Ah, George Raft, one of the great non-actors of Hollywood's middle years. Here he isn't very convincing as a Eurasian, but he does manage to hold his own as a criminal nightclub owner. Anna May Wong is at the height of her sinister exotic appeal. Little Jean Parker proves she is a better actress than required by many of her succeeding roles, when she would be mostly relegated to second features. As for this film, it is a somewhat energetic formula yarn about an "oriental" man being attracted to a "white" woman, with disastrous results. (That really wasn't a spoiler. After all, it is a '30s melodrama.) Well produced and directed with a number of effectively atmospheric scenes, and if the plot is a bit predictable, there is more than enough going on visually to hold your interest until the very end. The print is complete and glitch free, with surprisingly good image quality for a tape transfer.

FOOTNOTES: Other films of the period with roughly similar themes are, "The Bitter Tea of General Yen," "East of Borneo," "Broken Blossoms" (1919) and "Broken Blossoms" (I936). It wouldn't be until after WW II that East would meet West in successful intercultural romances in films like "The World of Suzie Wong," "Love is a Many Splendid Thing," "Teahouse of the August Moon" and my favorite, "A Majority of One."


"East of Borneo" (1931) might be PD.