Shadow of Chinatown
Feature film · 71 min · dir. Robert F. Hill
Thrills and chills and shivering shocks as a crazed scientist terrorizes the underworld!
- Crime
- Thriller
Synopsis
Released both as a 15-chapter serial and as a condensed feature version (for theaters that didn't use serials) which means that all of the cast and crew would one day be credited in some sources with a misleading extra film appearance added to their filmographies even though they only worked on (and got paid) for one performance or job. The story (serial and/or feature) deals with the plotting of a European importing firm to put Chinese trade competition in a west coast Chinatown - city…
Synopsis from OMDb
Details
- Director
- Robert F. Hill
- Writer
- Robert F. Hill
- Cinematography
- Bill Hyer
- Released
- 1936-10-10
- Running time
- 71 minutes
Cast & crew
- Robert F. Hill Director
Bela Lugosi
Bruce Bennett
Joan Barclay
Luana Walters- Maurice Liu
Charles King
William Buchanan
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★ · Shadow of Thriller · Poohbah70 · 2019-07-15
The film was chopped together from a serial, which would probably be fun to watch - this chopshop version is not bad, but as is usual with these films, suspension of disbelief as the word. A maniacal killer Victor Poten (Bela Lugosi) is enlisted by Sonya Rokoff (Luana Walters) to ruin the business world in San Francisco's Chinatown. Society reporter Joan Whiting (Joan Barclay) is somehow put on the case and appeals to her "boyfriend" mystery writer Martin Andrews (Bruce Bennett) to help her. Lugosi turns in his usual dedicated, but hardly brilliant, performance as a maniacal killer, who is…
★★ · Pretty terrible but watchable poverty row thriller · tbragg · 2013-08-10
This is the feature version of a very long serial. The editors have cut 5 hrs down to 70 minutes--so imagine how padded the original must be! Lugosi plays a familiarly glaring, hypnotizing baddie, out to cripple business in San Fran's Chinatown. Some likable if stiff leads attempt to detect and stop him. You've seen most of it before, but there's some nice bits scattered throughout the creaky acting and silly dialogue. MUST-SEE: The Ker-plunk climax to the car chase, at 1:08:45.
