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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 5, No. 5 |
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The 1932 classic finally
comes to home video
of TheColumnists.com
There are some good old "dark corridor"-style movies from the 1930s and 1940s that the rights owners must be ashamed of owning. Case in point: William Wellman's "The Hatchet Man," released in 1932 by Warner Bros., but only now coming to home video--not from the Warner label, but from the oddball independent Hellfire Video.
This is a very stylish thriller starring Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young--two of the grandest names in movie history. It looks good, sounds good and has an ending I guarantee you'll never forget.
So why didn't Warners or Turner or some major label put this cult favorite out long ago, satisfying the needs of an eagerly waiting audience of old-time movie buffs and fans of grisly movies? My guess: They didn't want Chinese people picketing their corporate headquarters.
"The Hatchet Man" takes place mainly in San Francisco's Chinatown district during two time periods--the 1917-18 era at the close of World War I and "the present," which in that case meant the early 1930s. Its leading characters are all Chinese. So? Well, here's the problem: they're all played by Caucasians.
Making white guys up to look Chinese is politically incorrect in the 21st century. This is like having a bunch of white guys putting shoe polish on their faces and doing a minstrel show. It wouldn't float today.
But that's the way things were done in 1932. Real Asians played the Chinese people in the background of "The Hatchet Man," but the studio wanted name stars playing the leading roles. So, they had to make them look reasonably Chinese. Which they did.
Meanwhile, director Wellman, who had won the first Best Picture Oscar for "Wings" (1927), put his best effort forward to make "The Hatchet Man" a beautifully crafted drama about vengeance and its consequences. The film looks sensational, even in the rose-toned "taped off TV" print that Hellfire's video edition resembles.
The story is a solid one. It takes place in the early days of the 20th century, when San Francisco's Chinatown was divided into political fiefdoms run by organizations known as "Tongs." Like Mafia dons, the Tong leaders grappled for power, so there was much street fighting in what were known as "Tong wars."
When one Tong leader decides a rival Tong boss needs to be assassinated, he calls in an expert in this special service--an "honorable hatchet man" from Sacramento. This turns out to be Edward G. Robinson, just two years after becoming the movies' No. 1 racketeer, Rico, in Warners' "Little Caesar." Robinson isn't happy about the assignment, though, because the target is his best friend. At first, Wong (Robinson) refuses the job, but the Tong leaders make it clear to him that he's taken a "sacred oath" and if he refuses, well, he'll be chop suey.
So, Robinson turns up at the home of his friend (J. Carroll Naish), who has been warned that an assassin may be coming for him. Robinson finds his friend in the process of making out his will. Naturally, he's leaving all his worldly goods to Robinson, his best friend. Curiously, the man's worldly goods include his baby daughter, who will grow up to be Loretta Young, the Asian version.
The major complication of the "Hatchet Man" plot is the fact that Robinson marries his friend's daughter when she grows out of her training bra and flowers as a glowing beauty who, thanks to the makeup department, no longer looks like "The Farmer's Daughter." However, grown-up Loretta is a post-flapper era Chinese and loves to boogie. Kindly provider that he is, Robinson, now a wealthy retired hatchet man, definitely isn't the boogie nights type of fella. So, you can bet Loretta is going to run off with the first swingin' Chinese boy who crosses her path.
That precipitates a great fall for Robinson, who winds up broke and on the skids, a hatchet man without portfolio, searching the world for his runaway wife and the dirty rat who took her from him. This makes him a sort of Chinese ronin, constantly forced to prove he really used to be a hatchet man and isn't just slobbering nonsense in his rice beer.
"The Hatchet Man" has some glorious stuff in it. For instance, when a Tong war begins, the Tong starting the war suddenly unrolls a giant dragon banner from the roof of its headquarters and calls everybody's attention to it with a clash of cymbals. Within minutes, you see the old Chinese workers at the Tong armory sharpening all their hatchets on huge grinding wheels.
Robinson's assassination technique is also classy. Up one of his floppy sleeves, he carries a small hatchet made for throwing. He's a real Robin Hood when it comes to hitting his marks. Like Bob Feller winding up a fastball, he whips the old hatchet out and lets her fly.....thwock! Wow, that must hurt!
He also talks a good fight, too. When he's sent to Sacramento to try talking a gang out of invading San Francisco Tong territory, he speaks softly and carries a sharp hatchet. When he gets down to business, he's Rico all over again. His big lips curl and you know he's searching for the Chinese equivalent of "Nyaaah!" All he needs is a cigar and he'd be the Little Caesar from San Fran.
As for the film's great finale, let's just say it's ripe with irony and the great Buddha seems to be watching over the honorable hatchet man from San Francisco as he takes care of business without even knowing it.
If you hanker for "The Hatchet Man," you can catch it now and then on Turner Classic Movies, but you can order the video (no DVD yet) via the Internet from www.cinemaclassics.com.
© 2004 by Ron Miller.
The photo is courtesy of Turner Classic Movies.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
teaches classes in mystery and related topics at Whatcom Community
College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington.
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