Such a classic! I am so fond of San Francisco's China Town, described perfectly in this film, my memories awakened from the fifties and sixties there as a boy. And now as I visit, and for so many reasons , still as vibrant and alive as ever. Driving my 1960 Rambler four door through the area, and with so many friends.
Interesting and entertaining movie, but the cops sure blundered when they sent re-enforcement just when the suspect was returning to his apartment. And then to post uniform cops in front of the apartment in case the suspect return was ridiculous.
Favorite lines-"I'm surprised you guys can put your pants on in the morning without help" and "You know these people. They're big on that family stuff."
FYI, This is not a Boson Blackie film and it does not star Chester Morris as Boston Blackie or any other character. It is one of the first appearances of actor Benson Fong making the uncredited brief appearance of the murdered victim.
Hmm, the suspect ran out of ammo - and is then gunned-down with an automatic rifle! Hurd Hatfield always pleasing to see. Thanks for sharing this film.
@@jimparallel6233 All automatic rifles, including Tommy guns, are machine guns; unless they're full-automatic pistols; which, I'm sure, you know. But "machines guns," or "sub machine guns" does sound better and reads more poetically. Happy machinegunning. If you own a 50 cal., shoot few rounds down range for (not AT) me.
We gutted the Roos Atkins Building (where the killer bought his coat) in 1985 for remodeling. It was cool. Across the street in a building we noticed babes modeling lingerie . Unfortunately they noticed us gawking and closed the blinds! It was on Market and 4th maybe. Where the cable car turned around was a McDonalds. We would scoff lunch there.
Benson Fong was in 7 Charlie Chan movies, mostly as Tommy Chan. He was married to Maylia, who would have been great as a love interest; but missed the boat, so to speak.. Barbara Jean Wong was in 3 Charlie Chan movies. Victor Sen Yung was in at least 13 Charlie Chan movies as James "Jimmy" Chan and at least 5 more as Tommy Chan. He was also in at least one of the TV series. Earlier, he had been in a pair of Mr. Moto films.
The film would have been complete if the Director had told us about the relationship between the female lover and the protagonist. What about his past? Why did he feel compelled to do dangerous things because she asked him to...
*Great police procedural showing the high technology of the San Francisco Police Department. Clever detective work and well trained expert marksmanship by emptying a machine gun into a man with an unloaded pistol. This film should be use to train other police departments in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the world.*
A unique plot and I've seen many @ 78yo. The distribution of the records to the public and the use of the wire and vinyl for recording and the crook's language abilities combined for a fresh story line.
Ah the good old days when a cop could shoot a warning shot in the air to stop a fleeing suspect, and when the bad guy says _”you ain’t got no right”_ the cop answers with a pretty good _right_ !
When they learnt about the killer from the landlady, why did not they have a sketch made ...then they could have distributed the sketch..the guard outside @ 45:00 would have recognized Clifford...would have been easier I believe..
$23,000 for that jade vase (adjusted for 2020). WOW. Enjoyable detective drama, but, at around the 28:00 mark when the cops go to pick up the interior designed, they hear a shot and break into the residence. Using his flashlight, the detective sees the body and rushes over. Uhm, why does no one ever turn on the lights in these situations? A tale of robbery and murder for "love" that turns into a cold-blooded murder's flight from justice, this dark drama vividly shows how solving crime can sometimes be luck, but most often is the result of hard work, pounding the pavement, and intuition and experience. At a time before forensics (notice how everyone touches evidence), the tiniest of clues can provide some of the biggest breaks in a case. A simple tag from the person who presses pants narrowed the search after a persistent press by the police - ah, pun intended...Worth the watch.
Advanced Chinese? There are at least 7 or 8 different languages there, with hundreds of local dialects that are more different than Romanian is from French is from Spanish. Two friends (well parents of) meeting at UCB found for their lifetimes so far, that they could only communicate in English. Kept them married for 40 years so far. Both learned English late teens to attend UC.
Dynamic film, but the blatant shooting of a suspect, not fully identified, at the conclusion seemed a highly different perspective from what the public expects today. License to kill.
You seem hopelessly out of touch with the present reality. Watch news videos of cops caught in camera. Not as fun as the old girls gone wild videos back in the 2000s, though.
The dumbest movies ever. The police don't even think of looking for the victim's boyfriend. They get into the flat knowing the killer's still on the premises and instead of turning the lights on, which seems the most sensible and spontaneous thing to do, they stay in the dark. Hahaha. They make sure to advertise their presence at the killer's home, so that as he's on his way home, he sees them and run aways. I'm surprised someone put money into such a production
You're correct, BUT, people in those days would be glad to pay to see it anyway, AND it's a lot less cruddy than much of the goofy valueless junk that comes out of Humpywood these days.
gosh, should've used his cell phone to take a pic of all those addresses. cops need training in parkour. ever use street view to check out addresses today? kinda fun. frequently not a lot of change in the older parts of the cities.
As a former SF resident, it was enjoyable to see the 'old' City. And the accuracy of locatons, etc. As others have pointed out, not full of stereotypes of Asians...well, not too bad, anyway. Of course, not sure about police firing warning shots into the air (what goes up, etc.) and I was rather amused...or perhaps horrified...when they broke out the Thompson submachine gun! Note, the cop fired even after it was apparent the bad guy's gun was empty. I get the feeling a lot of folks think this is the sort of policing they want. Still, it's not bad for its day, sort of a movie version of 'Dragnet". If only....
