Daughter of the Tong

Here we have "Daughter of the Tong" which in 53 minutes manages to pack in a lot more than most of today's movies do in 90 minutes or more. The whole plot is so 1930's in a B movie film noir way. Today, this would barely make it as Law & Order episode unless it was more luridly done up. Basically, your standard crime caper involving the nefarious doing of the Chinese Tong in San Francisco. Evelyn Brent stars as the mysterious Carney aka The Illustrious One aka "The Daughter of the Tong". She's running a crime racket yet it's about to get some hurt from some little heard of outfit called the FBI. The plot holes are gigantic yet the cast is great and manage to make this in to a decently suspenseful and, both intentionally and unintentionally, humorous film. I really enjoyed it, so 6 stars.

By the way, this DVD was released by Alpha Video---a company which sometimes releases some wonderfully obscure titles (mostly public domain) but which NEVER cleans up the prints or adds closed captions. In other words, the DVD production values are strictly 3rd-rate...at best. In this case, the sides of the picture are all clipped off--like someone videotaped it right off TV and missed the edges. It's also super-fuzzy and washed out--making it a chore to watch.

This film has a very strange title in many ways. A 'Tong' is a Chinese mob that was strongly associated with assassinations and violence at the early part of the 20th century. However, there are almost no Asians in the film and the supposed leader of the Tong is a joke. Evelyn Brent sports a black wig and is supposed to be a Chinese mob boss--even though she seems about as Chinese as Eva Gabor--and Miss Gabor's accent sounded a bit closer to Chinese!! The plot involves the FBI infiltration of the Tong as well as the story of a man who is trying to escape from the mob's clutches. None of it is particularly interesting and the film seems much, much longer than its 53 minute running time, as it's dreadfully dull entertainment.

By the way, I referred to this as a 'Poverty Row' film. This is a nickname given to the tiniest studios during the 1930s and 40s and they usually didn't even have their own studios--renting space in a major studio at night. This means that this Metropolitan Picture was probably, for most indoor scenes, filmed at nigh. Production values and quality at most of these low-rent studios was generally very low, though on occasion they made dandy films...and this is certainly not one of them!!

"An F.B.I. operative goes undercover to infiltrate a gang responsible for killing one of his fellow agents. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to the man suspected of being the killer, the agent succeeds in finding the leader of the murderous gang. Known as 'The Illustrious One', this Asian femme fatale controls her gang ruthlessly from the luxury of her space in the Oriental Hotel," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. Scar-faced Grant Withers (as Ralph Dickson) stars in this silliness masquerading as a gumshoes verses Asians in San Francisco gangster picture. It isn't even remotely convincing. The highlight is the 1930s Los Angeles area location footage involving Mr. Withers and Dave O'Brien (Jerry Morgan) in a car pursuit. Villainess Evelyn Brent (as Carney), who is inserted into the chase, has some fun with her lines.

*** Daughter of the Tong (8/28/39) Raymond K. Johnson ~ Grant Withers, Evelyn Brent, Dave O'Brien

An FBI agent (apparently something fairly new), a crime boss, a little Asian profiling and xenophobia, a few crooks, some cars, a couple chases, and nothing the least bit memorable. I watched this as part of a collection because I'm curious about the this period in film history. These were probably made in a week and offered a bit of diversion in the midst of the depression and before we got into the war. We have a couple strong women, one on each side, and a plot that's not the least bit interesting. There's no suspense and no great question to be answered. It's no more nor less than it was meant to be. The performances are OK but there's that deep moral fervor that seems to permeate everything. Just another film.

This is an old "B" crime movie if there ever was one, straight out of the 1930s. This was released in 1939 but it looks and feels more like 1931. The acting isn't bad but it's closer to Ed Wood-type '50s material than to Casablanca. In the first half of the film, the story drags too much. You'd think that would be almost impossible in a film that's less than an hour long, but it's true. For much of the first 30 minutes, nothing happens, but it picks up in the second half with hokey barroom-brawl-type fights and a car chase in the country.

The story is a simple one: an FBI agent goes undercover to get a crime boss. The twist is that "Carney," the crime boss of San Francisco's Chinatown, is a woman and the FBI doesn't know that. By the way, nobody is the gang is Asian.

The man pretending to semi-famous crook "Gallagher" from the east who has just escaped from the Atlanta prison, has his work cut out for him: another guy - "Lefty" (gee, what a unique name for a criminal) from Atlanta is there and could blow our man's cover. Playing the FBI good guy is Grant Withers ("agent Ralph Dickson"). Gallagher was only recruited because the local heat was on Carney and she preferred someone else running the show for awhile in case the law won. Then, she wouldn't implicated since she and the new guy had no connections.

I wish "Carney" had a bigger role because Evelyn Brent is very good in here, very mysterious, beautiful and her dialog is fun to hear. Unlike "Muggsy," one of her gang members who is too nice a guy to be a thug, Brent's character is tough and edgy.

The transfer quality on this Alpha Video disc is horrible, like a bad VHS tape.