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Chinatown, San Francisco: Years ago, at the time of the Tong Wars, Wong
(Edward G. Robinson), a "hatchet man" (= executioner) had to
execute his best friend (J. Carrol Naish), even though he just learned
this friend will leave his whole wealth, including his daughter to later
marry, to him. It nearly broke his heart, but his friend has refused to
change his will even after he learned who would be going to kill him ... Now
the Tong Wars are long forgotten, Wong has become a wealthy businessman,
and his friend's daughter Toya (Loretta Young) has just agreed to marry
him - not because of her father's will, which Wong never insisted upon
despite being in love with the girl very much, but because he loves her.
But then one of the Tongs is killed, and the Tong War is on the menu
again. The local Tong come to their hatchet man Wong for support, but he
insists on further negotiations ... until he finds one of his best friends
married by a rival gang. Wong travels to Sacramento to negotiate with
this rival gang, and when he comes to terms with all the Tong but not
their Caucasian business partner (Ralph Ince) ... well, guess who wakes up
with a hatchet in his head! Anyways, a new Tong War is averted thanks to
Wong. While Wong was out though, Toya has fallen madly in love with the
bodyguard he has left behind with her, Harry (Leslie Fenton) ... and when
Wong catches them red-handed, he decides to let the both of them go for
the sake of her happiness, rather than kill him and make her his bird in
the gilded cage forever - which was very magnanimous of course, but since
an old Tong leader (Dudley Digges) witnessed it all and would of course
gossip, so the next day he's excluded from the Tong, and since all Tongs
are forbidden to do business with him, he soon loses everything, and is
forced to work at a plantation ... when a letter from Toya reaches him. Turns
out Harry had his hands in the opium trade, and when he got caught, both
he and Toya got deported to China, and in China, Harry did nothing but
hand out in opium dens, and when his money ran out, he even sold Toya to
an opium den to work as a servant girl. Since Wong has sworn to always
make Toya happy, he scrapes up whatever money he can and travels to China,
his hatchets in his luggage. And when the den owner (Blanche Friderici)
refuses to give her up, he proves to be very persuasive in his handling of
his hatchets, even if he doesn't use them on anyone ... on purpose, it's
only later found out that one of his hatchets accidently split Harry's
head. Of course this is not a politically correct movie: A film
about Chinese-American matters cast predomintately with Caucasian actors,
and its background on Chinese culture mainly drawn from clichées and
mainstays of pulp fiction rather than actually delving into the country's
rich culture, all played in sets full of touristy Chinese kitsch ... nope,
it's not a film for today's sensibilities, but one must not forget
sensibilities were much different more than 80 years ago. But that said,
the film cannot be called racist, as in demeaning foreign cultures, just
maybe (at least from today's point of view) a bit short-sighted. And
that all said, The Hatchet Man is a quite ok thriller/romance, it's
well-paced, it makes the most of its sets, however cheesy, the cast may
not be Asian but is very competent all the same, and some gruesome moments
really stick with one. No masterpiece, even besides its political
ambivalence from today's point of view, but actually a quite ok watch ...
well, if you can accept Edward G. Robinson as a Chinese ...
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