''Chinatown Nights'', also known as ''Tong War'', is a 1929 film starring

Wallace Beery Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' (1 ...

and begun as a

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

then finished as an all-talking sound one via dubbing. Directed by William A. Wellman and released by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

, ''Chinatown Nights'' also stars

Florence Vidor Florence Vidor (née Cobb, later Arto; July 23, 1895 – November 3, 1977) was an American silent film actress. Early life Vidor was born in Houston on July 23, 1895, to John and Ida Cobb. Her parents had married in Houston on March 3, 1894, bu ...

, former wife of director

King Vidor King Wallis Vidor ( ; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...

, who did not dub her own voice and quit the movie business immediately afterward, preferring not to work in sound films; her voice in ''Chinatown Nights'' was supplied by actress

Nella Walker Nella Walker (March 6, 1886 – March 22, 1971) was an American actress and vaudeville performer of the 1920s through the 1950s. Biography The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker, she was born and raised in Chicago. In 1910, she marrie ...

. The supporting cast includes

Warner Oland Warner Oland (born Johan Verner Ölund; October 3, 1879 – August 6, 1938) was a Swedish-American actor. His career included time on Broadway and numerous film appearances. He is most remembered for playing several Chinese and Chinese-American ...

as a Chinese gangster and

Jack Oakie Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Chaplin's ''The Great Dictator'' (1940) ...

as a stuttering reporter. The movie was based upon the story "Tong War" by

Samuel Ornitz Samuel Badisch Ornitz (November 15, 1890 – March 10, 1957) was an American screenwriter and novelist from New York City; he was one of the "Hollywood Ten"Obituary '' Variety'', March 13, 1957, page 63. who were blacklisted from the 1950s on by ...

Cast

as Chuck Riley *

as Joan Fry (voice dubbed by

) *

as Boston Charley *Jack McHugh as the Shadow *

as the Reporter

Wellman and the "shotgun mike"

During the filming of ''Chinatown Nights'' as a silent feature, Paramount abruptly stopped production. A dialogue script was quickly prepared, and sound technicians and equipment arrived on the set so as to shoot the picture as a “

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befo ...

.” Film historian

Scott Eyman Scott Eyman (born March 2, 1951) is an American author, and former book editor and art critic of ''The Palm Beach Post''. He is a frequent book reviewer for ''The Wall Street Journal'' and ''Film Comment,'' and was a contributor for ''The New York ...

reports that director Wellman clashed with the soundmen over the positioning of the overhead microphone during a tracking shot involving Wallace Berry and Florence Vidor. Technicians insisted that the actors stop whenever they spoke, interrupting the camera motion. Frustrated, Wellman commandeered the microphone. Holding it in his lap on the tracking platform, he aimed it at the actors and proceeded with the shoot; the audio proved satisfactory. Eyman notes that Wellman "received no credit for the innovation" of the "shotgun

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic (), or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publi ...

" but utilized this method with “extraordinary virtuosity” in the boxing drama '' The Man I Love'' (1929).Eyman, 1997 p. 228-229

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* * *
''Chinatown Nights'' at the silentera.com database
1929 films 1920s English-language films Films directed by William A. Wellman Transitional sound films 1929 crime drama films American crime drama films Films produced by David O. Selznick American black-and-white films Films scored by Karl Hajos 1920s American films English-language crime drama films {{silent-crime-drama-film-stub

Cast

Wellman and the "shotgun mike"

See also

Footnotes

Sources

External links