kidboots The tough no nonsense directorial style of William Wellman put together an exciting and unusual movie from a rather old fashioned play. The picture had a few play dates as "The Hohorable Mr. Wong" before a title change to the more sensational "The Hatchet Man". Edward G. Robinson had replaced John Barrymore as First National's top character actor and proved it with searing portrayals in films like "Five Star Final" (1931), "Two Seconds" (1932), and "The Hatchet Man".1916 in Chinatown, the honorable hatchet man, Wong Low Get (Edward G. Robinson) is given orders to kill Lam Sing Tong (J. Carroll Naish, another splendid character actor) who has been found guilty of murder. They have been best friends since boyhood and Wong swears before Buddha that Tong's little daughter, Toya San, will know only happiness.Sixteen years later, Chinatown has changed and Wong is now a legitimate merchant. Toya San (Loretta Young is simply stunning) has also embraced Western ways - cutting class and going dancing, where she meets Harry Hai (Leslie Fenton), a smooth talking Chinese American. Meanwhile, humbled by Wong's devotion and love, Toya consents to be his wife, even though Wong only wants her hand with love, not duty.Harry is one of the new breed of Chinese hoods ("Boys, just boys" comments Wong, to which Harry gives him a particularly filthy look) who has been hired by Wong to be a bodyguard to Toya after the Tong Wars have been declared. The usual happens and before Wong returns from San Francisco (he has had to settle a score on traditional terms when peaceful methods fail) Harry and Toya are having a torrid affair. Rather than kill both Harry and Toya, which is the Tong duty, he now charges Harry with Toya's happiness and because of his peaceful ways is banished from the Tong. Wong falls on hard times, at last finding a laboring job in the rice fields and it is there that a letter reaches him from Toya. She and Harry have been deported to China, he has been caught selling opium, not only that but he then sells Toya, as a maid, to the local brothel owner. Wong, who is now penniless, works his passage to China off as a stoker - he is determined to find Harry and make him pay, which he does in an absolutely chilling finale!!!J. Grubb Alexander's adaptation is a lot more sensational than the original play. An assortment of fine old villainous character actors were on hand to convincingly play Chinese American roles - Dudley Digges, Charles Middleton, Noel Madison and Tully Marshall. There doesn't seem to be much information about on Art Director, Anton Grot, but he had a mammoth career at Warners from 1938 to 1950. In 1940 he won an Academy Award for his invention of a "ripple machine" which created weather and light effects on water.Highly, Highly Recommended.

bkoganbing The film The Hatchet Man is based on an unproduced play written by one Achmed Abdullah and theatrical impresario David Belasco. Belasco had died the previous year and I'm sure Warner Brothers must have bought the right to this play from his estate. The play was entitled The Honorable Mr. Wong and it was an outsiders view of what life was like within the Chinese ghetto on the Pacific coast. It's important to remember that when trying to rationalize the yellow peril attitudes that are in this film.Edward G. Robinson did not look fondly back on The Hatchet Man. I imagine neither did his heavily lacquered co-star Loretta Young. Both look positively ridiculous and neither attempts any kind of Chinese accent. I guess they didn't want to sound ridiculous as well. Robinson is in the ancient an honorable profession of Hatchet Man or more precise he's a Chinese contract killer for the Tongs. He's been given a contract on J. Carrol Naish by one of the Tong heads, Dudley Digges. Though Naish is an old friend and has even made him prime beneficiary in his will which includes his daughter who grows up to be Loretta Young. Naish says do the deed quickly and Robinson does.Fifteen years passed and Young's now married to Robinson, but the Tong Wars are heating up and he's not giving her the attention she needs. Leslie Fenton is around and he's a Chinese gigolo and opium addict.Although the plot takes a few surprise twists in the end it does come out as one might expect. The Honorable Mr. Wong never got produced by David Belasco and I suspect for good reason. The Hatchet Man feeds into all kinds of attitudes prevalent in the day about the Yellow Peril. And it's just not a terribly good or even terribly bad film. Just bad enough.

