King of Chinatown

Akim Tamiroff is King of Chinatown. At least, he's head of the gang that is currently setting up a protective agency, which everyone knows and no one says. Lawyer Philip Ahn asks him to use his 'influence' to protective loved pharmacist and herbalist Sidney Toler, whose daughter, Anna May Wong, is a newly minted doctor, about to head off to work for the Red Cross in China. Tamiroff is considering the impact, when a gang war catches him in the crossfire. He's wounded, and nursed privately by Miss Wong.

It's a very interesting little programmer from Paramount that looks like it might have been planned at some stage for Josef von Sternberg, but its handling is far too conventional for Von. Tamiroff plays his usual tough mobster, but under the dignified ministrations of Miss Wong, he falls in love, and becomes more thoughtful. Meanwhile, his underlings, led by J. Carroll Naish and Anthony Quinn, take advantage of Tamiroff's absence to push him off.

It's the conflict between these two threads that make the story, and that looks pretty standard. What is not standard is the redemption thread, which humanizes both the leads very nicely in interesting variations of their usual roles.

KING OF CHINATOWN (Paramount, 1939), directed by Nick Grinde, the third in the cycle following the studio's title pattern of KING OF GAMBLERS (1937) with Akim Tamiroff, and KING OF ALCATRAZ (1938), with J. Carrol Naish, teams the aforementioned individual performers in a new "King" melodrama by which Akim Tamiroff assumes the title role. Anna May Wong, having already starred in DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (1937) and DANGEROUS TO KNOW (1938), heads the cast once again, topping her previous efforts thus far. While her work in DANGEROUS TO KNOW was more of a showcase for Akim Tamiroff, her reunion with Tamiroff for KING OF CHINATOWN finds them both equally matched and essential to the story.

Set in San Francisco where a Chinese New Year's celebration is taking place, the story introduces Frank Baturin (Akim Tamiroff), manager of The Silver Club, a gambling casino he uses as a front. In actuality he's the notorious "King of Chinatown," head of a protective association for local Chinese businesses. The Professor (J. Carrol Naish), a scholarly looking gentleman with a prison record, who keeps the books for his crime boss, hopes to some day take control of his corrupt business. After losing $20,000 in a benefit boxing match between an American and Chinese prizefighter, Baturin learns he's been double crossed by one of his henchmen, Mike Gordon (Anthony Quinn). In the meantime, Mary Ling (Anna May Wong), a respected surgeon for Bayview Hospital, engaged to local attorney, Robert Lee (Philip Ahn), wants to leave the hospital for better pay elsewhere. Her father, Chang Ling (Sidney Toler), a pharmacist who refuses to pay protection money to Baturin's hoods, makes it known of his intentions on doing something about it. Later that night, gunshots mistaken for firecrackers cause injury to Baturin as his car lose loses control to crash near Ling's shop. Because Mary Ling believes her father to be responsible and not wanting him arrested, she immediately takes action in having Baturint sent to the hospital where she takes the case to perform an emergency operation. Keeping him out of reach of telephone calls and visitors, Baturin slowly recovers, unaware that both the Professor and Gordon have teamed together taking over his establishment. Wanting to keep Mary Ling from leaving his services, Baturin offers her at $200 a day to act as his nursemaid at his home. Needing that extra money to establish a Red Cross nursing unit in war-torn China, she accepts. Problems arise trying to protect her patient from both the outside world and those wanting to have him killed. Co-starring Roscoe Karns (Rep Harrigan, ambulance driver); Bernadene Hayes (Dolly Warren, hospital nurse); with Ray Mayer, Richard Denning, Charles Trowbridge and Pierre Watkin in supporting roles.

KING OF CHINATOWN is a prime example of creative movie making, regardless of its short length of 57 minutes. Its shows that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Anna May Wong is excellent in her leading role, working opposite Philip Ahn, as in DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI, playing her love interest. Quite effective is J. Carrol Naish assuming character type performance reminiscent to the similar acting style enacted by Stanley Ridges also playing a Professor in BLACK FRIDAY (Universal, 1940) starring Boris Karloff. Take notice that Anthony Quinn, in his third go round in an Anna May Wong movie, share no scenes together. Sidney Toler, who had already replaced Warner Oland in the popular "Charlie Chan" series, gets his dress rehearsal for future Chan role to come, enacting that as a wise Chinaman. With Wong having one more movie before leaving the Paramount banner later in 1939, KING OF CHINATOWN should go on record as her finest work for the studio at this point.

