Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Pretty Good

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

From Fang to want...er, sorry, Wong, Boris Karloff tries to underact in this Chinese set political thriller where rebel general Karloff holds a group of Americans hostage. Karloff ends up turning into a character from a George Arliss film as he interferes in a romantic triangle while dealing with his political agenda. Ricardo Cortez, separated from wife Beverly Roberts, must deal with the fact that Karloff seemingly is willing to kill him so Roberts can marry Gordon Oliver. With each declaration of "I am Fang", Karloff's subtlety goes out the window, becoming more aggravating than John Malkovich's repeating of "Beyond my Control" in "Dangerous Liasons". With only minimal focus on the Chinese military's efforts to put an end to Karloff's reign of terror, this is an extremely dull programmer, only coming to life through some wisecracks from supporting characters Sheila Bromley and the minimal action and tension towards the end. The mixture of obvious non Asian actors and real Asians is laughably absurd. Still, production design is good, and in spite of the torrid script, decently directed.

'West of Shanghai' was the third of four film versions of a play by Porter Emerson Browne (best remembered today for 'A Fool That There Was'), and was the only version not filmed under the play's original title of 'The Bad Man' or in the original Mexican setting. Successfully produced on Broadway in 1920, 'The Bad Man' had originally been a comedy, which explains the beguiling flashes of humour sprinkled throughout Ralph Spence's script; notably in the sassier quips by Lola Galt, and a vaudeville routine in which Fang divests Creed, then Galt, then Dr. Abernathy of $50,000, only for it to eventually end up in Fang's own wallet.Boris Karloff is obviously enjoying himself as Chinese warlord General Wu Yen Fang ("I am Fang!!"), despite the uncomfortable-looking makeup, which genuinely gave him blurred vision on the set. His opposite number General Chow Fu-Shan is played by Moscow-born Vladimir Sokoloff, while the authentically Chinese-American actor Richard Loo is the only one not required to adopt an accent as Fang's US-raised right-hand man Mr. Cheng. The script does a sort of reverse 'Psycho' by setting up Ricardo Cortez as Gordon Creed as the film's hero, only to switch allegiance to the boring Jim Hallet (played by Gordon Oliver) and casually have Creed killed off, enabling Hallet to ride off with Creed's estranged wife Jane (as if anyone cared). Sheila Bromley is so sassy as Lola Galt and Beverly Roberts such a pudding as Jane Creed the film's switch of emphasis from the former to the latter, and Fang's unlikely preference for Jane to Lola ("Hair like straw, eye like fog; have wide mouth of fish") suggests that the script was insufficiently revised to accommodate the casting.Photography by L. William O'Connell and direction by John Farrow are both up to their usual standard.

Boris Karloff plays another of his Asian roles in this film (e.g., Fun Manchu, "Charlie Chan at the Opera", "Mr. Wong, Detective"), but this time he is in full gear. This is his campiest performance yet, not merely to the broken English but to facial makeup and appliances that must have been used by Marlon Brando decades later in "Viva Zapata". His dialogue is a hoot, especially the caustic interactions between Kang and Mrs. Creed (Beverly Roberts). It is literally so bad that it's good. Look for the ever present Richard Loo who plays Kang's aide. Loo was Master Sun (the Weapons Master) in the TV series "Kung Fu" and appeared in more than 100 films.

Excellent movie directed by John Farrow,(Mia Farrow's father) and involves American promoters Myron Galt(Douglas Wood) and Gordon Creed(Ricardo Cortez) who arrive in a village where bandit's are infested throughout the country side of northern China. They plan to foreclose on a valuable oil concession owned by Jim Hallet(Gordon Oliver). However, Creed finds his estranged wife, Jane (Beverly Roberts), a medical missionary, is falling in love with Hallet. He will not give her a divorce, in the meantime an army of bandits looking for money and possessions are lead by their renegade general,Wu Yen Fang(Boris Karloff), he takes over the entire city and uses the Christian Mission as a headquarters. Americans and missionaries find themselves prisoners of Boris Karloff and he does a good job of terrorizing them. West of Shanghai in 1923 was a silent film and also a talkie version in 1930. Walter Houston repeated the role of the Mexican bandit. This is a very slow B movie. Karloff is starred, and does the best that he can to portray a Chinese bandit using the methods of American racketeers. Boris Karloff's acting and makeup is great which made this picture into a classic.