Terror of the Tongs
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Terror of the Tongs |
| Original title | The Terror of the Tongs |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 (1961: 16) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Anthony Bushell |
| script | Jimmy Sangster |
| production | Kenneth Hyman |
| music | James Bernard |
| camera | Arthur Grant |
| cut | Eric Boyd-Perkins |
| occupation | |
| |
Terror of the Tongs is a 1960 British feature film from the Hammer Films production with Christopher Lee and Geoffrey Toone in the lead roles. Directed by Anthony Bushell .
action
Hong Kong in 1910. The British colonial power has nowhere near as good a grip on its crown colony as it thinks. The cultivated Chinese Mr. Ming, who has just been chatting with the English captain Sale on board his ship, is, as soon as he has gone ashore again, killed with a throwing ax by a hired murderer. A doctor named Fu-Chao rushes to finish the assassin, who was previously shot down by Ming, and alleged relatives of Mr. Ming carry the dead man away in no time at all. Behind the bloody act is the murderous Tong sect, which has built up a criminal organization called the “Red Dragon”, which is led by the mysterious Chung King. Chung King is visited shortly afterwards by Fu-Chao, who tells him that a list of names that Ming suspects was not found. Chung King then gives instructions to take on the first officer Wyngarde and the captain of the ship, as Ming on board could possibly have given one of the two men the said list. Wyngarde is found murdered in Sales' cabin. When the Tongs murder Helena Sale, Captain Sales' daughter, they take on the British colonial power and especially Father Sale. The plan is nothing less than to catch the perpetrators and the power or better: to break the terror of the Tongs. The list with the member names of the Tongs was hidden in an album of Helena and was stolen by Helena's servant Anna.
The "Red Dragon", supported by the Chinese government in Beijing, has its own interests and is instructing its governor in Hong Kong, Chung King, to increase the amount of money to be transferred to them. The Tongs are masters of the lucrative opium and girls trade . Captain Sales research proves difficult; all Chinese people, even whom he has known for a long time, prefer to remain silent, as they are afraid that otherwise they will become victims of the tongs themselves. When Sale encounters the Tongs' debt collector, the greasy Tang Hao, who is just about to cash in on the Chinese Maya, he beats him until Tang Hao draws a pistol in a moment of carelessness. Then Tang Hao chats up close and personal about the business of the Red Dragon and how Hong Kong controls the slave and opium market. A young Chinese girl named Lee knocks down the chatty pier warden so Sale escapes. To protect Lee, Sale has her brought into his house. The next morning, Sale learns from District Commissioner Harcourt that Tang Hao had been fished out of the docks with his throat cut. Lee, who was held like his property by Tang Hao, now wants to stay with Captain Sale from now on. A little later, Commissioner Harcourt turns up in the Li Tschung's bar with Chung King, who is responsible for the Tongs' murders. It becomes clear that Harcourt is making common cause with the tall Chinese. Sale also appears in the bar, but is struck down with a narcotic in his drink.
When he regains consciousness, Chung King stands before him. He threatens torture if Sale does not tell him which members of the Tong he has already met and what he has learned from them. Hours later, in the dark of the night, an anti-Tong Chinese called the “beggar” appears and frees Sale. At home, Lee takes loving care of the captain. When the villainous Tong doctor Fu-Chao shows up to murder Sale, Lee kills him with his own lethal injection. Chung King doesn't give up. This time he has a fat Chinese man filled with opium so that he can murder Sale in an intoxicated state without fear. To do this, Harcourt is supposed to lure the captain to Pier 13. The beggar asks Sale to appear with him and his men at Pier 13 at the agreed time and to initiate the final annihilation of the Tongs there in open combat. When the hired killer storms Sale with an ax, as he did with Ming days before, the suddenly appearing Lee throws himself bravely between the two and is killed by the Tong man before he can be shot down with pistol by Captain Sale. Lying dying, Lee informs that Harcourt, who had recently visited her to speak to Sale, also works for the Tongs. Then the fight breaks out, man against man. Harcourt also joins them. When he threatens to succumb, he runs to Chung King, who has him killed because of his unsuccessfulness. When Sale appears, Chung King is stabbed from behind by his own servant.
Production notes
Terror of the Tongs was filmed in April and May 1960 and premiered in the United States on March 15, 1961. The German premiere took place on April 7, 1961, the German television premiere was on April 24, 1994 on Pro7 .
Michael Carreras was production manager, Anthony Nelson Keys production manager. Bernard Robinson designed the film structures .
For Christoper Lee, who played the Chinese leader of the criminal secret society, this film was practically a dress rehearsal for the Fu Man Chu films that followed from the mid-1960s.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Chung King | Christopher Lee | Friedrich Joloff |
| Captain Jackson Sale | Geoffrey Toone | Heinz Giese |
| lee | Yvonne Monlaur | Anneliese Prichert |
| beggar | Marne Maitland | Wilhelm Borchert |
| Hang Tao | Ewen Solon | Klaus Miedel |
| District Commissioner Harcourt | Brian Worth | Siegmar Schneider |
| Inspector Bob Dean | Richard Leech | Heinz Petruo |
| Wang Hao | Roger Delgado | Gerd Duwner |
| Mr. Ming | Burt Kwouk | Walter Wilz |
Reviews
"Commercially available adventure film against an exotic background."
The Movie & Video Guide identified “good acting, but possibly a little cruel for some viewers”.
Halliwell's Film Guide found this to be "bloodthirsty melodrama with plenty of screaming, torture and implied orgiastic processes."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Terror of the Tongs in the German dubbing index
- ↑ Terror of the Tongs in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on September 13, 2018
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1308
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1000
Web links
- Terror of the Tongs in the Internet Movie Database (English)