Asia has an enormous variety of people. When you say "Asians", do you mean Indonesians? Uzbeks? Armenians? Israelis? Saudis? Indians? Russians? Mongolians? Iranians? Yemenis? Malaysians? Burmese? Koreans? Turks? Pakistanis? Tajiks? Sri Lankans? The list is seemingly endless. Please be specific when referring to "Asians".🤡🦧🦤
Even if it were 7, You are still wrong. Beginning at 1:02:10 -the first of 8 shots were fired by Clifford. Using a 38 earlier it’s Highly unlikely he downgraded caliber. Revolvers, or “wheelguns,” have been around for nearly two hundred years. A revolver typically holds five, six, or even seven rounds of ammunition in a rotating cylinder Not 8. This Hollywood mistake was correctly identified by Wooderd.
Also, can the documentary stuff. Its bologna and distracts. AND, in ending, all the cops, even withTom Powers good authoritative manner, were all pretty dense. Could have been a good picture. But... Still fun. Sort of. Anyway,not half bad. And who cares, anyway.
daniel stanwyck + Hey!!!!!!!!this is nothing but mumble jumbo u scribbled. In the future, please TRY to write sentences that are grammatically correct!
@@XyzXyz-mm9vq Oh, yes . . . please do; it helps immensely to communicate what you mean to say. He was probably "educated" in a public school whose object was to teach CRT, rather then useful knowledge.
Very good watching this. Just a shame that whenever members of the public tipped the police off in those days they would pile their cars up outside the suspect's residence so he would arrive home and then know to escape; or come with sirens screaming from streets away, so he could get away again.
Why didn't they just use their smartphone instead having to go into those cramped booths to make phone calls or having to call a telephone operator girl to make a call?
@@jackjules7552Yeah, I was wondering that too. I also wondered why that woman didn't just Google "White Jade Vase" to find a better price. I'm sure Amazon would have a better deal. 😒🙄😮💨
Heavens to Murgatroid ! Enjoyed watching this very much ! Thanks a lot for uploading the whole movie ! Until now I thought I had seen all of Hurd Hatfield's films. Love the semi-documentary style & wonderful San Francisco locations ! CHEERS !! :-)
I thought I was the only person who used the phrase "Heavens to Murgatroid." Never heard it said otherwise until you. Don't recall where I picked it up.
Of all the movies placed in San Francisco, this is probably the most accurate portrayal of the city. The cable car on Powell Street goes within blocks of China parallel to Grant or Stockton Street. 1164 Greenwich Street (no Avenue) is a distance but not so terribly far. A great movie about police procedure to get their man.
Police procedure? Uniformed officer firing his police issue .38 up in the air on a crowded residential street just because a man runs off? Who's the dip-chit that wrote/directed this one, Sam Katzman? Hope no one was leaning out a window up above. The angle of the bullet means he's 5-9? (Plus or minus 1/32nd of an inch no doubt). Has about as much bearing on the shooter's height as, say, the angle-of-the-dangle. Sorry for the diatribe but this sort of ignorant portrayal of police is a very bad influence, especially on kids.
One does have to love how Hollywood distillers either shot with a little chop of the forearm, or aim for the crotch.. Look for it in all the 30s - 50s films.A few have steadier hands, but , oooh, the crotch.
@ Raymond Saquet. What got to me about the cops was they were always complaining to the boss about having to do the investigation and legwork. They were also incredibly sarcastic. If you ask me, whoever wrote the screenplay didn’t like cops very much.
This movie was similar to the semi-documentaries of the late 1940's and early 1950's with the background narration. An interesting film with Hurd Hatfield. I always thought Hatfield would have done better in his career, after his breakout role in "The Picture of Dorian Gray," but that was not to be.
Preservation status In 2014, a pristine 35mm print of the film was struck from the Columbia Pictures archives and subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
these detectives seemed not so smart, by parking so many cars outside of the suspect's aprtment and with siren on, they were telling the killer, you'd better run, we are coming...Not sure if it's the policemen that are dumb or it's the film director ...
Parking has always been a pain in SF. Especially Chinatown. The narrator was inaccurate at the beginning - the City was packed since living memory with about 880 thousand people. That stat never changes. Living there for 2 years, I ALWAYS beat auto drivers using a bicycle I carried inside. Later I paid parking tix enough to support the city. Was eating in Chinatown restaurant day after a big full auto mass killing. Food's GREAT!
Loved this movie! Loved Hurd Hatfield in it! He was FANTASTIC in The Picture of Dorian Gray! Gosh, he lived to be 81! He was good in an Alfred Hitchcock also; not to mention the many movies he was in. I had not seen this flick before and enjoyed it very much! Thanks for posting! 👏👍😎✌ P.s. Great forensic work for the time 🔍☎💿
@ Mary. I know the Hitchcock episode you’re talking about. He plays a guy with some markings or a scar on his face. Another good movie he was in was “Mickey One “, a Warren Beatty film from 1966.
Who wouldn't like this movie? This was suspenseful, engaging, and moved briskly from one risky scene to another. No fluff in this film. Thanx to Viet Gurl for providing such a good watch.
