Shadow of Chinatown

Starring:Joan Barclay, Bruce Bennett, William Buchanan, George Chan, Jack Cowell, Lester Dorr, John Elliott, Paul Fung, Harrison Greene, Henry Hall, Charles King (II), James B. Leong, Maurice Liu, Bela Lugosi, Moy Ming, Bruce Mitchell, Forrest Taylor, Henry T. Tung, Luana Walters
Studio: Whirlwind Media
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Surprisingly Not Rotten

Shadow of Chinatown, Vol. 1
Starring: Shadow of Chinatown
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Shadow of Chinatown, Vol. 2
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ASIN: B0000AGWJP
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Customer Reviews:

Surprisingly Not Rotten.......2004-11-15

Most people find the independently produced serials of the 1930s to be the ultimate in snoozefests, and this is one case in which I go along with the masses. I'm at that stage of my life, however, when self-inflicted pain helps get me through the torturous long hours of an otherwise tedious existence, and for sheer self-inflicted pain, you can't do much better than watching a Bela Lugosi serial. Hence, I approached SHADOW OF CHINATOWN not expecting much. It was to my shock, then, that I found a serial that was cheesy, yes, plot-challenged, naturally, ludicrous, you betcha, but which held my interest and entertained in all 15 chapters, particularly the brilliant chapter 11 (more on that later).

The plot (and get this): A European importing business is feeling the competitive heat from a Chinese importing business. So they decide to keep tourists from visiting Chinatown to... to... well, it's not real clear how they figure this will help them, but they seem pretty sure of it, so it must be okay. Anyway, they hire a beautiful dragon lady named Sonya (Luana Walters) to handle this little project for them, but she outsources it to Victor Poten, a crazed Eurasian scientist who must be and is Bela Lugosi. Poten embarks on a mad plan to murder, pillage, torture, and generally embarrass a lot of people.

A feisty female reporter (Luana Walters) is investigating all the mayhem in Chinatown, and she enlists the services of a hunky young writer and Chinatown expert (Herman Brix) to help her solve the mystery.

The feisty female reporter soon ends up a prisoner of Poten, and in one of the highlights of the serial, writes "HELP!" on a mirror and reflects the sunlight so that the message shines like the Batsignal on the building next door. Pedestrians spend the better part of two chapters looking up at it and pointing, but not investigating. Must happen a lot in that neighborhood.

Anyway, Poten soon gets a jones to kill Herman Brix, and he disguises himself as a telephone repairman so's he can implant a poisoned needle into Brix's telephone, and if you haven't seen Bela Lugosi dressed as a telephone repairman, well, then, friend, you haven't lived. He fails in that plan, but knocks Brix unconscious and leaves him on the floor with the sun shining through a goldfish bowl and onto Brix's forehead in a chapter called "The Sinister Ray" and no, I'm not kidding, that's a real deathtrap. I don't particularly see how this could be fatal (the goldfish, f'rinstance, is swimming along happily), but it sure is unique.

Eventually, Brix rescues the feisty female reporter, Sonja changes sides to help the good guys, Lugosi hypnotizes everybody and orders them all to do something bad, Brix's Kato-like servant, Willy Fu (great name!) comes to the rescue, somebody accidentally tries to strangle Brix with a coathanger, Lugosi disguises himself as a Chinese waiter (he looks sillier in his various disguises than Inspector Clouseau ever did), and a big heavy chandelier is rigged to fall on Herman Brix's big heavy head. Whew! You can see why I liked this serial.

Okay, as promised, on to chapter 11, "Thundering Doom". Y'know those parodies of old movies that feature people staring at each other while the organ music swells in a misbegotten attempt to build suspense? Well, a scene like that happens here in chapter 11, and it's pretty funny watching the entire cast glance at each other for a couple of minutes while that damn organ plays. And then, a short time later, it happens again. The second time, it's REAL funny. And know what? The THIRD time it happens in the chapter, I was laughing so hard I projectile-vomited Diet Pepsi Twist through my nose. I'm fairly certain it happened again at least once more in that chapter, but I can't be sure because I was laughing so hard, rolling around on the carpeting like a junebug in cotton candy.

My understanding is that there's only one copy of this serial still known to exist, a complete 15-chapter job on 16mm, so I was surprised that it's complete and looks pretty good. Alpha's DVD release has crummy sound, though, so you're going to have to crank it up. The bottom line is, if you're going in expecting FLASH GORDON or CAPTAIN MARVEL, forget it. But if you are looking for some ponderous but entertaining fun in a vintage serial, you could do a lot worse than SHADOW OF CHINATOWN.

Average customer rating:

Shadow of Chinatown, Vol. 2
Starring: Shadow of Chinatown
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0000AGWJY
Release Date: 2003-10-07

Average customer rating:

Watch It For Bela... I guess...

Shadow of Chinatown:Feature
Starring: Joan Barclay , Herman Brix , George Chan , Jack Cowell , and Lester Dorr
Director: Robert F. Hill , and Bob Hill
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007OP1I0
Release Date: 2005-03-29

Customer Reviews:

Watch It For Bela... I guess..........2006-09-01

Bela is a maniacal eurasian fella, out to destroy both europeans and asians in chinatown, in this 70 min. condensed version of the 15-part serial. Even at 70 minutes it's a chore to watch! Bela is his old self, but there's just not enough action or plot to really make things enjoyable. If you're just looking for a good Lugosi serial, I recommend THE PHANTOM CREEPS, as it's dumb but fun...

