Outlaws of the Orient

Esther Ralston is caught in a raid on a gambling den where the officers of the Immigration Service are looking for illegal Chinese. They've been paying $300 a head to be smuggled across the border. She's let go because she's the daughter of prominent jurist Oscar Apfel; she leaves quietly with oriental curio collector Sidney Blackmer. Unbenknownst to the authorities, he is the chief of the smuggling operation. Investigator Regis Toomey also takes a shine to her, in between instructing flat-footed flatfoot J. Farrell MacDonald on deduction for comedy relief.

Like many of the exploitation movies of the era, it begins with a long scroll of text explaining why illegal immigration is so bad. This fig leaf covers a decently written and executed B movie, with plenty of flying sequences -- everyone seems to be a pilot in this movie --and some prominent, although fading performers. It hints at, rather than making obvious, some potentially interests points. You couldn't say these things with the Production Code fully enforced.