Xyz Xyz + Right on ! I'm so sick of seeing those trolling paid/adware links on almost every movie or tv show video-- WHEN WE ALREADY SAW IT ON YT.. Duh ! Someone's paying the trolls to do it, but still ANNOYING.(plus that really annoying speeeelllinng thinnnggg)
I frequently respond to the link 'comments' wherever I see them, in the way I did here.. also tag as commercial spam, for all the good it does but it irritates the hell out of me...Plus I guess I'm just snarky for fun hahaha
Good movie! I liked the location of the scenes in Chinatown. Nice backdrop. It took a long time before the first cigarette was lit: 17:30 minutes. That's a lifetime in film noir where smoking is ubiquitous.
Dorian Gray meets Lisa Marcel.( Dorian is still up to the dirty old tricks instead of the East End of London or the waterfront this time it's Chinatown. ) Hurd Hatfield good actor, cool. Pretty good film.
Thank you so much! @15:00 743 Washington St - beautiful building! Really in Chinatown? Still there? I think there were 4 Charlie Chan offspring?!..Sen Yun as the hotel clerk was Jimmy, #2 son too! It'd be great to have a festival of early Chinatown movies, include Anna May Wong too! Chinatown in SF is THE Chinatown! Thank you so much @Viet Gurl!
@@cynk956 I seen that movie in 1945 when it first came out I was 10 years old at that time. The scariest part of the movie when they showed the aged portrait of him in Technicolor.
@@pinkbeautytwinkle Didn't care for Mr. Hatfield for NO otherr reason then nerver thought he was a good actor . Back then sexuality had different standing in society....... not really (that much) any longer...... it's going to be 2020 after all !
A straight forward, linear crime story with a twist: the criminal has malaria attacks. This almost 70 year old movie is a period piece for San Francisco, with authentic neighborhoods,buildings and street names, and even the police city map locating the suspect was correctly highlighted.Professionalism was demonstrated by the police as written in screenplay treating Chinatown and the Chinese just like any other citizens, even though it was in the era of racial persecution against Asians. The City of San Francisco should have it in their historical archives. And a festival of Early Chinatown themed movies should be held in California, as there seems to be a number of these, such as Detective Mr Wong series. They were well done police stories on their Chinatown cases.
I second this! This is definitely a time piece and yes, they should have a festival of Early Chinatown themed movies. This could really mean a lot for many people :)
It's awesome to see old San Francisco. I am not as old as this movie, but not too far removed (ten years) and some of this looks like the San Francisco of my early youth. It is fascinating to see. And your idea of a film festival of movies from this era that take place in Chinatown is a great one.
Thank you for sharing. So much fun to see the actors that are no longer with us. I remember Jean Willes (Alice) from the tv shows from the 1960's and early 70's. Ross Elliott is another one that was popular in those same years. Both Mr. Elliott and Ms. Wills had long and sucessful marriages. Tom Powers career spanned from 1911 thru 1955. A fan from Las Vegas, NV 6/27/2019
YOGI Tom Powers played the unfortunate husband of Barbara Stanwyck in 'Double Indemnity'. Reading the book currently. It's about 130 pages and is much darker than the movie and probably could not have been made as written in those days. Ticket sales would have been low. The book is more like pre-code Hollywood.
How did they know there was a robbery? Both people were killed and the bad guy slipped out unnoticed ......maybe he said something in chinese to the telephone operator ?
Hurd Hattfield and Lawrence Tierney were contemporaries, and they could've worked very well together. (But they never did.) They both had similar feelings about acting. They both preferred comedic roles, but got very few of them; instead playing bad guys during most of their careers.
Chinatown at Midnight, released 17 November 1949 (New York City, New York), 14 June 1950 (Mexico). Hurd Hatfield as Clifford Ward; Jean Willes as Alice; Tom Powers as Capt. Howard Brown; Ray Walker as Sam Costa; Charles Russell as Fred Morgan; Jacqueline deWit (as Jacqueline DeWit) as Lisa Marcel; Maylia as Hazel Fong; Ross Elliott as Eddie Marsh; Benson Fong as Joe Wing; Barbara Jean Wong as Betty Chang; Victor Sen Yung, Hotel Proprietor; Josephine Whittell as Mrs. Emily Dryden; Byron Foulger, Greer Pharmacy Druggist; Paul E. Burns as James Mackintosh-Dry Cleaner; Ottola Nesmith as Mrs. Langdon; Frank O'Connor, Chinatown Extra; Steve Pendleton, Policeman.
I like the 1949 San Francisco location shots. A few interesting street car and cable car scenes. That looked like a MUNI street car at the Ferry Terminal loop at the foot of Market Street. It obviously wasn't a "White Front" Market Street Railway Company car. There were a couple of interesting bus scenes too, including the old sightseeing bus in Chinatown. Interior as well as exterior shots of the 'engine-out-front' bus. I love where Hatfield tells the girl he picked up at the Aquarium he'd take her out to dinner and for a cable car ride. Even back in 1949, cable cars were popular in San Francisco. The opening scenes of the movie shows and talks about them. Hard to imagine that two short years before, in 1947, there was an effort by then San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham to convert the two Powell Street cable car lines to buses. But he didn’t count on the public outcry orchestrated by a woman named Friedel Klussmann. She led a ballot campaign to preserve the Powell Street cable car lines, which succeeded in a November 1947 vote. Thankfully, Lapham's effort failed. The ten Faegol Twin Coach buses {called hill climbers} purchased for the conversion were used elsewhere, but were disliked and hardly saw any use. The cable cars are a priceless treasure now, along with the historic electric street cars running on Market Street and the Embarcadero.
