The Hatchet Man (1932)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

. . . was born in some far-off foreign land such as Hungary, Australia, Romania, or Canadia. THE HATCHET MAN reveals that the LITTLE GIANT's native shore actually was some place in China. Several times during this documentary from the early 1930s Robinson (nee Wong Low Get) spews forth a string of Asiatic Lingo that would do President Xi proud. Many have said that Robinson always looks uncomfortable in the various double-breasted Western Gangster suits in which many of his movie roles doll him up. The explanation for this ill-ease becomes apparent during the opening scenes of THE HATCHET MAN. "Eddie" has never looked more at home than in his Native Tong garb. As he shares with us the ins and outs of a Chinese Sharia Law Variant, Americans can pick up on the many nuances that separate Our way of thinking from the Oriental Mind. Eddie's a hitman who never has to wonder if he's brought enough bullets before the battle begins, or if he's washed off all the GSR when the war has waned. After all, who would bring a gun to a hatchet fight?

The Hatchet Man (1932)So burdened with ethnic slandering—most of it "unintentional" at least—this movie is almost impossible to watch fairly. The basic story of inter-clan fighting and murder in the Chinese community (in San Francisco) is meant no doubt to have echoes in Italian mobster killings, and therefore have a wider appeal. But when the main characters are played by very non-Chinese talents (a product of the prejudice in Hollywood at the time), there is a constant woe and disbelief on many levels.Of course, these problems are exactly why a "student' of early Hollywood should watch this. This is a way to get some sense of the problem these movies present. And there are additional reasons to see this—mainly the two really famous actors of the period doing their best to be Chinese. Edward G. Robinson is of course one of the greats of the era, an odd but searingly talented actor, and he plays well the head of one of the Chinese clans (or tongs). His wife has a smaller role but important —and so Loretta Young, a rising, fresh star, does what she can.Nothing can redeem all this. The title refers to the violence of the subculture, where the solution for dishonor is death (by hatchet, literally). There is the simplest of attempts to show how the Chinese were assimilating at the time. In a way the movie shows some shred of real life for the Chinatowns of America. The secondary theme here is love, and a kind of arranged marriage. This conflicts in different ways and Robinson, playing a Westernized immigrant, faces one aspect of this New World he can't quite understand. There are a couple of turns of plot to keep you alert, and a crazy ending worth seeing. It's great to see Warner Archive put this out there in a clean copy, ready for all our various social biases. Maybe that's why it's worth it on some level. Never mind that it is often stiff and slow. Judge it as you can.

It's Occidentals playing Orientals in this dare I say choppy tale of a Tong hit-man that employs hatchets to perform his tasks. Edward G Robinson makes for an odd looking Asian Eastwood but he still manages to give a powerfully emotional performance while Loretta Young as his wife has never looked more exotically alluring.Robinson as Wong Low Get is dispatched to kill his best friend to settle a Chinatown dispute and stave off a war between rival factions. He hesitates at first but it becomes a matter of honor and duty. Ironically the victim wills all he has including his daughter to Wong Low with the intent of having him marry her when she is of age. She consents to marriage but soon becomes involved with an old beau and runs off with him in turn ruining the now respectable business owner Wong. Taking up the hatchet he sets out for China to get her back.Hatchet Man's episodic structure moves at a lightning pace allowing little time for smooth continuity and character development. While some of the characters have a stereotypical Fu Manchu demeanor Wellman shows respect for the culture and tradition by juxtaposing it against the crass western (gangsterism) ways being embraced by a new disrespectful generation of Chinese. Conversley he points out unrealistic archaic attitudes that are out of touch in the twentieth century which contribute to Wong's dilemma as he attempts to change with the times but maintain a balance of the honorable tradition as well. It is this tradition that brings him back to China to attempt to rescue Sun Toy in a grisly climax that's the equal of Wellman's earlier Public Enemy.

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.