Anna May Wong (New Named Blog)

 

 (wikipedia)

DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI-1937-Lan Ying Lin (Anna May Wong) wants revenge on the smugglers who killed her dad when he threatened to expose their gang leader Frank Barton (J Carroll Nash; known for playing phony Asians) and his thugs (including Buster Crabbe and Anthony Quinn) who deal in illegal aliens. She tries to find out the identity of the mysterious Hartman (Charles Bickford) and his dealings in human traffic. Federal agent Kim Lee (Philip Ahn) goes undercover to discover the big boss, who turns out to be a seemingly kind and caring rich woman, Mary Hunt (Cecil Cunningham) whose chauffeur turns against her and helps stop her. 

This Paramount production is one of those unique features that has 2 actual Asian actors in the leads! Anna May Wong also made WHEN WERE YOU BORN? the same year and later would find decent roles hard to come by. Director Robert Florey manages to rise above the mundane story line to make this a great but forgotten vehicle for Wong.

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 (wikipedia)

Night Waitress

NIGHT WAITRESS-1936-Helen Roberts (English actress Margot Grahame) is a waitress on probation. She gets involved with schooner operator Martin Rhodes (Gordon Jones, the future Green Hornet) after he gets mixed up with some “secret cargo”. After some misunderstandings and a quick chase and fight (the whole thing is less than an hour!) Rhodes discovers the “cargo” is an armored car filled with money lying underwater. 

Marc Lawrence and (un-billed) Anthony Quinn are two gangsters after both of them. Western star Don “Red” Barry is a murder victim. Comedian Billy Gilbert is a bar owner. 

Director Lew Landers had previously directed the Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi horror story THE RAVEN under his real name Louis Friedlander. He went on to direct (as Landers) many B-movies including THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU (with Karloff) and THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE (with Lugosi).

Star Margot Grahame was England's highest paid actress before she came to America to co-star in THE INFORMER and THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1935 version).  

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Actually There's No Party..

THE WILD PARTY-1956-Anthony Quinn stars in this grim melodrama the same year he played Quasimodo in the French production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Here he plays Ton Kuphen, a loony ex-football player-loser reduced to petty crime. His pals include fruity con-man Gage (Jay Robinson), broke jazz pianist Kicks (Nehemiah Persoff who narrates) and Honey (Kathryn Grant), Tom's spacey semi-innocent girlfriend. They terrorize a society couple, a Navy lieutenant (Arthur Franz) and his rich fiancee (Carol Ohmart, later Vincent Price's wife on HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL)) who Kuphen becomes obsessed with. The four "beats" talk annoying jive in this lurid and racy (I guess for the time) drama with a disappointing finale. Paul Stewart and Barbara Nichols appear in one scene together and Nestor Paiva has a small role.

The jazz score is by Buddy Bregman and Barney Kessell. Maynard Ferguson and Bud Shank appear in an un-credited on-screen band. Director Harry Horner had made RED PLANET MARS and BEWARE, MY LOVELY and was also production designer on many films.

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