
Charlie’s co-star was Bela Lugosi skillfully playing a phony psychic who is advising an actress with a shady past, The print was worn, but the acting of a good cast shone through.
The other Warner Oland starrer was Daughter of the Dragon, directed from a story by Sax Rohmer. An older Fu Manchu (also stouter, as played by the well-nourished Oland) comes to London after being thought dead for ten years to avenge the death of his wife and son.
He murders Petrie (upgraded from Dr. to peer of the realm) but is himself killed, after pledging his daughter, Ling Moy (the beautiful Anna May Wong) to continue his mission. Unfortunately for the honor of the family, Ling Moy is not, unlike her father, ruthless and she falls in love with Ah Kee (Sessue Hayakawa), a Scotland Yard detective.
The actors play with utter conviction in a plot riddled with contrivances as patently manufactured as the secret passage that leads from Petrie’s house to the Fu Manchu/Ling Moy residence. The superb cinematography is by Victor Milner who takes advantage of half-tones, London fog and menacing shadows to capture the nighmarish night-world of Oriental intrigue.
The film is slow-paced but so arresting in the visuals that this is nor a major drawback. The Cinevent film notes claim that Oland “brought an almost spiritual suffering to the role [of Fu Manchu].” As I recall what I saw, there was an overlay of fatigue and sadness in Oland’s performance that might pass for spiritual suffering. I won’t argue the point.
February 25th, 2018 at 8:36 pm
I bought the three Fu Manchu films with Warner Oland at a Pulpcon or PulpFest a few years ago. The prints on the first two (The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu & The Return of Fu Manchu) are not very good and that may account for my not having watched the second one. I almost passed on The Daughter of the Dragon until the dealer or another collector standing nearby handed it to me to complete the trilogy. The print on that one is excellent and after reading Walter’s review I may get around to watching it one of these days. So many movies, so little time.
February 25th, 2018 at 10:02 pm
Randy
I didn’t realize that the first two Oland/Fu Manchu films even existed. Don’t know where I got that idea. Will have to scout them out for myself. Even if the prints are not very good!
February 25th, 2018 at 8:43 pm
Just back from IMDb, several reference books, and the official 20th Century Fox DVD:
The Black Camel was directed by Hamilton MacFadden, who also does a brief on-camera cameo at the start of the movie.
Al DeGaetano was the film editor, who for whatever reason didn’t get screen credit.
Just so you know …
February 25th, 2018 at 9:52 pm
Mike
Walter originally mentioned Al DeGaetano as the director in the text of this old review of his, so that’s what I went with, assuming that’s how he was credited in the program notes. I researched it myself, but in the process I somehow managed to read his credits in IMDb wrong. My fault on that.
You are quite right on saying that he was the film editor for the movie, not the director. I’ve made the change in the opening credits, and marked one up for you — and not for the last time either, I’m sure!
February 26th, 2018 at 12:31 am
The supporting cast of both films add to the interest. Lugosi in the Chan film, and Wong and Hayakawa in Daughter. In both films they add greatly to the goings on.
Oland’s Fu Manchu is revealed to be a tragic figure, an innocent victim of the Boxer Rebellion backlash that caused his hatred of the West, something not found in Rohmer.
February 26th, 2018 at 8:54 am
I found Oland’s Fu Manchu movies rather slow going myself. but I always enjoy Walter’s reviews.
February 26th, 2018 at 11:54 am
Steve,
I always think of any movies I have bought at Pulpcon as “bootleg” copies. I may have bought mine from Martin Grams.
February 26th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Daughter Of The Dragon:
Just double-checking at IMDb.
The director is indeed the same Lloyd Corrigan who played bumbling comic characters in movies and TV from the ’30s through to the mid-’60s.
Bear that in mind the next time you see Corrigan turn up on MeTV in a Perry Mason or Petticoat Junction or Donna Reed Show, or maybe in old movies like the Boston Blackie series, or as the jittery mayor in It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad,Mad World, or the early victim of Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate, or any number of other things over the years.
They don’t make ’em like this any more …
February 26th, 2018 at 8:02 pm
I clearly enjoyed both those films and I find myself, 28 years later, a bit sad that I’m not still hitting the film convention circuit. So many wonderful films and, perhaps best of all, the memories of the friends who shared those golden days with me.
February 26th, 2018 at 8:38 pm
Walter
I wish I’d been able to travel more often than I could back then. I’d have gone to all those film conventions myself. If only I’d had a doctor who knew what he was doing!
February 26th, 2018 at 9:47 pm
I saw The Black Camel in a restored version of DVDs a few years ago, slow moving, but enjoyable, and enough happened. Speaking of Lloyd Corrigan, One of my favourite actors, he was in The Chase (1946) – a film noir reviewed last week – playing his typical role, before he was despatched. 13 director credits and 27 screenplay credits! Amazing.