THE HATCHET MAN
AKA THE HONOURABLE MR WONG.
Edward G Robinson & Loretta Young,
Dudley Digges, Leslie Finton, Edmund Breese.
Dir: William A Hellman, 1932, Warner Bros.

SYNOPSIS:
Slow-moving, hazy oddball flick in which Robinson tries to convince us he's Chinese by having his eyes taped sideways and talking veeeeeerrryyy ssssslllloowwwly. The story is a bunch of arse but it's worth digging out just for curiosity's sake.

"Before leaving for vacation in November he made the Hatchet Man, one of four films he was contractually obligated to do for release in 1932. He played a Chinese ganglord with a sense of honour and morality. He doesn't die at the end but he doesn't exactly get the girl either. Then in November Robinson and his wife left for London. He was greeted by a newspaper headline: Al Capone of the Screen Arrives in London."
- Alan Gansberg, E G Robinson biographer.

REVIEWS:
"Mild gang stuff in oriental trappings... dynamic action or high voltage drama is missing."
- Variety.