I don't think I am somebody who will watch ANY old b&w film and enjoy it (tried to watch an early Jon Hall poverty row film earlier tonight, gave up) but Shadows of the Orient isn't terrible. It isn't great, but , it's watchable. The pacing is slow no doubt, the budget tiny, but Esther Ralston, Regis Toomey, J. Farrell MacDonald and Sidney Blackmer are such professionals, they make so-so dialog work. Esther Ralston's character is the typical dumb rich girl, but hey, she is a pilot, which does play a role in the plot. as long as you are not expecting this film to be some great forgotten classic, chances are you will enjoy it.

I'm a fan of B-movies, but this Poverty Row film is so bad, I'm tempted not to bother reviewing it, but that cool title is what suckered me into watching it, so maybe my review will save others who might be equally tempted. This begins with a good scene that was duplicated in a later (and much better) Ronald Reagan B-movie, SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR, in which a pilot, smuggling a Chinese family of illegal aliens, dumps them out in mid-air to their deaths when he's attacked by another plane. The pilot, angry when his boss won't pay him for the aborted delivery, calls the Feds and offers to give them the goods on the smuggling ring, but is shot to death just before the agents raid the Chinese restaurant which is the front for the gang. The leader, Sidney Blackmer, gets away, but agent Regis Toomey, his older sidekick (J. Farrell McDonald), and a prominent judge's daughter (Esther Ralston) try to infiltrate the gang, only to wind up in danger. The 70-minute movie is filled with inept photography, bad sets, and flubbed lines left in, and the lack of any background music at all only accentuates the sheer boredom of the proceedings. Even the promise of a moderately exciting air chase at the end goes nowhere. The actors, all pros who have done good B-film work elsewhere, are left at sea by bad direction and zero production values. Blackmer gets one nicely slimy, almost campy line, when he says, "Orientals have a peculiar irresistible fascination for me," but despite the promise of the melodramatic title, this one will hold no one's interest.

(Some Spoilers) Smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants across the Mexican border by air is a dangerous job but someones got to do it and at the price of $1,500.00 a head King Moss, Sidney Blackmar, a man obsessed not only with money but the Chinese culture is the guy more then willing to do the job. It turns out that the Feds, or US government immigration officials, have gotten a line on Moss and the person he's working for San Francisco Chinatown gambling and restaurant kingpin Ching Cu, James B. Leong, and start to tighten the screws on their illegal operation.It turns out that one of, if not the only, Moss' fliers the flamboyant Flash Dawson, Eddie Ftherstone, got cold feet when he was approached in mid air by a US immigration patrol plane that opened fire on him. Panicking Flash dropped the three Chinese immigrants on his plane to their death feeling that if caught, which he wasn't, he wouldn't be prosecuted for smuggling illegal immigrants into the USA but the fact that he may well be arrested for the death of three Innocent people seemed to have completely escaped him. It didn't escape his and Moss' boss Ching who canned him as soon as he showed up at his restaurant, the Canton House, for his fee.Flash angry that he was fired acts like the jerk that he is by threatening Ching to call the cops on him only to have him shot by one of Ching's henchmen as he was making a phone call that lead to a police raid on the place. In the raid pretty Viola Avery, Esther Nalston, who was at the Canton House gambling, playing Chinese checkers, was grabbed along with some two dozen other gambling patrons and dealers. With the help of the suave and debonair Moss who told the cops that Viola's father is non other then federal circuit judge Avery, Oscar Apfel, she was let go. Only to later become involved up to her neck in infiltrating and bursting the Moss/Ching smuggling ring with her new boyfriend and Federal Immigration Agent the dashing and two fisted, as well as ex WWI ace pilot, Bob Baxter (Regis Toomey).Both Baxter and Viola go undercover for the government to smash this illegal Chinese immigrant smuggling ring with Baxter putting in, via the San Francisco Chronicle, for the late Flash Fetherston's job. Baxter gets the job but never has a chance to take off until much later as he forced down Big Boss Moss, after a dogfight, who was trying to make his escape south of the border. Viola at first being held hostage by one of Ching's goon to make sure that the goods, the illegal Chinese immigrants, would be delivered safe and sound makes her escape and takes off with the only plane left at Ching's secret airfield.Putting an end to both Ching & Moss smugging ring not only saved the government a ton of money in tracking down illegal immigrants used to take away Americans jobs, by being used as slave labor in Ching's restaurants and sweatshops, at the high of the depression when jobs in the USA were hard if not impossible to find. It also gave inspector Sullivan, J. Ferrell MacDonald, Baxter's partner the ambition to stay on the force, the US Immigration Services, another year so he can retire and get his long sought after pension. Most of all it gave the very bored and nothing to do but have a good time Viola a chance to serve her country and make her pop Judge Avery, who was starting to get a bit sick and tired of her crazy and mindless antics, to be proud of her for once.

A passable but essentially hum-drum action movie. Usually a title like this indicates that we will be able to view a fabulous collection of Chinese knick-knacks or see a group of our favourite uncredited Chinese actors and actresses milling around on a sound-stage, but, alas, "Shadows of the Orient" features only a short Chinese gambling sequence (fascinating but brief) and the ho-hum assortment of items in a rich man's collecion of orientalia, none of which are clearly seen on camera. After that it is bi-planes to Mexico and a lot of fighting and shooting by sturdy immigration and border patrol types, all Caucasian, with the brief exception of James B. Leong, looking quite dashing as a Chinese immigrant-smuggler.