Edward G. Hatchett Guy

THE HATCHET MAN-1932-Edward G. Robinson is Wong, “hatchet man”, a kind of Chinese hit man used by San Francisco Chinatown Tong to gain revenge on a murdered comrade. Unfortunately he's made to kill his best friend (J. Carroll Naish) who seems to know his death is imminent so he leaves all his assets to Wong and makes provisions that when his daughter is 21 she will marry Eddy, I mean Wong. 15 years later things have changed. The narrator says “Gone are the queues and the chopsticks”. The daughter is now the grown up Toya San (Loretta Young) and is married Wong, a successful and legitimate businessman. They seem to be happy but when a rival Tong stirs up trouble Wong starts honing his hatchet. He also winds up with a sleazy gigolo bodyguard Harry (Leslie Fenton) who for some reason Toya falls in love with. When Wong catches them together he nearly kills Harry but Loretta pleads for his life and Wong allows them to run away. Wong is kicked out of his Tong in disgrace, sells his business and works in a field. Later he gets a letter from Toya saying she has been deported to China because her beau was smuggling opium. Somehow he goes all the way to China to get her back (he also gets his hatchet out of hock). He finds Harry an addict and Loretta a waitress. He rescues her and takes care of the boyfriend in a great final scene. “Great lord Buddha will find you no matter where you are on the face of the Earth”. 

 Although nearly devoid of any actual Asians (except in very minor roles) THE HATCHET MAN does boast several Caucasian character actors in make-up including Charles Middleton, Dudley Diggs and Tully Marshall. It was directed by William Wellman a few years before the introduction of The Hays Office so the story is loaded with references to drugs, prostitution and violent acts. It's based on a play by Achmed Abdul and David Belasco. 

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Crime In Italy

SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER-(IL POLIZIOTTO E MARCIO)-1974-Violent Italian crime drama with a corrupt cop Domenico (Luc Merenda; also in LE MANS & TORSO) working for the mob. He roughs up drug dealers who try to horn in on The Mob's territory and mostly ignores their crimes. It kind of pisses off the gangsters (one of them is American actor Richard Conte, who had been feature in THE GODFATHER two years before) because he doesn't want to be involved in the new enterprise of gun running and wants more money from them. Two weird looking thugs kill a witness and his pet cat and one other goon is a drag queen. All goes well, until his father (also a kind of police commissioner) learns of his son's deceitful ways when Domenico wants him to turn over some evidence. He gives sonny the report but is killed anyway. Then Domenico's girlfriend is brutally beaten and strangled. He gets revenge on the killers but in the end is shot in the head by another corrupt cop. There's too much talk, car chases and running around to distinguish this from anything thing else. Director Fernando Di Leo also made THE ITALIAN CONNECTION and a few other crime dramas.

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All For A Dollar!

INCIDENT ON A DARK STREET-1973-Here's a DVD I got at a Dollar Tree Store in NJ for, what else but a dollar! 

It's a typical routine story (maybe a pilot) about lawyers battling organized crime and corruption. The best part about it is the cast. Once popular TV actor (and star of Robert Wise's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN) James (don't call me Jimmy) Olsen is Joe Dubbs, the hard ass district attorney. David Canary is his assistant. Robert Pine is the newest member of the staff. They investigate mobster Dominic Leopold (Gilbert Roland) who has some dirty dealings with a greedy contractor Deaver Wallace (William Shatner). Rotund Richard Castellano (THE GODFATHER) is a mob connected government witness who the mean producers make run around and climb a fence. There's another story involving a dying woman and her husband who's being prosecuted for selling drugs. It's boring and ends rather abruptly without the main story coming to a conclusion. 

Others in the cast include David Doyle, Murray Hamilton, John Kerr, Gordon Pinsett (he was in BLACULA the year before) and Marlene Clark (some year as GANJA AND HESS) as Dubbs' secretary. Don “Red” Barry and Eddie Quillan also have small roles. Shatner was in two more memorable TV movies the same year as this: GO ASK ALICE and THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET. 

Director Buzz Kulik began his career in TV in the very early '50's staying there almost his entire life doing TV series and movies (his most famous was BRIAN'S SONG) and only occasionally directing a big screen film (VILLA RIDES AGAIN, SHAMUS and Steve McQueens's last film THE HUNTER).

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The Saint

THE SAINT IN NEW YORK-1938-Louis Hayward portrays Simon Templar, in the first adaptation of Leslie Charteris’ Saint character. The globe trotting crime fighter is summoned to NYC by a special committee who want him to “take care” of some crime bosses who keep eluding justice thanks to their corrupt lawyers (some things never change I guess…).

Templar is quite ruthless in dispatching his targets and at one point disguises himself as a nun! Usual comic villain Sig Ruman appears in a straight role as one of mob bosses. Ben Weldon plays his assistant. Haywood would become a big star a few years later with roles in THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK and MY SON! MY SON!. Kay Sutton, Jonathan Hale, Jack Carson and Paul Guilfoyle also star. Familiar character actors Paul Fix and George Irving have un-credited roles.

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