As Chinese warlord Wu Yen Fang in John Farrow’s WEST OF SHANGHAI, with Richard Loo and Beverly Roberts.
Dillon (who would next direct Karloff in a bit part as himself in THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS IN HOLLYWOOD) bring verve to the silly story. This is the most purely entertaining film in these sets— not to mention of the most interest for fans of Karloff’s macabre work, though he’s cast here in the hulking brute sidekick role rather than as the main menace. It’s possible to discern a tongue slipped into a cheek, with a reversal at the end as the heroine (Cummings, much more spirited here than as the blonde weeds in the earlier films) has to rescue the tied-down hero from the scalpel. The transfers are solid, and the source prints (given the age and obscurity of the films) in rea- sonable shape; each movie gets its own disc. Ex- tras include a genial Robert Osborne introduction (which includes a small error: Karloff was in a Los Angeles company of THE CRIMINAL CODE, not on Broadway), posters and stills and a useful es- say on Karloff’s crime movie career from TCM Movie Morlock Richard Harland Smith, also allied with this parish. Warners’ BORIS KARLOFF TRIPLE FEATURE single-disc set might feel a bit like Contractual Obligation Theater, but its modest assortment
of Bs showcase Karloff as a star rather than a bit-player. None are among his best roles, but he has a different look and accent in each. John Farrow’s WEST OF SHANGHAI (1937, 64m 21s) is a remake of THE BAD MAN, a 1930 western which had starred Walter Huston, transferred to China, or at least the version of China familiar from SHANGHAI EXPRESS and THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN. With typical Hollywood geo- graphical accuracy, it’s mostly set North of Shanghai. Warlord Wu Yen Fang (Karloff) oc- cupies a mission with a combination of ruth- lessness and charm, talking in comical pidgin (“All who oppose will of Fang be fix most dang quick!”) and threatening to hurry along the ro- mance of stalwart oil man Jim Hallet (Gordon Oliver) and insipid missionary Jane Creed (Beverly Roberts) by getting rid of Jane’s es- tranged husband Gordon (Ricardo Cortez, held over from THE WALKING DEAD). Though the initially charming Gordon turns out to be a bad hat, the film presumes the oil men and the mis- sionary have every right to be in China, exploit- ing resources and saving souls. It’s supposed to be a transgression when Fang moves into the
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