Daughter of Shanghai [Daughter of the Orient] *** (1937, Anna May Wong, Philip Ahn, Charles Bickford, Buster Crabbe, Anthony Quinn, J Carrol Naish, Evelyn Brent) – Classic Movie Review 11,900

Daughter of Shanghai (1937) with Anna May Wong, Philip Ahn.

Director Robert Florey’s 1937 Paramount Pictures American crime film thriller Daughter of Shanghai [Daughter of the Orient] stars Anna May Wong, Philip Ahn, Charles Bickford, Larry Buster Crabbe, Cecil Cunningham, Anthony Quinn, J Carrol Naish and Evelyn Brent.

It is a rare film for the era as Asian American actors are playing the lead roles and no doubt for this reason in 2006 it was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.

Anna May Wong plays Asian American Lan Ying Lin, who takes revenge on the San Francisco immigrant traffickers who murder her father, by masquerading as a dancehall floosie, infiltrating the gang and exposing their plot wide open. Philip Ahn plays government agent Kim Lee, who helps Lan Ying Lin battle the alien smugglers.

With a noble Wong star turn, some fine character playing and a lot of flash-bang-wallop, this sharp little thriller with lively players and taut direction is easily a cut above the usual 1930s B-picture.

It is one of the first films for Anthony Quinn.

Anna May Wong became Hollywood’s first, and a leading, Asian-American movie star in the 1920s to late 1930s. Philip Ahn was the first Asian G-man of the American cinema.

Robert Florey (14 September 1900 – 16 May 1979) was born as Robert Fuchs in Paris, and moved to the US in 1921. Among his best known films are The Cocoanuts (1929), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), The House on 56th Street (1933) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937).

The cast are Anna May Wong as Lan Ying Lin, Philip Ahn as Kim Lee, Charles Bickford as Otto Hartman, Buster Crabbe [Larry Crabbe] as Andrew Sleete, Cecil Cunningham as Mrs Mary Hunt, J Carrol Naish as Frank Barden, Anthony Quinn as Harry Morgan, John Patterson as James Lang, Evelyn Brent as Olga Derey, Fred Kohler as Captain Gulner, Guy Bates Post as Lloyd Burkett, Virginia Dabney as dancer Rita, Gino Corrado, Frank Sully, Pierre Watkin, Mae Busch, Paul Fix, Charles Wilson and John Hart.

Daughter of Shanghai (1937) with Anna May Wong.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,900

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