The woman at the beginning, whom Hatfield went on his killing spree for, didn’t even seem to like him. She got that very expensive vase for free and didn’t even get caught. I guess the moral Is, if you want to be a successful criminal, have somebody else do your dirty work for you.
Eight months later :. That bank is probably "Bankrupt" by now.. This must be an old movie....I don't see any homeless or addicts sleeping on the sidewalk, ...or in the gutter
"San Francisco - one of America's 12 great cities." What was the list exactly and what was it based on - population? In 1949 that would have been: 1. NYC 2. Chicago 3. Philadelphia 4. Detroit 5. LA 6. Cleveland 7. Baltimore 8. St. Louis 9. Boston 10. Pittsburgh 11. Washington and 12. SF
Interesting how these old movies are a kind of time capsule capable of illustrating police procedure in the 1940's, and how it has evolved. No Miranda warning, just hot lead for the criminals in the past. Saves the taxpayer the costs of prosecution and incarceration!
Actually he played Jimmy Chan - Victor Sen Yung (also played Hop Sing on Bonanza, as noted already). Tommy Chan (Benson Fong) was the first victim, Joe Wing.
![Phantom of Chinatown (1940) [Action] Crime] [Mystery]](/img/n.gif)
Loved it. Very well worked out. Thanks for the upload.
Thanks for uploading this film. I really enjoyed it.
This movie was stupid
@@ronaldroatch9054 This movie was good.
@@ThePiratemachine I agree. It was good. It took the film makers under 90 mins to tell the story. Today's film makers would take three hours.
A very happy find for me a wonderful movie , thanks much for the post
Entertaining docudrama thanks for posting.
Such a classic! I am so fond of San Francisco's China Town, described perfectly in this film, my memories awakened from the fifties and sixties there as a boy.
And now as I visit, and for so many reasons , still as vibrant and alive as ever. Driving my 1960 Rambler four door through the area, and with so many friends.
I had two Rambler Classics, four door.
Good movie thank you!
Thanks for posting ... Nice to see three of Charlie Chan's offspring.
thank you for sharing !
Victor Sen Yung...He played Hop Sing in Bonanza...He's the hotel clerk. Beds.50 cents Room $1.00..
Interesting and entertaining movie, but the cops sure blundered when they sent re-enforcement just when the suspect was returning to his apartment. And then to post uniform cops in front of the apartment in case the suspect return was ridiculous.
Really well done movie. A good watch.
Interesting movie, enjoyed. Thank you.
Favorite lines-"I'm surprised you guys can put your pants on in the morning without help" and "You know these people. They're big on that family stuff."
FYI, This is not a Boson Blackie film and it does not star Chester Morris as Boston Blackie or any other character. It is one of the first appearances of actor Benson Fong making the uncredited brief appearance of the murdered victim.
I agree with Dee Brown, we don't have these very interesting movies, to keep you involved. thank you thank you for this movie.
Hmm, the suspect ran out of ammo - and is then gunned-down with an automatic rifle! Hurd Hatfield always pleasing to see.
Thanks for sharing this film.
Yeah! Tommy gun --- real necessary.
submachine gun
@@jimparallel6233 All automatic rifles, including Tommy guns, are machine guns; unless they're full-automatic pistols; which, I'm sure, you know. But "machines guns," or "sub machine guns" does sound better and reads more poetically. Happy machinegunning. If you own a 50 cal., shoot few rounds down range for (not AT) me.
We gutted the Roos Atkins Building (where the killer bought his coat) in 1985 for remodeling. It was cool. Across the street in a building we noticed babes modeling lingerie . Unfortunately they noticed us gawking and closed the blinds! It was on Market and 4th maybe. Where the cable car turned around was a McDonalds. We would scoff lunch there.
This was like a Charlie Chan cast reunion!!
Chinese women are so beautiful.
RACISM!!
@@scarygary-qq1pj True though.
Benson Fong was in 7 Charlie Chan movies, mostly as Tommy Chan. He was married to Maylia, who would have been great as a love interest; but missed the boat, so to speak..
Barbara Jean Wong was in 3 Charlie Chan movies.
Victor Sen Yung was in at least 13 Charlie Chan movies as James "Jimmy" Chan and at least 5 more as Tommy Chan. He was also in at least one of the TV series. Earlier, he had been in a pair of Mr. Moto films.
Good police procedure film. Thank you for this movie 🙏
The film would have been complete if the Director had told us about the relationship between the female lover and the protagonist. What about his past? Why did he feel compelled to do dangerous things because she asked him to...
"Why did he feel compelled to do dangerous things because she asked him to..."
Because of the empiric "v."
good actor.
Which one ? There are quite a few to pick from in this movie....
*Great police procedural showing the high technology of the San Francisco Police Department. Clever detective work and well trained expert marksmanship by emptying a machine gun into a man with an unloaded pistol. This film should be use to train other police departments in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the world.*
A unique plot and I've seen many @ 78yo. The distribution of the records to the public and the use of the wire and vinyl for recording and the crook's language abilities combined for a fresh story line.
Thanks
A very good story.
