It's a pretty good B movie starring Conrad Nagel as an Immigration Service agent trying to track down a gang that is smuggling Chinese into the country. His cover story is that he is a Broadway actor trying to break into the movies. His path crosses that of Eleanor Hunt, a reporter trying to get a story about an independent producer; all roads lead to the same end.
If it looks like a serial cut into a movie, it's because it's written and directed by Crane Wilbur, who also has a sizable role. He was the nephew of Tyrone Power Sr., hence the cousin of 20th Century-Fox's superstar Tyrone Power. He first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1903 and in his first movie in 1910. He was the male lead of THE PERILS OF PAULINE and eventually went back on the stage, but returned to the movies as a writer and director. That phase of his career lasted through 1962 and he died in 1973, aged 86.
This was the first of four movies in which Nagel and Miss Hunt starred in for Grand National. Nagel's movie career was on the downslide, while Miss Hunt's casting can be attributed to the fact that she was married to George Hirliman, the movie's producer. She's pretty good, and all four movies she starred in with Nagel are fast-moving Bs. They didn't lead anywhere, though. Mr. Nagel returned to Broadway and radio work. Miss Hunt played a few minor roles and retired.