FishIM Yes as many have stated, by today's standards, the casting of this movie seems ridiculous, but please keep in mind the time period that this movie was made. All things considered, even with the period specific "whites for ethnic minorities" casting mentality, respect for a certain amount of cultural authenticity was in this movie to a greater degree than in previous films of this era, and so I feel that in that respect this movie was ground breaking and helped slowly pave the way for minorities to eventually take center stage in great theatrical releases. Most other films before and since (until the late 70's early 80's) stereotyped Asian characters as clownish and comical to an absolutely racist degree. Not so here. Robinson (although he did use some stereotyping) created a character who was not only mysterious, but both an anti-hero as well as deep & complex the likes of which would not be seen for a great long time after. His acting ability was amazing and truly well showcased here. He was able to show what really made his characters great and not just the mugging gangster stereotype that became so exaggerated over time. Often people forget what a true talent Robinson was, and if you need to know why... See this one if you ever get the chance!!!

MartinHafer Okay, let's take a quiz. What do the actors Paul Muni, Agnes Morehead, Henry Travers, Warner Oland, Katherine Hepburn, Luise Rainer, Walter Huston and Boris Karloff have in common? Well, isn't it obvious?! All have played Chinese people in films!!! While none of these people remotely looked Asian, and there were plenty of Asian actors available (such as Keye Luke, Victor Sen Young, Anna May Wong and others), Hollywood stupidly decided to have very White looking actors play Chinese characters again and again in the 1930s and 1940s--and in some cases, even up through the 1970s! So in this context, it isn't all that surprising that Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young play Chinese-Americans in this exceptional and exceptionally strange movie. Now I was actually surprised to see that underneath the makeup, Loretta Young didn't look too bad as an Asian, however Robinson looked about as Chinese as Scatman Crothers!! In fact, apart from a silly hairstyle he only sported at the beginning of the film, he looked like Little Caesar throughout the movie!!! Because of this ludicrous casting, I felt pretty irritated with reviewers that gave this movie a 10 (one going so far as calling this "one of the best movies ever made")!! Sure, it is a really cool movie, but to me a 10 implies a perfect film. Casting a Jewish man (Robinson) as a Chinese person has to automatically knock off a point or two! In addition to him and Young, ALL the rest of the major Chinese parts were played by White actors--such as J. Carrol Naish and Dudley Diggs!! Now once you get past the stupidity of the casting, what you have left is an exciting Pre-Code film. Pre-Code means that the film was released before the strict Production Code was adopted in 1934. As a result, the film had a few adult themes (such as adultery and violent murders) that you just wouldn't have seen a few years later--or they would have been severely censored--lessening their impact.The film is called THE HATCHET MAN because Robinson is literally a hatchet-wielding assassin who does his tong's bidding. Tongs were secret Chinese-American societies--much like the gangs of today. And, when someone offends the tong, it's Robinson's job to kill--even when he is ordered to kill his best friend! Ironically, upon killing this friend, Robinson inherited the man's fortune AND custody of his young daughter--with the intention that Robinson later marry the girl! Now THAT'S ironic!! While everything seems just fine after they marry 20 years later, eventually this lady (Young) is seduced away from Robinson--not a smart move considering Robinson is a skilled assassin with a hatchet!! Despite his rage upon discovering the affair, he forgives her and allows her to leave with her lover--much to the dismay of the tong. The secret society is angered that Robinson acted so weakly and lost face, so they threw him out of the organization and his life went downhill fast.What happens next is just too exciting to reveal, but the film has one of the most interesting and lurid conclusions I have seen in a long time. Thanks to a fantastic script, it's well worth seeing--plus, the plot is so bizarre and creepy, that it's a real guilty pleasure. See this one--and try to look past the ridiculous casting.By the way, if you are so inclined, try counting the number of times the "Chinese" characters say the word "honorable". My bet is that it must be at least 100! So, according to old time Hollywood, a White guy can squint and say "honorable" at the end of every few sentences and he becomes instantly Chinese! Wow...I gotta try that!