The avenger of the Tong

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Movie
German title The avenger of the Tong
Original title The Hatchet Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 74 minutes
Rod
Director William A. Wellman
script J. Grubb Alexander
production Warner Brothers
camera Sid Hickox
occupation

The avenger of Tong (also of the man with the ax ; OT: The Hatchet Man ) is an American gangster movie with Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young and directed by William A. Wellman . The film depicts the brutal gang fighting, the so-called Tong Wars, among Chinese immigrants and is based on the play The Honorable Mr. Wong by Achmed Abdullah and David Belasco .

action

The film is set in the Chinatown of San Francisco at the beginning of the 20th century . Wong Low Get is the executive killer for the criminal Lem Sing Tong, who runs a group of gangsters, a TongTong. Wong kills his victims with the eponymous sword, which is more like a hatchet. When a gang war breaks out, a so-called Tong War, Wong receives the order to kill his best friend Sun Yat Ming. Wong gets into a conflict of conscience. The unconditional loyalty to the Tong demands obedience and therefore he kills Sun, not without first showing him his respect and deference. Sun asks Wong a favor as he dies. He is supposed to take care of Sun's underage daughter Toya and later marry her. Wong takes care of Toya, whom he brings up in the spirit of Chinese tradition, not without introducing the girl to American culture. When Toya grew up, Wong asked her to marry him. Toya agrees out of respect for the will of her late father and in recognition of the efforts Wong went to to raise her. Shortly after the wedding, another tong war breaks out. Wong, who has since become a successful businessman himself, announces negotiations with Nog Hong Fah, the leader of Lem Sing Tong. He is suspicious and allows himself to be protected by bodyguards. While Wong kills one of the authors of the war with his own hands, his own bodyguard Harry En Hai and Toya meet and fall in love. Wong catches the two lovers in a passionate embrace and wants to kill Harry. Toya begs Wong to take care of Harry, as she is only happy with Harry. Wong gets into a deep conflict of conscience. On the one hand, he has to defend his own honor. At the same time, he has an obligation to Toya's father, whom he once promised to make his daughter happy. In the end, Wong puts his honor on the back burner and doesn't kill Harry. Nog, who watched the entire incident, reveals this loss of face from Wong to the rest of the Chinese community. Wong is dishonorably expelled from society and has to work as a migrant worker on the orange plantations in the area. A few years later, Wong receives a letter from Toya, who now lives in China. Toya asks Wong for forgiveness for her betrayal at the time and assures that she always loved Wong. Wong travels to China as a stoker on a steamer and finds Toya as a prostitute in an opium den . Harry sold Toya to the brothel owner soon after the wedding to pay off his drug debts. Wong wants to free Toya from the adverse circumstances and threatens the brothel owner with his sword. Just as he throws a dagger at the woman, he meets Harry, who was standing behind a curtain and was watching the action. Toya and Wong are finally free and can start a happy future.

background

William A. Wellman was best known in the early 1930s through a series of sometimes brutal gangster films such as Safe in Hell and The Public Enemy . His films with female stars such as Night Nurse , The Purchase Price and Lilly Turner also showed the desperation and material hardships that the Great Depression had triggered using the example of the dramatic fate of women. With The Hatchet Man , Wellman returns to portraying organized crime and the very own rules and codes of honor that apply between those involved. The background for the film was the phenomenon of the Tong Wars, which ravaged American Chinatowns at the end of the 19th century. Tongs were originally secret self-help groups dedicated to protecting Chinese immigrants. Gradually, the Tongs turned into criminal organizations that functioned according to strict rules and an iron code of honor. The hallmarks of the Tongs were their hit men, who carved the respective symbols into the skulls of their victims. Especially in the years between 1870 and 1890 there were sometimes real battles between those involved, the Tong Wars.

The choice of Edward G. Robinson as Wong Low Get was not illogical insofar as the actor had already successfully portrayed an unscrupulous gangster in The Little Caesar and was otherwise seen in the role of the brutal, determined fighter. Despite all the melodrama of the plot, the character of Wong is typical of Wellman's heroes: people who demonstrate strength of character in extreme situations and remain true to themselves and their convictions. Wong has to choose several times between the obedience to the Tong and the commitment he has made to Toya. At that time it was customary to cast important leading roles not with Asians but with white actors. This was done appropriately with makeup and false eyelashes, a practice called yellowface . In the same year MGM also made a film about Tong Wars with The Son-Daughter and cast the leading roles with Ramón Novarro , Helen Hayes and Lewis Stone .

The Hatchet Man is also a good example of the rather lax adherence to the applicable censorship regulations. Adultery, violence, murder and organized crime are sometimes presented very vividly on the screen and in the end both main actors live despite their crimes and misconduct without being punished by the law. Wellman and Loretta Young worked together here for the first time. They would later shoot Midnight Mary , Heroes for Sale (both from 1933) and The Call of the Wild from 1935. The actress always got along well with William Wellman. In the biography Loretta Young: An Extraordinary Life, she is quoted by the authors Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein as follows:

I felt very secure when I was working with Wellman. There was nothing phony or artificial about him. He was also attractive in every way. He liked to shoot fast, in one take, and his energy went right through him and into the actors. A director is boss for a reason, and Bill was good.
I've always felt very safe working with Wellman. There was nothing artificial or artificial. He was also a very handsome man. He preferred a quick recording technique, all in one take and his vitality carried over to the actors. A director is boss for a reason, and Bill was good.

Problems with German censorship in 1932

In Germany in 1932 the film had considerable problems with the state censors. The film testing Berlin banned initially on 27 June 1932 film entitled The avenger of Tong should be released in Germany. The reasons given were the unusually brutal depiction of violence and the threat to public morality. Due to the objection of the production company, the Film-Oberprüfstelle rejected the decision on July 7th, 1932 and released the film for public performance in the then German Reich with the restriction of a youth ban. The film inspection agency assumed that

[...] the avenger in the first two killings, according to the statutes of the Tongs, acts without murderous zeal and murder cult, even without religiously disguised sadism, rather out of misguided ethical feeling. [...] The strip of images does not deny the binding nature of general morality and is not suitable to have a demoralizing effect. The film inspectorate does not consider him brutal either. [...] Given the peculiarity of the processes shown, which take place in a distant country and among a foreign people, it cannot be assumed that the strip of images would endanger public safety in Germany.

Web links

Sources and further literature on pre-code films

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ To the negotiation of the complaint of the company National-Film Verleih- und Vertriebs AG in Berlin against the ban on the picture strip: "The Avenger of Tong". (PDF; 171 kB) July 7, 1932, archived from the original on September 23, 2015 ; accessed on May 16, 2020 .