Main Cast: Loretta Young, Leslie Fenton, Tully Marshall
Release Year: 1932
Country: US
Run Time: 74 minutes
Plot
Hatchet Man is a dated but fascinating film set amidst the "tong wars" in San Francisco's Chinatown. Tong hatchet man Wong Low Get (Edward G. Robinson) is required to kill his boyhood friend Sun Yet Sen (J. Carroll Naish). Sen is resigned to his fate, but extracts a promise that Wong will look after Sen's daughter Toya San, and marry the girl when she grows up. Played as an adult by Loretta Young, Toya San weds Wong, now an influential Chinatown figure. But the girl is secretly in love with Harry En Hai (Leslie Fenton), a disreputable young half-caste. When Wong learns of the affair, he sends Toya and Harry packing, and is ostracized by the community for not fighting for his honor. Harry is deported to China for drug-dealing, taking Toya with him and ultimately deserting her. Wong trails the pair to China, where he finds that Toya has been sold into prostitution. He intends to use his hatchet to kill Harry, but is talked out of the murder by Toya. But before Wong and Toya leave for America, Harry En Hai accidentally receives his comeuppance from the one-time "hatchet man." Well acted and powerfully directed, Hatchet Man would hardly qualify as "politically correct" these days, since virtually every Asian character is portrayed by a Caucasian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Oriental Hollywood excesses like The Hatchet Man make for rather uncomfortable viewing today, even when directed by such cinematic experts as Frank Capra (The Bitter Tea of General Yen, 1932) or, in this instance, William Wellman. The latter obviously wished to address the clash between ancient culture and modern American life, tradition versus modernity, but the bizarre "Oriental" makeup of Occidental stars Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young simply gets in the way of the message, especially when contrasted to such genuine Asian supporting players as Toshia Mori and Willie Fung, both briefly spotted skulking about in the background. The Hatchet Man was released in the United Kingdom under the less bloodcurdling title of The Honourable Mr. Wong. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
Wong Low Get (Edward G. Robinson) is the most highly respected hatchet man of his Tong. Having sworn total allegiance, he cannot turn down an order, even one to kill his best friend Sun Yat Sen (J. Carrol Naish). His friend forgives him in advance of his execution, begging only that Wong raise his daughter Toya San (Loretta Young) as his own. Wong does as he has sworn, but as she grows up, he falls in love with her. She marries him out of a sense of obligation, but a handsome younger gangster, Harry En Hai (Leslie Fenton), gets her to leave Wong, disgracing him and leading to a shocking turn of events.
As was typical of the time, almost no Asian actors appear in the cast of a film set completely among Chinese characters. Makeup artists had noticed that audiences were more likely to reject Western actors in Asian disguise if the faces of actual Asians were in near proximity. Rather than cast the film with all Asian actors, which would have then meant no star names to attract American audiences, studios simply eliminated most of the Asian actors from the cast.
