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
There are actually two different versions of this film available. Yes, Lloyd re-shot a lot of his silent footage and released it as a "talkie". But he also released the silent version to the overseas markets and to theaters not yet wired for sound. While the story remains the same, the two versions are quite different in several areas.
I recently had the privilege of seeing the silent version restored by Jere Gulden of the UCLA Film & Television archives with a new score by Robert Israel at the Motion Picture Academy.
I enjoyed it. While not as good as the classic Lloyd films like "Safety Last", "The Freshman" and my personal favorite, "The Kid Brother", it's still pretty good and I think is superior to the sound version, particularly in the use of music. Also, it seems like once Lloyd found sound, sometimes he didn't know when to shut up. There are some nice moments in the sound version, but by 1928 Lloyd really knew what he was doing with silence and I think this version is superior.
Barbara Kent provides a nice, though tiny love interest (her bio says she was only 4'11). The scene in which Lloyd, without knowing she is the girl in the picture, goes on and on how beautiful she is, is heart warming and romantic. It plays so much better in the silence. Kent was brought back for Lloyd's "Feet First".
Just a note: the great Edgar Kennedy only appears in the sound version. He replaces the desk Sargent from the silent movie.
Hopefully they will soon release both versions on one DVD, similar to what they did with the two versions of "The Big Sleep" (war and post war versions).
I recently had the privilege of seeing the silent version restored by Jere Gulden of the UCLA Film & Television archives with a new score by Robert Israel at the Motion Picture Academy.
I enjoyed it. While not as good as the classic Lloyd films like "Safety Last", "The Freshman" and my personal favorite, "The Kid Brother", it's still pretty good and I think is superior to the sound version, particularly in the use of music. Also, it seems like once Lloyd found sound, sometimes he didn't know when to shut up. There are some nice moments in the sound version, but by 1928 Lloyd really knew what he was doing with silence and I think this version is superior.
Barbara Kent provides a nice, though tiny love interest (her bio says she was only 4'11). The scene in which Lloyd, without knowing she is the girl in the picture, goes on and on how beautiful she is, is heart warming and romantic. It plays so much better in the silence. Kent was brought back for Lloyd's "Feet First".
Just a note: the great Edgar Kennedy only appears in the sound version. He replaces the desk Sargent from the silent movie.
Hopefully they will soon release both versions on one DVD, similar to what they did with the two versions of "The Big Sleep" (war and post war versions).
- zsenorsock
- Sep 15, 2006
- Permalink
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
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content