Black Dragons
1942 film by William Nigh
- March 6, 1942 (1942-03-06)
Running time
Black Dragons is a 1942 American film directed by William Nigh and starring Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, and George Pembroke. The cast includes Clayton Moore, who plays a handsome detective. The Black Dragon Society also appears in Let's Get Tough! a 1942 East Side Kids film made by the same team of writer Harvey Gates and producer Sam Katzman.
Plot
It is prior to the American entry into World War II, and Japan's fiendish Black Dragon Society is hatching an evil plot with the Nazis. They instruct a brilliant scientist, Dr. Melcher, to travel to Japan on a secret mission. There he operates on six Japanese conspirators, transforming them to resemble six American leaders. The actual leaders are murdered and replaced with their likenesses. Dr. Melcher is condemned to a lifetime of imprisonment so the secret may die with him.
Cast
- Bela Lugosi as Dr. Melcher aka Monsieur Colomb / Cell Prisoner
- Joan Barclay as Alice Saunders
- George Pembroke as Dr. Bill Saunders
- Clayton Moore as Dick Martin
- Robert Frazer as Amos Hanlin
- Edward Peil, Sr. as Philip Wallace (credited as Edward Piel Sr.)
- Robert Fiske as Ryder
- Irving Mitchell as John Van Dyke
- Kenneth Harlan as FBI Chief Colton
- Max Hoffman Jr. as Kearney
- Frank Melton as FBI Agent
- Joseph Eggenton as Stevens
- I. Stanford Jolley as The Dragon (credited as Stanford Jolley)
- Jack Cheatham as Policeman (uncredited)
- Jack Chefe as Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
- Bernard Gorcey as The Cabbie (uncredited)
- Jack Holmes as Industrialist (uncredited)
- Ethelreda Leopold as Girl at Party (uncredited)
- Carl M. Leviness as Industrialist (uncredited)
Production
The film was rushed into production following the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was to begin filming on 17 January 1942 but this was pushed back until 21 January. The original working title was The Yellow Menace.[1]
Release
The film was released in Los Angeles on the double bill with the Australian film Pituri (also known as Uncivilised).[2]
The Los Angeles Times said that "those who love their mystery and their Lugosi will find this film unusually sinister."[3]
The film was colorized in the 1990s.[1]
See also
- Black Dragons (gang), a modern Triad organisation.
- Black Dragons (subculture), a French antifascist group analogous to the Black Panthers.
References
External links
Wikiquote has quotations related to Black Dragons.
- Black Dragons at IMDb
- Black Dragons at the TCM Movie Database
- Black Dragons at AllMovie
- Black Dragons is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Review of film at Variety
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Films directed by William Nigh
- Salomy Jane (1914)
- A Royal Family (1915)
- Emmy of Stork's Nest (1915)
- Mignon (1915)
- A Yellow Streak (1915)
- Her Debt of Honor (1916)
- The Kiss of Hate (1916)
- Life's Shadows (1916)
- The Child of Destiny (1916)
- Notorious Gallagher (1916)
- The Slave (1917)
- Thou Shalt Not Steal (1917)
- Wife Number Two (1917)
- The Blue Streak (1917)
- My Four Years in Germany (1918)
- The Fighting Roosevelts (1919)
- Beware! (1919)
- School Days (1921)
- Your Best Friend (1922)
- Notoriety (1922)
- Marriage Morals (1923)
- Born Rich (1924)
- Fear-Bound (1925)
- Casey of the Coast Guard (1926)
- The Fire Brigade (1926)
- The Little Giant (1926)
- The Nest (1927)
- Mr. Wu (1927)
- The Law of the Range (1928)
- Across to Singapore (1928)
- Four Walls (1928)
- Desert Nights (1929)
- Thunder (1929)
- Lord Byron of Broadway (1930)
- Today (1930)
- Fighting Thru (1930)
- The Single Sin (1931)
- The Lightning Flyer (1931)
- The Sea Ghost (1931)
- Border Devils (1932)
- Men Are Such Fools (1932)
- Without Honor (1932)
- The Night Rider (1932)
- He Couldn't Take It (1933)
- City Limits (1934)
- Mystery Liner (1934)
- School for Girls (1934)
- The House of Mystery (1934)
- Monte Carlo Nights (1934)
- Once to Every Bachelor (1934)
- Two Heads on a Pillow (1934)
- The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)
- Dizzy Dames (1935)
- Sweepstake Annie (1935)
- The Headline Woman (1935)
- His Night Out (1935)
- Without Children (1935)
- She Gets Her Man (1935)
- The Old Homestead (1935)
- Don't Get Personal (1936)
- Crash Donovan (1936)
- North of Nome (1936)
- The Law Commands (1937)
- Bill Cracks Down (1937)
- Hoosier Schoolboy (1937)
- The 13th Man (1937)
- Boy of the Streets (1937)
- A Bride for Henry (1937)
- Atlantic Flight (1937)
- Rose of the Rio Grande (1938)
- Female Fugitive (1938)
- Romance of the Limberlost (1938)
- Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
- Gangster's Boy (1938)
- I Am a Criminal (1938)
- The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939)
- Streets of New York (1939)
- Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)
- Mutiny in the Big House (1939)
- The Fatal Hour (1940)
- Doomed to Die (1940)
- The Ape (1940)
- Son of the Navy (1940)
- The Kid from Kansas (1941)
- Secret Evidence (1941)
- Mob Town (1941)
- Zis Boom Bah (1941)
- Mr. Wise Guy (1942)
- Escape from Hong Kong (1942)
- Black Dragons (1942)
- Tough as They Come (1942)
- City of Silent Men (1942)
- Lady from Chungking (1942)
- The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)
- The Ghost and the Guest (1943)
- Corregidor (1943)
- The Underdog (1943)
- Where Are Your Children? (1943)
- Trocadero (1944)
- Are These Our Parents? (1944)
- Allotment Wives (1945)
- Divorce (1945)
- Forever Yours (1945)
- Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
- Partners in Time (1946)
- South of Monterey (1946)
- The Gay Cavalier (1946)
- Riding the California Trail (1947)
- I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948)
- Stage Struck (1948)