Ah the good old days when a cop could shoot a warning shot in the air to stop a fleeing suspect, and when the bad guy says _”you ain’t got no right”_ the cop answers with a pretty good _right_ !
hurd hatfield dorian gray incarnate. what a meanie
Notice how high men wore their trousers in this period? Richard Nixon was distinct in that he still wore them in that manner, even i the 19 70's
When they learnt about the killer from the landlady, why did not they have a sketch made ...then they could have distributed the sketch..the guard outside @ 45:00 would have recognized Clifford...would have been easier I believe..
and ask for I.D.
@@lorenzobeckmann3736And wonder why it took so f'n long to deliver a telegram.📑
And Victor Sen Young as obsequious as usual. Clever touches - Young scrapping the ashtray free of ashes and puting them into his pocket.
SCRAPING
Kept my interest until the very end
Good movie overall
It’s curtains for you Mugsy
Right on ! "See this rod, Mugsy ? It's curtains for you ! It's a curtain rod !" :-)
Me thinks someone saw "The Lady From Shanghai" and it gave them ideas.
$23,000 for that jade vase (adjusted for 2020). WOW. Enjoyable detective drama, but, at around the 28:00 mark when the cops go to pick up the interior designed, they hear a shot and break into the residence. Using his flashlight, the detective sees the body and rushes over. Uhm, why does no one ever turn on the lights in these situations? A tale of robbery and murder for "love" that turns into a cold-blooded murder's flight from justice, this dark drama vividly shows how solving crime can sometimes be luck, but most often is the result of hard work, pounding the pavement, and intuition and experience. At a time before forensics (notice how everyone touches evidence), the tiniest of clues can provide some of the biggest breaks in a case. A simple tag from the person who presses pants narrowed the search after a persistent press by the police - ah, pun intended...Worth the watch.
wrong
@@scarygary-qq1pj?
Pretty darn exciting
Advanced Chinese?
There are at least 7 or 8 different languages there, with hundreds of local dialects that are more different than Romanian is from French is from Spanish. Two friends (well parents of) meeting at UCB found for their lifetimes so far, that they could only communicate in English. Kept them married for 40 years so far. Both learned English late teens to attend UC.
Herd Hatfield.
Picture of Dorian gray.
Great actor.
Ah, good ol' Frisco..............before it became the GLBTX-ALPHABET capital of the world.
Sorry, too blurry
Where did those cops learn how to shoot? They couldn't hit the broad side
of a barn.
That's why they had the Tommy gun.
Now why on earth would they have such late night tours? 😏🤔
Hey you shoulda skipped town.
Doh!
This like CSI or Naked city?
IS this... 🦤
Dynamic film, but the blatant shooting of a suspect, not fully identified, at the conclusion seemed a highly different perspective from what the public expects today. License to kill.
You seem hopelessly out of touch with the present reality.
Watch news videos of cops caught in camera.
Not as fun as the old girls gone wild videos back in the 2000s, though.
@@briseboy Ha, ha, ha. Wrong guess and a nice surprise.
@Sharp NEWSci: Fortunately for U.S. Citizens, we are a nation ruled by laws . . . not be what "the public expects."
The dumbest movies ever. The police don't even think of looking for the victim's boyfriend. They get into the flat knowing the killer's still on the premises and instead of turning the lights on, which seems the most sensible and spontaneous thing to do, they stay in the dark. Hahaha. They make sure to advertise their presence at the killer's home, so that as he's on his way home, he sees them and run aways. I'm surprised someone put money into such a production
You're correct, BUT, people in those days would be glad to pay to see it anyway, AND it's a lot less cruddy than much of the goofy valueless junk that comes out of Humpywood these days.
gosh, should've used his cell phone to take a pic of all those addresses. cops need training in parkour. ever use street view to check out addresses today? kinda fun. frequently not a lot of change in the older parts of the cities.
Smoke meth often?
As a former SF resident, it was enjoyable to see the 'old' City. And the accuracy of locatons, etc. As others have pointed out, not full of stereotypes of Asians...well, not too bad, anyway. Of course, not sure about police firing warning shots into the air (what goes up, etc.) and I was rather amused...or perhaps horrified...when they broke out the Thompson submachine gun! Note, the cop fired even after it was apparent the bad guy's gun was empty. I get the feeling a lot of folks think this is the sort of policing they want. Still, it's not bad for its day, sort of a movie version of 'Dragnet". If only....
Asia has an enormous variety of people. When you say "Asians", do you mean Indonesians? Uzbeks? Armenians? Israelis? Saudis? Indians? Russians? Mongolians? Iranians? Yemenis? Malaysians? Burmese? Koreans? Turks? Pakistanis? Tajiks? Sri Lankans? The list is seemingly endless. Please be specific when referring to "Asians".🤡🦧🦤
thumbs down. no subtitles.
Apparently you can't read anyway, going by your inability to use capital letters.🤡🦧🦤
Clifford must have had a rare revolver. More than 6 shots.lol
Even if it were 7, You are still wrong. Beginning at 1:02:10 -the first of 8 shots were fired by Clifford. Using a 38 earlier it’s Highly unlikely he downgraded caliber. Revolvers, or “wheelguns,” have been around for nearly two hundred years. A revolver typically holds five, six, or even seven rounds of ammunition in a rotating cylinder Not 8. This Hollywood mistake was correctly identified by Wooderd.
