Harold Bledsoe, a botany student, is called back home to San Francisco, where his late father had been police chief, to help investigate a crime wave in Chinatown.Harold Bledsoe, a botany student, is called back home to San Francisco, where his late father had been police chief, to help investigate a crime wave in Chinatown.Harold Bledsoe, a botany student, is called back home to San Francisco, where his late father had been police chief, to help investigate a crime wave in Chinatown.
Charles Middleton
- John Thorne aka The Dragon
- (as Chas. Middleton)
Will Walling
- Police Captain Walton
- (as William Walling)
Grady Sutton
- Man at Party (silent version)
- (scenes deleted)
Eddy Chandler
- Cop
- (uncredited)
Rae Daggett
- Woman Sitting in Police Station
- (uncredited)
Douglas Haig
- Buddy Lee
- (uncredited)
Edgar Kennedy
- SFPD Desk Sergeant
- (uncredited)
Tetsu Komai
- Florist Henchman
- (uncredited)
Wang Lee
- Chinaman with Queue
- (uncredited)
James B. Leong
- Florist Henchman
- (uncredited)
- …
Jim Mason
- Barry Steele
- (uncredited)
- …
Nelson McDowell
- 1st Train Passenger
- (uncredited)
Soo Hoo Sun
- Dead Chinese Man
- (uncredited)
James Wang
- Dr. Chang Gow
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBegan shooting as a silent in August, 1928 at Metropolitan Studios, it would become an agonizingly long and complicated production. It was finally released on October 12, 1929 as a talkie after largely being re-shot with another director - Clyde Bruckman as a talkie (marking the first time Lloyd worked from a script) and painstakingly edited down from an original 16-reels (some 2 hours and forty-five minutes) to 12-reels. The silent version cost $521,000 and another $281,000 was spent on the sound negative. While the novelty of hearing Lloyd speak made it his largest grossing hit since The Freshman (1925), those steep production costs resulted in a huge drop in net profits from his earlier features.
- GoofsIn many of the dubbed scenes, the voices are out of synchronization with the actors' lip movements.
- Quotes
Billie Lee: I just put my foot in the wrong place.
Harold Bledsoe: Oh, you did. Well, if you do it again, I'll put my foot in the right place!
- Alternate versionsThere is an all-silent version of this film distributed to unwired cinemas which includes more of the original "silent" version and is adapted with inter-titles for the newer sound sequences.
- ConnectionsFeatured in American Masters: Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius (1989)
Featured review
This film was started as a silent and finished as a sound film. One would expect, then, to see some classic Lloyd "silent" comedy sequences, but this is a very disappointing and largely unfunny film. Lloyd's hallmark was always fresh, original, well-worked-out visual gags, but the poorly timed shenanigans here often remind one of something below the Three Stooges: the Bowery Boys, maybe. In virtually every other Lloyd film, regardless of whether he was shy, cocky, a success or a bumbler, his character was always inventive, thinking up ingenious solutions to the problems he found himself in. In this film, much of the humor is based on his simple stupidity. There are endless really primitive early action gags: one character gets the bad guys to chase him while the another stands behind a large crate and bats them on the head as they go by; a character takes a swing with a club to hit someone in front of him and accidentally hits someone creeping up behind him; a friend puts his hand on Lloyd's shoulder so he won't get lost in the dark, but when Lloyd gets back into the light the hand on his shoulder is that of a foe. These and other familiar lightweight gags abound, and the Lloyd's imaginative building of original gags is nowhere to be seen. In addition, nearly identical weak gags are sometimes repeated several times in a row. The bumbling around in a chinatown basement just seems interminable.
What happened? Lloyd's films before and after this one are all classics of top-notch comedy. This is a lapse that's unique in Lloyd's career.
What happened? Lloyd's films before and after this one are all classics of top-notch comedy. This is a lapse that's unique in Lloyd's career.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Der Drachentöter
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $979,828 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 53 minutes
- Color
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