Roar of the Dragon

In Manchuria, bandits besiege a group of westerners. While Richard Dix tries to figure out how to get them out of there, bandit leader C. Henry Gordon wants Gwili Andre.

Ever wanted to see a movie in which Edward Everett Horton mows down a bunch of marauders with a machine gun, and dies heroically? Here's your chance. For a performer best remembered for his many comedies, the only man to ever master the triple take, Horton acquits himself quite well. But then, I've always maintained that anyoneone can suffer on the screen; it takes something extra to do comedy.

The other performer worth commenting on is Miss Andre in her screen premiere. Director Wesley Ruggles keeps her speaking to a minimum, and has her posing a lot in profile, and it's quite a profile. It's no wonder she was a model. But her career as an actress is not impressive: fourteen films through 1941. She died in 1959 at the age of 52.

Other performers in this movie include Arline Judge, Zasu Pitts, and Dudley Digges.

"Roar of the Dragon" is a fairly good and interesting adventure and mystery drama set in Manchuria. Law and order was difficult in China after the Boxer Rebellion ended in 1901 and until after World War II and the rise of the Communist government in1949. Large tribes or gangs of ruthless characters fought over territory. Some raided villages and attacked commercial enterprises to haul off their goods and treasurers. And, during this time, life went on, including some commerce with the West. The setting for this film is about a stranded river ship and its several occidental passengers who must hole up in an inn stockade. They are marking time and hoping that repairs on their boat can be finished and they can be off before the murderous Voronsky and his band can overtake them.

The story is based on a novel by George Kibbe Turner, entitled "A Passage to Hong Kong." All of the cast are quite good, even though some still show bits of traits form silent film days. Richard Dix is Chauncey Carson, captain of the boat. Gwili Andre plays Natascha, who has been a captive paramour of Voronsky, and who is now trying to get away from him. C. Henry Gordon plays the treacherous Voronsky. Dudley Digges is Johnson, the owner of the shipping company. He and Carson are often at odds. Carson is a heavy drinker and Johnson only cares about himself and his business. Edward Everett Horton has a very good role as Busby, that's quite different from the persona for which he is most known in the many comedy films in which he appeared. Among others in the cast are Arline Judge, Zasu Pitts, William Orlamond, Arthur Stone, and Will Stanton. Several Asian actors who had short careers in film are here, as well as some other cast members.

The film has plenty of action, gunfire and killing before it's over. Some of the characters these cast members play won't live. The worst thing about the film is the terrible organ music background in some scenes. Maybe that was a carryover from silent film days that RKO Pictures hadn't learned yet to delete or do without. Or maybe that studio, then considered one of the majors, just didn't couldn't find (or afford) a prominent composer for the film.

Here are some lines form this movie.

Gabby Woman, "I understand there's no American consul here." Busby, "No." Gabby, "Haven't you any influence?" Busby, "Oh, no, mam. I'm a civil engineer. But they changed the government, so I have to go to work."

Johnson, "Start things moving." Captain Carson, "Is it possible that your wife was ever in love with you?"

Gabby, "Oh, how can you be so calm?" Hortense O'Dare, aka Bridgeport, "I'm just as scared as you are, but I'm not bragging about it."

Johnson, "Music at a time like this?" Busby, "Estrada says music is soothing to the brain." Johnson, "Aw!" Busby, "Of course, you have to have one."

Johnson "We've got no obligation to these brats. The natives have the right idea - throw them in the river." Busby, "Oh, I have a strangely vicious desire to cut you into pieces and use you as bait, if I knew how to fish."

Gabby, "When I think of those Thanksgiving dinners my Aunt Clara used to have. That was back in Omaha. Uh, did you know that Omaha was the granary of the United States? Oh, what corn-fed cattle. And what turkeys."

Captain Chauncey Carson, "Funny thing about women. Even the worst. Kids bring out the good side of them."

