User reviews

This short could be used as a viable argument for political correctness. The ONLY reason to see it is simply to see Cary Grant in a very early appearance. As the other reviewers have mentioned, miss Chang doesn't sing very well; while she is pleasant to look at, you need to get past the horrible dialog, most of which is given to Millard Mitchell and revolves around badmouthing the Chinese owners of the bar and insulting Chinese people in general. Joe Wong, it turns out, was actually a Filipino named Jose Ocampo Cobarrubias. I guess the show name fits better on the marquee. If you get a chance to see it, do so, but don't kill yourself trying to find this.

Singapore Sue, not a great motion picture, but entertaining at times. Cary Grant makes his screen debut costarring next to the beloved Anna Chang in this clever comedy short about an American sailor boy who falls deeply in love with a Chinese dancing girl, Sue. The young Grant's face is barely recognizable behind that thick coating of makeup they had plastered all over it. But really folks, Casey Robinson is such an excellent director, it's surprising we don't see more of his work today. If I had to describe it in words I would only need one: a superb masterpiece. Come see this unforgettable classic feature and hear Singapore sing. I give it five stars, that's five out of ten. The rest is not worth commenting on.

It was okay, but it wasn't very good. I didn't much care for it myself. Singapore Sue! She wasn't that hot. It was kind of a musical if you know what I mean, but quite a short one too, at that. I guess you could call it a musical because it had lots of music in it. Well at least she did sing a song, one song.

Sven was completely off-base in his comment, as far as I can tell from some quick Internet research. Anna May Wong was a star of silent movies in the 1920s and it seems unlikely that she would have taken a role in a Paramount short in 1932, especially one where she portrayed a singer in a dive. "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend" by Graham Russell Gao Hodges would confirm this but even if you rely on the Wikipedia entry on her, "She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the U.S. and Europe for film and stage appearances." A look at her picture shows no resemblance to Anna Chang. According to a review on another site, Chang and Joe Wong, her co-star, were "popular Chinese vaudeville stars." That seems more plausible to me than assuming that Anna May Wong appeared in "Singapore Sue" under a pseudonym.

That's about all of note in this otherwise forgettable film. At least, I hope it's forgettable. The songs are standard period fare, ponderous and somewhat shrill. Cary's frightening makeup makes him almost unrecognizable, but who could mistake that voice! Interesting as a bit of history, I don't recommend picking up the digitally re-mastered gold disc limited collector's edition (if it should ever come out).

It's unfortunate, but this film is in rather rough condition--as the print is very grainy and scratchy--unlike the other films in this collection of early Paramount musical shorts. However, it IS a very important film and well worth your time just for the cast--as it features a very young Cary Grant in one of his first films. Also, while less famous, the very prolific character actor Millard Mitchell also plays a sailor in this one.

The film begins in China. Four sailors enter a bar and Grant does most of the talking--and is pretty obnoxious. Anna Chang and Joe Wong entertain these jerks with a few songs. While the film was to highlight Chang, she simply couldn't sing and didn't look like the sort of actress Hollywood was looking for and she only appeared in three films. Interestingly, IMDb would seem to indicate that she's still alive--and over 100. So, as least in some ways life turned out well in spite of her career going bust.

I picked up this movie short, with 7 other titles, at a library discard sale and I'm so glad I did. "Singapore Sue" took me by surprise as I got to see a young and up-coming Cary Grant and a delightful Asian actress Anna Chang. You can see the "raw" Cary as he portrayed a sailor looking for love. His character looks so odd compared to the way we think of him today. But the most charming part to me was seeing Anna Chang sing and dance around in her little outfit that was risqué for the period. She and the other Chinese singer/actor, I believe to be Joe Wong (the only other Chinese name in the credits), were great! A very charming and entertaining short film not typical for the period because of the use of prominent Chinese actors in an American film.

Kino Video "Rhapsodies in Black & Blue" vol. 4, VHS with other musical shorts including Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman and more. If anyone has any of the other three in the series, let me know!

Novelist John Saunders was heavily involved in Hollywood, whose written works provided the framework for 1927 "Wings," 1928 "The Docks of New York," and 1930 "The Dawn Patrol." From his book "The Last Flight," which was made into a 1931 film with Richard Barthelmess, Saunders developed the play 'Nikki,' which his wife, actress Fay Wray, served as the lead on the 1931 Broadway stage. Included in the cast was a young actor, Archibald Leach, playing the Cary Lockwood character. Leach received rave reviews from the play's 39 performances. Columnist Ed Sullivan predicted the "young lad from England has a big future in the movies." Paramount Pictures noticed the stage actor, ran a screen test and filmed him as a sailor in his first screen appearance, in June 1932's musical short, "Singapore Sue." Paramount signed the 27-year-old Leach to a five-year contract, but with the caveat he had to change his name. The studio suggested his new name should sound something like its main star, Gary Cooper. Leach loved the character's name he played in 'Nikki,' and told the studio his first preference was Cary Lockwood. The execs liked the first name, but since there was an obscure actor already with that name, they gave him a list to choose for his last name. Knowing Clark Gable's career was becoming quite successful, Archibald, for good luck, chose the C. G. abbreviations, and selected Grant on the last name listing. Thus, Archibald Leach became known as Cary Grant.

Singapore Sue (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This Paramount short isn't a good film but it's certainly a very interesting one for a number of reasons including being able to see a young Cary Grant. In the film four sailors enter a Singapore bar where they're looking for alcohol and women. Sue (Anna Chang) comes to the boy's table and soon she's singing, dancing and showing them a part of Asian song and dance. There are many people who would probably watch this thing and be offended by the portrait of Asians but I'm going to defend what we're seeing here for one major reason. That reason is that while there are certainly some stereotypes here, at least we get real Asian actors playing the parts. Usually we had white actors doing the Asian roles so I was refreshed to see Asians getting to play themselves and that reason alone makes this film worth seeing. There are also some risqué pre-code elements including one where Chang spreads open her dress to reveal to the sailors what lovely legs she has. There's also some brief sexual talk with the sailors making it well known what they're looking for in this bar. Fans of Grant will have to look hard to spot him as he has very little to do. Chang is extremely lively in the part but I do wish that the music had been somewhat better. The songs she performs are decent at best but most of the quality comes from the actress and not the words.

I have seen SINGAPORE SUE and I believe that the title character was played by ANNA MAY WONG. I also believe that her singing voice was dubbed as well. Anna May Wong was the vastly underrated Asian-American actress from the silents to talkies to setting the precedent as the first Asian-American actress to star in her own tv series in the fall of 1951 for two months. She made one last movie, PORTRAIT IN BLACK, in 1960 then died in 1961 at the age of 56.

Found my VCR had caught this when left on all night after capturing "The Black Swan". Cary Grant plays a "grins too much" sailor in a Singapore nightclub with three other sailors. No real plot, just a bunch of locals singing and Cary constantly scheming on the girl singer. Noticed one of the sailors was Millard Mitchell who played Jimmy Stewarts sidekick in Winchester '73 and Gregory Peck's boss in 12 O'clock High.