Chinatown Nights

This film begins with a bored socialite named "Joan Fry" (Florence Vidor) deciding at the last minute to take a tour bus to Chinatown late at night. Along the way the bus happens to venture into a street war between two rival tongs and is temporarily blocked by a dead body. Upon getting out to take a closer look, Joan deliberately stays behind in order to satisfy her craving for excitement. Having done so, however, has put her into a difficult situation because there are no more taxis running this late at night. Recognizing the danger she is in, a white man by the name of "Chuck Riley" (Wallace Beery) forcibly carries her into his apartment where she will be safe for the night. It is then revealed that Chuck Riley just happens to be the leader of one of the most powerful tongs in Chinatown and his war with his rival "Boston Charley" (Warner Oland) is about to get extremely brutal. Not only that, but as she spends more time with Chuck Riley, she soon finds herself falling in love with him as well. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film initially started out as a silent film but was converted into a "talkie" along the way. To that effect, there are clearly some scenes which have retained elements of the silent film version here and there. Along with that, from what I understand, some of the voices were dubbed over after the film was initially made and this is reflected by the rather poor audio. Likewise, the picture quality isn't that good either. But that's to be expected in an old movie like this. That being said, I believe that in order to enjoy this film the viewer will have to make certain allowances--as it clearly isn't up to today's standards. Be that as it may, I liked this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.