The Secrets of Wu Sin

Newspaper editor Grant Withers wants to know who's been bringing in illegal Chinese and how. He assigns two reporters to the story: Lois Wilson and an uncredited Eddie Boland. How does Tetsu Komai figure in the puzzle, and the young Chinese lovers, Toshia Mori and Richard Loo?

With a plot issue that seems very modern 87 years later -- half the news and three quarters of the commentary in the news is about illegal aliens - this very much remains a B movie from 1932. Kudos are due director Richard Thorpe and producer George Batcheller for casting actors of East Asian descent in the appropriate roles, but their line readings are not very good, and there's a lot of stuff about tradition and the Tongs here.

Even so, in 1932, Poverty Row producers could get talent on the cheap, and with Robert Warrick, D.W. Griffith stock company member Wilfred Lucas, Spec O'Donnel and Lafe McKee in the cast, there's a lot of fun for folks like me who try to spot old actors.