Nick Grinde's direction allows but a few lags, but the plot moves swiftly enough to prevent unnecessary scenes to slow down its action. While KING OF CHINATOWN did enjoy frequent television revivals prior to 1973 on WPIX, Channel 11, in New York City, it never had any home video distribution. It can be found both on you-tube or purchase on DVD from a private collector. It's well worth the time rediscovering Anna May Wong or Akim Tamiroff, "king of chinatown." (***)

There are a lot of positives about the depiction of Chinatown in this film from 1939, which is more than I can say about many other films from the decades before and after. Rather than a den of iniquity, with subterranean chambers and evil schemers dealing in white slavery, it's a place of honest businessmen. There is organized crime, but it's imposed from the outside the community by a gangster, who in turn faces competition to be "King of Chinatown" from a disloyal lieutenant and a rival. They shake down shopkeepers, kill those who resist, and run the usual sorts of rackets. Providing dignified spiritual strength is a dealer in traditional medicine (Sidney Toler in yellowface), his daughter (Anna May Wong), and her boyfriend (Philip Ahn), all of whom are presented sans stereotypes. Wong plays a skilled surgeon which is incredibly refreshing in light of the number of servant roles she was relegated to her in her career. She's radiant, and Ahn's character, while a little flat, is sharp about the corruption going on around him. There are other little bits, like how one of the characters points out how chop suey is an Americanized version of Chinese food, and a pretty tough Chinese-American boxer in the ring.

It's a simple film and only 57 minutes long, but drama comes in two ways: the aforementioned vying to be top dog which results in a murder attempt, and the fact that it's Wong's character who then saves the gangster's life against long odds and tends to him. The rivals then scheme against one another and try to exert pressure on the doctor through her father. There are a couple of violent scenes and some backstabbing, but the plot is a constrained and not one you'll probably get too excited over. Watch it for Anna May Wong, Philp Ahn, and 24-year-old Anthony Quinn though. These actors, along with the film's feminism and progressive depiction of Chinese-Americans, make it worth seeing.

Before seeing this movie, I'd never heard of Anna May Wong, so seeing that a woman of Chinese extraction played a lead role in this movie in 1939 was a surprise. Seeing that she played the role without being shoehorned into a stereotype was even more of a surprise. Her English was like silk, but that was the most oriental thing about her voice. Her performance in this movie was serviceable, but it's understandable that she didn't cause more of a stir in Hollywood, regardless of ethnicity.

In contrast to the racial authenticity of the leading lady, the same occidental actor who played Charlie Chan played her father, working hard to be something other than Charlie Chan but to still be the older Chinese American man. Somehow, during the course of this move, his off-pitch monotone reminded me of Dan Ayckroyd's Conehead skits. Plus, he got to deliver some of the strangest attempts to praise the Chinese identity within the American community: "We do not eat American food. I do not think many Chinese have heard of your great American dish, chop suey." While this is a nice try, it sounds pretty odd, considering that the producers couldn't put a real Chinese American actor into the part. At least they got an oriental, albeit a Korean-American to portray the younger man.

Rounding out this multi-cultural cast is Armenian-Russian playing a Russian mafioso who operates in Chinatown. He's the king, but he eventually shows another side, thanks to the kindness Dr. Ling (Wong) shows to him. Of course, she has her own motives for the kindness, but it all makes sense eventually.

During the first 30 minutes of the movie, it seems there are two stories moving independently. Only slowly do they begin to move together, and the handling of the points they overlap and intersect could have been the source of more character drama. As it is, they are too abruptly shoved against each other as some unseen clock ticks away expected run time.

There's an interesting montage in the middle of the film, which doesn't further the story at all. I'm guessing that there was some gambling and extortion and someone was getting rich. This montage is interesting mainly for being a bit obtuse. As unreal as it seems, there was more story here than this movie could contain. I imagine they cut out some of the clues about what was really happening so that Ms. Wong could have more screen time. Maybe it was in her contract.

Some things aren't quite explained, just mentioned. Dr. Ling dotes on her recovering patient so heavily, and we are left to wonder how a newspaper could stress a man so much after a gunshot wound, but still, she takes no chances. Pretty devoted for a surgeon who becomes a nursemaid (with an assistant nursemaid to boot).

And then, the film wraps up. Yes, just like that. I think someone died in the end, but I really couldn't tell. Maybe it would be too stressful for us to know the truth about that.

As I watch a movie like this, I try to imagine its potential. The story isn't a bad outline and I could definitely see Michelle Yeoh bringing more to the main role. Without massive changes, the story would still need to take place in the 30s, and ironically, I doubt current movie- goers would believe the Chinese-American female surgeon could exist in that era.

I did not know that Nick Grinde worked for Paramount Pictures, I thought he only was a director for Warner, concerning those B crime thrillers. That said, this little crime drama is pretty exciting with a female lead who behaves like a man, as we see so many times now, in 2020's. And Akim Tamiroff as a kingpin, a mob boss, is of course a cliché, as when we see John Wayne as a sheriff or a cowboy...His roles in such roles are numerous, countless, and the ending here is abit cheesy, if you compare with the rest of this plot. It could have been a bit grittier. Such a shame because this story was very promising.