The Hatchet Man (1932)

The Hatchet Man
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by J. Grubb Alexander from a play by Achmed Abdullah and David Belasco
1932/US
First National Pictures (Warner Bros.)
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 7

Opening Title Card: San Francisco’s Chinatown of fifteen years ago had the largest Oriental population of any colony outside China. Its forty thousand yellow residents were divided into various political factions known as ‘Tongs”, each governed by a President and Council. These various Tongs were almost constantly at war, so the office of “Hatchet Man” was one of special importance. The honorable title of “Hatchet Man” was passed from father to son by inheritance only, and it was he, with the aid of his sharp axe, who dispensed the justice of the great god Buddha.

If you can get past a ton of racial stereotyping and exclusive use of yellowface, this is an OK gangster/love triangle film with another fine performance by Edward G. Robinson.

The setting is San Francisco’s Chinatown.  Chinatown is full of opposing tongs that are at all out war.  The elders of a tong send for Wong Low Get (Robinson) and his hatchet.  He arrives from San Francisco only to find that the man he is to murder is Sun Yat Ming (J. Carrol Naish), his boyhood friend.  Wong protests but finally goes to call on Sun.  Sun already knows the jig is up.  He shows Wong the will which leaves him everything including his young daughter’s hand in marriage.  Then he calmly accepts his fate.

Segue to 15 years later.  Wong has become a wealthy businessman and the girl has grown up to be Loretta Young.  Both are thoroughly Westernized.  Loretta loves a good time but Wong proposes and she obediently accepts.

Eventually Wong is called on to use his hatchet again on a rival tong member in Sacramento.  Wong’s bodyguard thug Harry En Hi (Leslie Fenton) takes his absence as an opportunity to make Loretta his own.  What will happen when Wong discovers Loretta in a passionate embrace with Harry?  I’ll stop here with plenty of plot yet to come.

I enjoyed this but BOY if you cannot get past the racial stereotyping this movie is not for you.