Also, can the documentary stuff. Its bologna and distracts. AND, in ending, all the cops, even withTom Powers good authoritative manner, were all pretty dense. Could have been a good picture. But... Still fun. Sort of. Anyway,not half bad. And who cares, anyway.
daniel stanwyck + Hey!!!!!!!!this is nothing but mumble jumbo u scribbled. In the future, please TRY to write sentences that are grammatically correct!
Xyz Xyz "people in glass houses..." It's "mumbo jumbo" and you're not even using it appropriately...just saying
@@XyzXyz-mm9vq Oh, yes . . . please do; it helps immensely to communicate what you mean to say. He was probably "educated" in a public school whose object was to teach CRT, rather then useful knowledge.
It's Dorian Gray
I love these B&W one hour or so little gems.
Very good watching this. Just a shame that whenever members of the public tipped the police off in those days they would pile their cars up outside the suspect's residence so he would arrive home and then know to escape; or come with sirens screaming from streets away, so he could get away again.
Like the tech part about how they pressed vinyl records and sent them out to the world. That's how word got out, way before the internet.
Why didn't they just use their smartphone instead having to go into those cramped booths to make phone calls or having to call a telephone operator girl to make a call?
@@jackjules7552Yeah, I was wondering that too. I also wondered why that woman didn't just Google "White Jade Vase" to find a better price. I'm sure Amazon would have a better deal. 😒🙄😮💨
Notice the run time on this gem. Is there any need for some THREE hour movies?
Heavens to Murgatroid ! Enjoyed watching this very much ! Thanks a lot for uploading the whole movie ! Until now I thought I had seen all of Hurd Hatfield's films. Love the semi-documentary style & wonderful San Francisco locations ! CHEERS !! :-)
I thought I was the only person who used the phrase "Heavens to Murgatroid." Never heard it said otherwise until you. Don't recall where I picked it up.
My mother used to say that! 60-70 yrs ago, along with gee wilikers, judas priest and yumpin yimminy.. back then, everyone was a character. lol.
@@sharpear1031: It was the catchphrase of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Snagglepuss
Ty for pointing out Hurd Hatfield. I believe Ive only seen him in "The Picture of Dorian Grey" and one other.
Indubidubly, Snaggletooth 🙂
Of all the movies placed in San Francisco, this is probably the most accurate portrayal of the city. The cable car on Powell Street goes within blocks of China parallel to Grant or Stockton Street. 1164 Greenwich Street (no Avenue) is a distance but not so terribly far. A great movie about police procedure to get their man.
Police procedure? Uniformed officer firing his police issue .38 up in the air on a crowded residential street just because a man runs off? Who's the dip-chit that wrote/directed this one, Sam Katzman? Hope no one was leaning out a window up above. The angle of the bullet means he's 5-9? (Plus or minus 1/32nd of an inch no doubt). Has about as much bearing on the shooter's height as, say, the angle-of-the-dangle. Sorry for the diatribe but this sort of ignorant portrayal of police is a very bad influence, especially on kids.
One does have to love how Hollywood distillers either shot with a little chop of the forearm, or aim for the crotch..
Look for it in all the 30s - 50s films.A few have steadier hands, but , oooh, the crotch.
@@briseboy no sound
@ Raymond Saquet. What got to me about the cops was they were always complaining to the boss about having to do the investigation and legwork. They were also incredibly sarcastic. If you ask me, whoever wrote the screenplay didn’t like cops very much.
This movie was similar to the semi-documentaries of the late 1940's and early 1950's with the background narration. An interesting film with Hurd Hatfield. I always thought Hatfield would have done better in his career, after his breakout role in "The Picture of Dorian Gray," but that was not to be.
Preservation status
In 2014, a pristine 35mm print of the film was struck from the Columbia Pictures archives and subsequently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
I wish we could see it here.
these detectives seemed not so smart, by parking so many cars outside of the suspect's aprtment and with siren on, they were telling the killer, you'd better run, we are coming...Not sure if it's the policemen that are dumb or it's the film director ...
Right --- and that's only part of the screwy non-police-like behavior in this flick.
Parking has always been a pain in SF. Especially Chinatown.
The narrator was inaccurate at the beginning - the City was packed since living memory with about 880 thousand people. That stat never changes.
Living there for 2 years, I ALWAYS beat auto drivers using a bicycle I carried inside. Later I paid parking tix enough to support the city.
Was eating in Chinatown restaurant day after a big full auto mass killing.
Food's GREAT!
My thought, exactly.
Loved this movie! Loved Hurd Hatfield in it! He was FANTASTIC in The Picture of Dorian Gray! Gosh, he lived to be 81! He was good in an Alfred Hitchcock also; not to mention the many movies he was in. I had not seen this flick before and enjoyed it very much! Thanks for posting! 👏👍😎✌
P.s. Great forensic work for the time 🔍☎💿
@ Mary. I know the Hitchcock episode you’re talking about. He plays a guy with some markings or a scar on his face. Another good movie he was in was “Mickey One “, a Warren Beatty film from 1966.
Who wouldn't like this movie? This was suspenseful, engaging, and moved briskly from one risky scene to another. No fluff in this film. Thanx to Viet Gurl for providing such a good watch.
I agree 100 per cent ! This was a gem of a crime drama !
