REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

“KING OF CHINATOWN.” Anna May Wong, filmdom’s favourite Chinese actress, gets mixed up .with gangland’s worst hoodlums and comes out the winner once again in her latest picture, “King of Chinatown,” which Paramount will present tonight at the Regent Theatre. The cunning of the East is pitted against the plundering brutal West in a story of a ruthless crime Czar who ruled a gangster ridden city. Though he laughs at the law a Chinese girl defies his power. Cast •in the colourful role of a womiansurgeon, Miss Wong faces a dramatic dilemma when called upon to save the life of Chinatown’s most vicious racketeer, knowing that he is her father’s mortal enemy and a cold-blooded murderer as well. After her professional Code has forced her to perform the necessary operation, an exciting series of events, in which she plays no small part, leads to the break-down, of the gang and the realisation of her intense ambition to send an ambulance corps to war-torn China. Akim Tamiroff, who has scored such outstanding hits of late “Spawn of the North” and “Escape From Yesterday,” is the principal racket chief, while J. Carrol Naish, one of the most menacing of screen menaces, and handsome young Anthony Quinn are the other principals in the vicious thi/ee-cornered straggle. There is an excellent supporting programme including “Super Athletes,” a Betty Boop cartoon and the latest news reel.