China Passage (1937)

Very disappointing...

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

In RKO's "China Passage", Tom Baldwin (Vinton Hayworth) and Joe Dugan (Gordon Jones) are to transport a diamond, for a nice fee. Coming just two years after MGM's "China Seas" with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow, this one claims to have a different writer, and thus a different story. There is a big fight, and when it's over, we are introduced to all kinds of characters who are probably all after the diamond. You'll recognize Dick Elliot... he was the mayor in "Andy Griffith". And of course, Billy Gilbert, who sneezed and coughed his way through all his films, is the bartender. Leslie Fenton (plays the writer), Constance Worth (Jane Dunn), and miscellaneous others are lurking about, clearly also after the diamond. It's a grand adventure... kind of goes all over the place. Neatly wrapped up at the end. Extra points if you figured out who had the diamond! Entertaining. This one focuses more on the missing diamond than the love story, and I guess that's the main difference between this one and the Gable/Harlow one. Only 40 votes on IMDb on this one. Must have been locked away for years. Worth watching. Directed by Ed Killy... a bit more info on him at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Killy .

Vinton Hayworth and Gordon Jones are supposed to carry a famous diamond from Shanghai to its destination. A gun battle erupts, and the diamond disappears. Girl detective Constance Worth finds herself on a ship bound from Shanghai to San Francisco with every one who was in that street (except for perpetually sozzled Dick Elliott, who insists he is going to Sydney). Since the trip takes only 50 minutes in this movie, and some one is poisoning suspects, she has to move fast.It's directed by Edward Killy, an RKO assistant director who occasionally was turned loose on B programmers. He directed six the year he made this one, then went back to managing crowds for others until 1940, whereupon he directed a spate of B westerns, then back to assistant directing.This one is competently directed for speed, but there is enough humor and even a skeet-shooting match to let the audience relax. Keep an eye out for Skippy, the terrier who's best known for playing Asta in MGM's "Thin Man" movies.