That was Benson Fong! Where's Charlie Chan when you need him?!
why would someone watch on your link when they already watched it here without any link. .Fake comment
Froi Taboso + 👎👎👎👎👎What for???!!!!!!EVERYONE can see it here without WASTING TIME & getting 'MIXED UP' with ur link!!!
Xyz Xyz + Right on ! I'm so sick of seeing those trolling paid/adware links on almost every movie or tv show video-- WHEN WE ALREADY SAW IT ON YT.. Duh ! Someone's paying the trolls to do it, but still ANNOYING.(plus that really annoying speeeelllinng thinnnggg)
Kate Quinn I'm with you 100%😊
I frequently respond to the link 'comments' wherever I see them, in the way I did here.. also tag as commercial spam, for all the good it does but it irritates the hell out of me...Plus I guess I'm just snarky for fun hahaha
Good movie! I liked the location of the scenes in Chinatown. Nice backdrop. It took a long time before the first cigarette was lit: 17:30 minutes. That's a lifetime in film noir where smoking is ubiquitous.
very observant
As I do when I take off my hat, you make a good point !!
@@jubalcalif9100 And HATfield is the stasr.
What an absolute SCOUNDREL loved it thank you
Dorian Gray meets Lisa Marcel.( Dorian is still up to the dirty old tricks instead of the East End of London or the waterfront this time it's Chinatown. ) Hurd Hatfield good actor, cool. Pretty good film.
Thank you so much! @15:00 743 Washington St - beautiful building! Really in Chinatown? Still there? I think there were 4 Charlie Chan offspring?!..Sen Yun as the hotel clerk was Jimmy, #2 son too! It'd be great to have a festival of early Chinatown movies, include Anna May Wong too! Chinatown in SF is THE Chinatown! Thank you so much @Viet Gurl!
Not very original, but a pleasant movie, and I love the unfaithful charm of Hurd Hatfield... Thank you for posting.
Maes Roger i
Hurd Hatfield was excellent in a 1945 movie" The Picture of Dorian Gray"
He was excellent in that! Gave me the creeps!
@@cynk956 I seen that movie in 1945 when it first came out I was 10 years old at that time. The scariest part of the movie when they showed the aged portrait of him in Technicolor.
@@johnnyray88 That makes you... eighty four now,right?
Bet you got some interesting stories about the golden years
Is he gay in real life?
@@pinkbeautytwinkle
Didn't care for Mr. Hatfield for NO otherr reason then nerver thought he was a good actor . Back then sexuality had different standing in society....... not really (that much) any longer...... it's going to be 2020 after all !
A straight forward, linear crime story with a twist: the criminal has malaria attacks. This almost 70 year old movie is a period piece for San Francisco, with authentic neighborhoods,buildings and street names, and even the police city map locating the suspect was correctly highlighted.Professionalism was demonstrated by the police as written in screenplay treating Chinatown and the Chinese just like any other citizens, even though it was in the era of racial persecution against Asians. The City of San Francisco should have it in their historical archives. And a festival of Early Chinatown themed movies should be held in California, as there seems to be a number of these, such as Detective Mr Wong series. They were well done police stories on their Chinatown cases.
I second this! This is definitely a time piece and yes, they should have a festival of Early Chinatown themed movies. This could really mean a lot for many people :)
It's awesome to see old San Francisco. I am not as old as this movie, but not too far removed (ten years) and some of this looks like the San Francisco of my early youth. It is fascinating to see.
And your idea of a film festival of movies from this era that take place in Chinatown is a great one.
Great idea! And, hey, pops, did Charlie Chan move to San Francisco from Hawaii?
@@melodiefrances3898 The SF Noir Festival is held every year. Not this year because of Covid-19. Ediie Muller runs it. Contact him about your ideas.
Perhaps you or someone could develop the catalogue and institutionalize the screenings. i think you have good thoughts.
Good movie thank you
Thank you for sharing. So much fun to see the actors that are no longer with us. I remember Jean Willes (Alice) from the tv shows from the 1960's and early 70's. Ross Elliott is another one that was popular in those same years. Both Mr. Elliott and Ms. Wills had long and sucessful marriages. Tom Powers career spanned from 1911 thru 1955. A fan from Las Vegas, NV 6/27/2019
YOGI Tom Powers played the unfortunate husband of Barbara Stanwyck in 'Double Indemnity'. Reading the book currently. It's about 130 pages and
is much darker than the movie and probably could not have been made as written in those days. Ticket sales would have been low. The book is more like pre-code Hollywood.
And there was ol' Willy Shakespeare & Chris Marlowe, too.
I really miss seeing THEM live!
a very fine, interesting film, with terrific nighttime backdrops and moody mise-en-scene. TFP!
Indubidubly!
Has he been up to some mischief?😄😄
How did they know there was a robbery? Both people were killed and the bad guy slipped out unnoticed ......maybe he said something in chinese to the telephone operator ?
ChrisAndTommy GoodTimeFolkRockShow he reported the robbery himself.
Suggest you watch the movie again (and again) until you hear the telling lines.
And what did he do with those 3 figurines he also took?
Love these old movies hope I see more like this one. Thanks
I've never watched this movie until now that I really enjoyed.
Thanks for the upload V. G
Ed
Is that Dorin Gray?〽️📽
Mary Cope Yes it is.
@@marycopeNope. DORIAN.