Average customer rating:

This video should not be sold
Poor!!
The Shadow Creeps
Horrible Horror Transfer to DVD

Shadow of Chinatown
Starring: Joan Barclay , Bruce Bennett , William Buchanan , George Chan , and Jack Cowell
Manufacturer: Whirlwind Media
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000056MMW
Release Date: 2001-02-20

Customer Reviews:

This video should not be sold.......2002-04-30

The picture quality and sound on this video are beyond words to describe how bad a dvd can be. It looks like a poor transfer of a six hour mode tape. There is no attempt to digitally clean up the picture or audio. Avoid this one like the plague.

Poor!!.......2001-12-31

The DVD is not very good quality print. Even the serial isn't that good. I got it because it was rare and had Bela Lugosi in it but I am sorry to say that it's not worth getting. Some of the actors are supposed to be of Oriental caucasion but it is obvious they were not in some cases. They could have called the serial "The Death" I am a fan of Bela lugosi but this DVD isn't worth it.

The Shadow Creeps.......2001-09-08

I can't even give this 2 stars as another reviewer did. This is another slap together dvd by Whirlwind Media who are only concerned with making money. The transfer is from a 16mm print off, most likely, a Sinister Cinema VHS tape. The only reason I even bought this is because it's one of those incredibly rare serials. The sound is pretty much muddied throughout the dvd and the print itself isn't much better. I had high hopes at first as the opening title sequence, although not crisp and clean, was viewable. After that, it becomes a hit and miss affair even more than their release of The Phantom Creeps. I wish Whirlwind would put some effort into cleaning up the video and sound--it isn't that difficult to do as one can see from the efforts of the Doctor Who Restoration Team. Again, as I stated in my Phantom Creeps review, STAY AWAY FROM WHIRLWIND MEDIA!!!

Horrible Horror Transfer to DVD.......2001-06-07

When I heard of this Bela Lugosi serial, and that it was on DVD, I
placed an order without hesitation. Well, as they say, fools jump
in...

The packaging of the two-disc set is very nice, with vintage
artwork on the cover and inside on the paper chapter list insert (the
only reason for my 2-star rating here).

However, this is quite
possibly one of the worst transfers I have ever had the misfortune to
be a purchaser of, and I readily warn any other unsuspecting victim to
avoid this one.

The sound is garbled, warbles, and is painful to
listen to. Worse yet, Whirlwind has chosen to "mat" the
image in such a way as to cut off all four sides of the
image. Basically, it looks like they "zoomed in" on the
image, giving it a blurry and distorted appearance throughout all
fifteen chapters.

Obviously transferred from an inferior video
source (in one chapter, there was a slight tracking error at the top
of the frame!), this disc is less than stellar, and not fit even for
the bargain bin at a department store.

As for the serial itself, it
has the feel of a low budget effort from 1931, rather than 1936. The
editing is fairly weak, and the whole chapter-play is very
"stagey", like early talkies were in '31-'34.

In one later
chapter, you can even hear the director yelling for a passing car to
"Come on! COME ON!" Victory Pictures was not exactly
Republic, which is why no one today has ever heard of them. This DVD
is partly why.

The hero "Martin Andrews" is laughably
bad. His Asian houseboy is sure to draw the ire of the PC crowd, and
most of the cast is populated by non-entities.

The love interest and
girl reporter Joan is actually entertaining, but several opportunities
for her to expand the character were wasted by poor
editing/directing. The evil villianess who teams up with Lugosi to
ruin Chinatown (and then... the world!), is beautiful. She plays the
villianess very well, but is overpowered by Lugosi. She also was a
victim of the poor editing/directing that are the hallmark of this
serial.

Lugosi has the mad scientist/inventor thing down. His
character can also hypnotize people and bend them to his will. He can
even affect a victim through his television viewer!

There are
potentially great moments; sneaky traps for the heroes, at least one
good street explosion, Lugosi's inventions, and some fair fight
scenes. The cliffhangers range from really good (a bomb designed to
drop a chandelier on the hero when he enters his own foyer), to
rediculous (the hero is knocked out and placed under a hanging glass
fishbowl so he can be killed by the "focused rays of the
sun").

Billed as one of "the longest serials ever
made," with the help of this poor transfer it lives up to its
press... even if it isn't the longest, it sure FELT like the longest
when I was sitting through it.

I suppose my impression of the serial
has been somewhat shaded by the slapdash transfer, but this is no
"S.O.S. Coast Guard", that's for sure.

Product Description

A group of European businessmen hire the Dragon lady to destroy Chinatown. With the help of criminal mastermind Victor Poten, they disguise their henchmen as Chinese gansters and wreak havok in the city's streets. When a pair of reporters seek to get to the bottom of the death and violence, Poten vows to kill them. Although they manage to escape his nefarious death traps, the reporters find themselves in the middle of an all-out war, as Poten's scheme sinks Chinatown into bloody chaos.

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