1930s and 1940s crime films

SHADOWS OF THE ORIENT (1935). Running time 67 minutes.

This begins with a pilot being shot in a phone box. He was about to answer a dodgy advert for an aviator at quick notice. This turns out to involve the illegal flying out of Chinese labor force. The criminal involved is King Moss who manages to entice a Judge's daughter into his criminality. She is a keen flier.

The most gripping piece of the film is when Inspector Baxter poses as a criminal to infiltrate Moss's gang. He poses as a con named Tricky Thomas. It does look as though he won't get out alive after his cover is blown. There is a good fight scene in the cellar of the criminal's hide-out.

FEDERAL FUGITIVES (1941). Running time 58 minutes.

Captain Madison is with the Intelligence Bureau. He is suspicious of a character calling himself Dr Haskell. He believes him to actually be Otto Liebermann who was reported to have been killed in a plane crash. Not only does he think Liebermann faked his own death but was responsible for murdering the eight victims of the plane crash. Madison himself takes on another identity to track down to see if Haskell is Liebermann.

The story really becomes tense when Liebermann finds out that Madison is playing a double game. Madison is in danger while the only person who is able to warn him is in hospital. Chases and fist fights intensify towards the end of the film. There is good interplay between Madison and his valet Chuck. Madison's habit of continually popping sodium tablets is used in the plot to good advantage.

CONVICT'S CODE (1939). Running time 63 minutes.

Whizz Tyler is given parole after serving three years for a crime he insists he didn't do. He is all fired up to find out who framed him for a bank robbery. It's revealed straight away to us who did the framing and that's his new boss Warren. Whizz falls in love with Warren's sister.

It's difficult to sympathize with Whizz when he is so bitter. In fact the story really plays with our sympathies towards the end when certain characters become so compromised. Whizz has to go back to prison. One great character to watch out for is Whizz's landlady. She is a washed-out sixty-something stumbling about all indifferent in a dressing gown.

YELLOW CARGO (1936). Running time 53 minutes.

This is where Alan O'Connor meets up with Bobbie Reynolds. Other films of this series have already been covered on this thread.

We are told early on that O'Connor is a Fed who is on the trail of smugglers of a Chinese labor force. He is masquerading as an actor looking for film work. The smugglers are posing as a movie crew who take film extras made up to look Chinese over to an island. There to ostensibly make a film. They send the extras back by passenger boat and exchange them for Chinese immigrants on their own return journey.

This film may be found under the alternative of 'Sinful Cargo' if you can't find it under the title given. The running time I have given is probably that of a truncated version which is the one I saw.

LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD (1938). Running time 61 minutes.

A young couple get involved in a jewelry shop robbery after coming under the influence of Gene Fillmore. Fillmore masterminds mob robberies while keeping an air of respectability. He orders no shooting but the shop owner is killed during the raid. So the DA slaps a murder charge on all who were involved including the young green couple. There is a hint of police brutality to get a confession from the young man but this is just a trick and it works.

I have no problems with the story but I was left dissatisfied. That's because I found all the characters distasteful. Including the foolish 'innocents' who actually lie their heads off at several points of the film. In even the most nastiest of crime movies I can usually find sympathy in at least one character.