Natascha, "You know, it's hard to tell whether you are a little boy or a bully." Captain Carson, "Little boys don't drink as much as I do." Natascha, "You needn't be ashamed of being kind." Carson, "Not when I have so many other things to be ashamed of."

Captain Carson, "Natascha, my first name is," he looks around to be sure no one is listening, "Chauncey." Natascha, "Chauncey?" Carson, "Shhhh, not so loud." Natascha, "Chauncey - I like it." Carson, "You know, there ought a be a law against parents naming children."

Natascha, "Can't you see?" Captain Carson, "Just barely."

A collection of natives and Westerners barricade themselves in an old Chinese inn against the onslaught of fierce Tartar bandits.

ROAR OF THE DRAGON is a very fine adventure film, with suspense & humor, plenty of excitement, first rate production values and good acting. It is indeed difficult to find anything to dislike about the movie and it stands up nicely to comparison with other similarly themed pictures of the period - SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932), THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) & THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN (1933).

Richard Dix creates another sturdy performance as the alcoholic riverboat captain who takes charge in defending the folks sheltering in the inn. Dix gives us a character who's sensible, brave and absolutely no nonsense in dealing with deadly danger. But the film has another champion as well, and this one refreshingly unlikely. Wonderful character actor Edward Everett Horton eschews his normal Nervous Nellie nuances and rewards us with a civil servant who vigorously fights back against the terrorists, heroically aiding Dix despite terrible odds. He even gets to enjoy some tender romance before the film ends, leaving us with a most memorable characterization.

Two lovely ladies grace the film - Gwili Andre as the mysterious gun-toting doll sought by the bandit chief and Arline Judge as the girl from Bridgeport, Connecticut, who finds love in the most unexpected place. Comedienne ZaSu Pitts plays the timid Lady from Omaha, thoroughly regretting her decision to travel around the world. Dudley Digges is the cowardly owner of the stranded riverboat, degraded enough to steal goat's milk from orphans. C. Henry Gordon is delightfully repulsive as the Russian leader of the bandits, whom we first encounter cauterizing the remains of his left ear, bitten off by Dix in a previous encounter.

Movie mavens will spot an uncredited Willie Fung at the end of the picture playing a Chinese sailor.

I liked it. I thought that it was a pretty decent B-movie for its time. I have one question that maybe someone can answer, though. I thought that I heard "I'll Never Smile Again" playing throughout the soundtrack but, while looking it up, saw that that song wasn't written until 1940. Am I mistaken?

Almost everything else I planned to say has been said by someone else here-- this is unusually zippy for a movie by the normally mediocre Wesley Ruggles, that big lummox Richard Dix is unusually animated and even amusing at times, the production design and cinematography are very handsome (and female leads Andre and Judge ain't bad to look at either), it's probably the only movie in which Edward Everett Horton handles a machine gun (although he does prove pretty handy with a pistol in 1938's Wild Money), and while the movie seems a bit underwritten (or more likely written in 3 days), it's pretty everything you could want from a 68-minute pre-Code B movie.

The other interesting thing I would note is that it could have inspired bits in two much more famous movies-- the whole opening, in which news of a bandit's rampage is conveyed by telegraph until the moment that the bandit's men chop down the telegraph pole, plays like a dry run for the much more famous and accomplished opening of Stagecoach-- and it's hard to think that's an accident when you know that co-writer, and RKO producer during this time, Merian C. Cooper (of King Kong fame) would soon work with John Ford on The Lost Patrol (as well as on most of his immediate postwar work). The connection with Howard Hawks is less obvious, but when you consider the situation (tough guy Dix surrounded in compound with a bunch of people whose ability to defend themselves is doubtful), and then hear him refer to Arline Judge by a nickname-- the town she was from ("Bridgeport")-- and hear her answer in a deep, insolent Betty Bacall-Angie Dickinson drawl, there's a definite whiff of the much later Rio Bravo, in which John Wayne is holed up with a bunch of questionable help and a girl called Feathers.