illbebad I don't think I am somebody who will watch ANY old b&w film and enjoy it (tried to watch an early Jon Hall poverty row film earlier tonight, gave up) but Shadows of the Orient isn't terrible. It isn't great, but , it's watchable. The pacing is slow no doubt, the budget tiny, but Esther Ralston, Regis Toomey, J. Farrell MacDonald and Sidney Blackmer are such professionals, they make so-so dialog work. Esther Ralston's character is the typical dumb rich girl, but hey, she is a pilot, which does play a role in the plot. as long as you are not expecting this film to be some great forgotten classic, chances are you will enjoy it.

mritchie I'm a fan of B-movies, but this Poverty Row film is so bad, I'm tempted not to bother reviewing it, but that cool title is what suckered me into watching it, so maybe my review will save others who might be equally tempted. This begins with a good scene that was duplicated in a later (and much better) Ronald Reagan B-movie, SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR, in which a pilot, smuggling a Chinese family of illegal aliens, dumps them out in mid-air to their deaths when he's attacked by another plane. The pilot, angry when his boss won't pay him for the aborted delivery, calls the Feds and offers to give them the goods on the smuggling ring, but is shot to death just before the agents raid the Chinese restaurant which is the front for the gang. The leader, Sidney Blackmer, gets away, but agent Regis Toomey, his older sidekick (J. Farrell McDonald), and a prominent judge's daughter (Esther Ralston) try to infiltrate the gang, only to wind up in danger. The 70-minute movie is filled with inept photography, bad sets, and flubbed lines left in, and the lack of any background music at all only accentuates the sheer boredom of the proceedings. Even the promise of a moderately exciting air chase at the end goes nowhere. The actors, all pros who have done good B-film work elsewhere, are left at sea by bad direction and zero production values. Blackmer gets one nicely slimy, almost campy line, when he says, "Orientals have a peculiar irresistible fascination for me," but despite the promise of the melodramatic title, this one will hold no one's interest.

dbborroughs (This may contain a few spoilers) Socialite who likes to gamble gets mixed up with gangsters smuggling Chinese over the border from Mexico.Jaw droppingly inept this is a movie that even bad movie lovers will have a hard time sitting through. The problem is not that its so bad as to be bad, rather its because its so badly paced that its really really dull.Filled with fake sets, fake facial hair, racist attitudes, bizarre actions and dialog with a high "huh?" factor, this is a movie that bad movie lovers can sit and watch and make fun of, assuming they can stay awake. Rarely have I seen a movie where I mumbled "I can't believe they did that" over and over again. It begins almost at the outset where a police patrol plane begins to strafe the smugglers plane with machine gun fire even though it suspects it has people hidden in it, continues as the smuggling pilot remedies the situation and then goes on from there.What were these people thinking? A unique viewing experience certainly, but not one I need to repeat or one I can recommend. If you like bad movies give it a shot, but be warned you may not make it to the end with out snoozing.3 out of 10

Spuzzlightyear A disappointingly dull 'actioner' here, that tells of evil Chinese smugglers (which, interestingly enough, are being stashed over the border in Mexico. All of this of course, is controlled by gangsters. A blonde socialite is soon caught up in all of this by getting wooed by the head honcho of this enterprise, who decides to use her for his own means. Luckily, the hotshot police detective hired to the case also has the hots for her.. I was actually surprised at how incompetent this movie was. Filled with boring dialogue, inane fight sequences, and gun fight sequences taken right out of the 'Police Squad' book of crimefighting,. But at least the beginning (where a pilot has a hilarious, and unexpected way to deal with unwanted cargo), and the ending, with it's plane chase (but not the ridiculous plane chase before it, where a plane with a machine gun can't shoot a plane down that's 10 feet in front of it) is interesting, but the rest is an unmitigated bore.