CALIFICACIÓN DE IMDb
4.5/10
312
TU CALIFICACIÓN
Agrega una trama en tu idiomaA madman sets out to destroy a group of Chinatown merchants.A madman sets out to destroy a group of Chinatown merchants.A madman sets out to destroy a group of Chinatown merchants.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
Bruce Bennett
- Martin Andrews
- (as Herman Brix)
John Cowell
- White Chinaman [Ch. 1]
- (as Jack Cowell)
Victor Adamson
- Weasel-Looking Henchman [Chs. 1, 4-7]
- (sin créditos)
Lester Dorr
- Steamship Ticket Clerk [Ch. 7]
- (sin créditos)
John Elliott
- Ship's Captain [Chs. 8-10]
- (sin créditos)
Jack Evans
- Henchman
- (sin créditos)
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
SHADOW OF CHINATOWN is hardly the zenith of serials, but time has lent it a certain amount of charm as a period piece, showing a romanticized vision of a 1930s city and Chinatown, both of which would have been equally exotic to most of the serial's viewers at the time. It possesses a certain wisecracking humour, especially from Lugosi's henchman, lacking in all the later serials. The cast rise above the material, and some of the portrayals verge upon endearing; Lugosi is always a pleasure to watch, and you get a glimpse of his acting ability, his adeptness with nuances and subtleties, even when dealing with one-dimensional characters with over-the-top declarations. Say what you want about this serial, but it's on my view-annually list.
As I often say, I enjoy watching the master, Lugosi, in just about anything. The problem with this is he doesn't have much to do. In order to create a serial, it's necessary for the bad guy to continue to goof up, leaving his adversaries alive to continue the pursuit. The episodes are an endless trapezing of zombie like lackeys and air headed reporters. There's enough sexism to go around for a long time. The conclusion will make some gag. Chinatown businesses are the target of Lugosi who is "Eurasian" and very angry about something, I guess being Eurasian. He tries to destroy the town just for spite. It's an endless parade of pratfalls and silly hypnotism. The one young Asian woman is very beautiful. She is the honorable one in the film, but has been used by Lugosi and he has a hypnotic control over her. It all comes out in the wash, as if we cared.
I'm a big fan of the movie serials. I never watch even the best of them with the same critical eye as I do "real" movies. But even by those lowered standards, this film is a big bore-fest. People commenting on this list seem eager to use "worst movie of all time" to describe anything they happen to dislike, but I hesitate to use the phrase here, even though I am sorely tempted. I'm certain that there are other films that are worse than this, but I'm just as certain that I don't want to see them.
The movie is clunky and stereotypical, rather demeaning of Asians and women. That's actually par for the course for an action film of this vintage and is understandable even if not really forgivable. What is not really understandable is why an action thriller has only sporadic, stilted action, a cliffhanger has no real cliffhangers and something designed to bring you back to the theater week after week only makes you want to hurry ahead to the comedy. The plot--trying to keep the tourists out of Chinatown--is a ludicrous as the Monty-Pythonesque spike in the telephone gag used in the film. I saw the film on two DVDs; I bought the second part by accident and was confused a bit by it. I figured that starting at the beginning would help.
It didn't.
Try not to watch the film alone. It screams for MST3 treatment!
The movie is clunky and stereotypical, rather demeaning of Asians and women. That's actually par for the course for an action film of this vintage and is understandable even if not really forgivable. What is not really understandable is why an action thriller has only sporadic, stilted action, a cliffhanger has no real cliffhangers and something designed to bring you back to the theater week after week only makes you want to hurry ahead to the comedy. The plot--trying to keep the tourists out of Chinatown--is a ludicrous as the Monty-Pythonesque spike in the telephone gag used in the film. I saw the film on two DVDs; I bought the second part by accident and was confused a bit by it. I figured that starting at the beginning would help.
It didn't.
Try not to watch the film alone. It screams for MST3 treatment!
The version I just saw was almost unwatchable. It came as part of a pack of 50 sci-fi movies. I suspected, but did not know, it had been a serial until reading the reviews here.
Pacing was terrible, jumps were made that made no sense, and the overall quality of acting and sets was deplorable. Also, the copy of the print I saw was in terrible shape. But considering it's vintage, better may not be possible.
The high-point for me was Luana Walters. Wow, was she beautiful! It's a shame she didn't play the bad part up more instead of having a conscious. Oh well.
Bela Lugosi was such an enjoyable
All-in-all, an almost passable and interesting time-waster on a Sunday night.
Pacing was terrible, jumps were made that made no sense, and the overall quality of acting and sets was deplorable. Also, the copy of the print I saw was in terrible shape. But considering it's vintage, better may not be possible.
The high-point for me was Luana Walters. Wow, was she beautiful! It's a shame she didn't play the bad part up more instead of having a conscious. Oh well.
Bela Lugosi was such an enjoyable
All-in-all, an almost passable and interesting time-waster on a Sunday night.
Wiki says the feature ran 71 minutes. The verson I saw was labelled Chapter One, which, according to IMDB runs 26 minutes. BUT the version I saw ran 44 minutes.
But then I see that it's really just the first two chapters. What's the point?
It also resembles an Ed Wood picture. The acting is horrible and half teh Chinese are White people.
Just a waste of celluloid.
But then I see that it's really just the first two chapters. What's the point?
It also resembles an Ed Wood picture. The acting is horrible and half teh Chinese are White people.
Just a waste of celluloid.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaThe titles of the 15 individual chapters, their respective running times and certificate numbers are:
- The Arms of the Gods: 26.15 - #2509
- The Crushing Walls: 17.00 - #2510
- 13 Ferguson Alley: 17.00 - #2511
- Death on the Wire: 17.04 - #2512
- The Sinister Ray: 16.25 - #2513
- The Sword Thrower: 17.25 - #2514
- The Noose: 21.29 - #2515
- Midnight: 17.32 - #2516
- The Last Warning: 18.46 - #2517
- The Bomb: 20.00 - #2518
- Thundering Doom: 18.31 - #2519
- Invisible Gas: 18.22 - #2520
- The Brink of Disaster: 18.27 - #2521
- The Fatal Trap: 18.25 - #2522
- The Avenging Powers: 17.48 - #2523
- The chapters have a total running time of 280.5 minutes (4 hours 40 minutes)
- ErroresIn Chapter: 1, when Joan, who is wearing an ankle-length skirt, falls sitting on her behind, after trying to climb the fire escape, there is a direct view of her very white underwear. In the next frame, after the cop passes her, she is filmed from the side, averting the unfortunate view.
- Créditos curiososOpening credits of crew and cast are flipped as pages of a book.
- ConexionesEdited into Shadow of Chinatown (1936)
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Detalles
- Fecha de lanzamiento
- País de origen
- Idioma
- También se conoce como
- Shadow of Chinatown
- Locaciones de filmación
- Wilmington, CA, Estados Unidos(Ch. 15 car chase scene)
- Productora
- Ver más créditos de la compañía en IMDbPro
- Tiempo de ejecución4 horas 41 minutos
- Color
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.37 : 1
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Principales brechas de datos
By what name was Los misterios del barrio chino (1936) officially released in Canada in English?
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