Chinatown At Midnight is when the Chinese restaurants stopp doing food delivery.
great movie
Hurd Hattfield and Lawrence Tierney were contemporaries, and they could've worked very
well together. (But they never did.) They both had similar feelings about acting. They both
preferred comedic roles, but got very few of them; instead playing bad guys during most of
their careers.
Love Hurd Hatfield acting!!!
Lupu Oana He was an excellent actor .
Chinatown at Midnight, released 17 November 1949 (New York City, New York), 14 June 1950 (Mexico). Hurd Hatfield as Clifford Ward; Jean Willes as Alice; Tom Powers as Capt. Howard Brown; Ray Walker as Sam Costa; Charles Russell as Fred Morgan; Jacqueline deWit (as Jacqueline DeWit) as Lisa Marcel; Maylia as Hazel Fong; Ross Elliott as Eddie Marsh; Benson Fong as Joe Wing; Barbara Jean Wong as Betty Chang; Victor Sen Yung, Hotel Proprietor; Josephine Whittell as Mrs. Emily Dryden; Byron Foulger, Greer Pharmacy Druggist; Paul E. Burns as James Mackintosh-Dry Cleaner; Ottola Nesmith as Mrs. Langdon; Frank O'Connor, Chinatown Extra; Steve Pendleton, Policeman.
thank you
I like the 1949 San Francisco location shots. A few interesting street car and cable car scenes. That looked like a MUNI street car at the Ferry Terminal loop at the foot of Market Street. It obviously wasn't a "White Front" Market Street Railway Company car. There were a couple of interesting bus scenes too, including the old sightseeing bus in Chinatown. Interior as well as exterior shots of the 'engine-out-front' bus.
I love where Hatfield tells the girl he picked up at the Aquarium he'd take her out to dinner and for a cable car ride. Even back in 1949, cable cars were popular in San Francisco. The opening scenes of the movie shows and talks about them. Hard to imagine that two short years before, in 1947, there was an effort by then San Francisco Mayor Roger Lapham to convert the two Powell Street cable car lines to buses. But he didn’t count on the public outcry orchestrated by a woman named Friedel Klussmann. She led a ballot campaign to preserve the Powell Street cable car lines, which succeeded in a November 1947 vote. Thankfully, Lapham's effort failed. The ten Faegol Twin Coach buses {called hill climbers} purchased for the conversion were used elsewhere, but were disliked and hardly saw any use. The cable cars are a priceless treasure now, along with the historic electric street cars running on Market Street and the Embarcadero.
The woman at the beginning, whom Hatfield went on his killing spree for, didn’t even seem to like him. She got that very expensive vase for free and didn’t even get caught. I guess the moral Is, if you want to be a successful criminal, have somebody else do your dirty work for you.
@@DH-ve5blI wondered why he was so desperate to get it for her if she was going to sell it to someone else anyway. 😕
1949-5 great antiques give me give me give me
bring the guy in for questioning... better take some Tommy Guns.
Ha-ha-ha!
Much thanks for a great flick that I'm surprised I'd not seen before. Subscribed!
That telephone exchange really is at 743 Washington and is now a bank….my bank!!!!! East West Bank
Eight months later :. That bank is probably
"Bankrupt" by now..
This must be an old movie....I don't see any
homeless or addicts sleeping on the sidewalk, ...or in the gutter
"San Francisco - one of America's 12 great cities." What was the list exactly and what was it based on - population? In 1949 that would have been:
1. NYC 2. Chicago 3. Philadelphia 4. Detroit 5. LA 6. Cleveland 7. Baltimore
8. St. Louis 9. Boston 10. Pittsburgh 11. Washington and 12. SF
What???
No Banjo, Kansas???
Cleveland? No New Orleans, Miami, or Las Vegas (Reno was the "biggest little city")?
Ah the good old days...when a cop could fire a warning shot in the air and punch out a suspect!
Oh that's intelligent
@@kprieto2655 No, just sarcasm.
Interesting how these old movies are a kind of time capsule capable of illustrating police procedure in the 1940's, and how it has evolved. No Miranda warning, just hot lead for the criminals in the past. Saves the taxpayer the costs of prosecution and incarceration!
..and a trial where one juror, mentally out to lunch, votes "Not Guilty," and the defendant walks.
Miranda wasn't even born when this was filmed.
He was guilty and merely freed but judges who
kiss criminals
'butts and ignore victims.
@@sharpear1031it was facist and illegal cops were crooks!!
Thank you :)
Chop Suey is North American. Not Chinese !
not bad..thx
The way the police turned up to the Greenwich Mansions address 😂😂 then do it again when he was at chemist 😂nice work in chasing him off.
Yeah, I don't know why they always had their sirens blaring. 🚔🚓🔊📢
Is anybody else curious about the demise of the bound & gagged lady landlord ?!?🤔
They probably got around to her... but the dude probably killed her, too...
yes but also what about his girl friend decorator's body?
There was a brief mention of her after they went to his address. Apparently she was unharmed.
Guns don't need reloading. Very handy.
Tommy Chan manager of the fleabag flophouse. Awww, Tommy. You shoulda stayed with your pa, Charley.
Actually he played Jimmy Chan - Victor Sen Yung (also played Hop Sing on Bonanza, as noted already). Tommy Chan (Benson Fong) was the first victim, Joe Wing.