Daughter of the Dragon is a 1931 film directed by Lloyd Corrigan.
Ling Moy (Anna May Wong) is a dancer who is starring in a London nightclub. She meets a charming young man, Ronald Petrie, her next door neighbor in fact, who is quite taken with Ling Moy. Ronald completely forgets his perfectly pretty girlfriend, Joan, and is soon professing his love for Ling Moy.
What Ling Moy doesn't know is that her long-lost father is the evil Yellow Peril villain, Fu Manchu. Fu Manchu (Warner Oland in Yellowface), thought to be dead for twenty years, is very much alive, and he is bent on revenge against the Petrie family, whom he blames for the deaths of his wife and son. Fu Manchu is being hunted by a secret agent, Ah Kee (Sessue Hayakawa) who meets Ling Moy and falls for her just as hard as Ronald Petrie has.
As it happens, Ling Moy's servants do know about Fu Manchu, and they help him gain entrance to the Petrie mansion. Fu Manchu gets into the Petrie house, gives Ronald's father Sir John Petrie a mind control drug, and forces Sir John to fling himself down the stairs. However, in the process Ah Kee shoots and mortally wounds Fu Manchu. Before he dies, Fu Manchu charges his daughter Ling Moy with completing his revenge plot and killing Ronald Petrie. But can Ling Moy follow through, when she is falling in love with Roland?
Tropes:
- Almost Kiss: Ling Moy is leaning in to kiss Ronald and their lips are about a half-inch away from each other, when Joan's scream is a Moment Killer. Why does this happen? Because in racist 1930s Hollywood, Anna May Wong was not allowed to kiss a white actor.
- As You Know: A servant makes sure to introduce Morloff to Ling Moy as "your manager", presumably in case she'd forgotten.
- Bookcase Passage: Morloff has dug a secret tunnel from Ling Moy's house to the Petrie house, emerging from a hidden door under the stairs.
- Cut Phone Lines: Fu Manchu cut the line to the Petrie house, so Scotland Yard is unable to get through when they call to deliver Ah Kee's warning.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Ling Moy, carrying out her father's revenge plot.
- Dragon Lady: Anna May Wong, playing an evil but sexy Chinese woman for the last time. After this Wong refused to play dragon lady roles.
- The Dying Walk: Fu Manchu doesn't just walk after he's shot in the chest. No, he goes from the Petrie house to Ling Moy's house via secret tunnel. Then he greets Ling Moy and identifies himself as her father. Then he rings a gong and says prayers. Then he gets Ling Moy to swear that she will finish what he started and kill Roland Petrie. Then he arranges to stage a scene with Ling Moy where it looks like he is killing her, so when the good guys come in they can shoot him dead, and thus will trust Ling Moy.
- Faking the Dead: Fu Manchu was said to have been killed 20 years ago, but Ah Kee doesn't believe it. He's right, as Fu Manchu is alive and has come back to finish off the Petries.
- Hand of Death: A hand is shown entering the screen and dosing Sir John's cigars with something. It's Fu Manchu, lacing the cigars with his mind control drug.
- Impairment Shot: Rogers the butler is blind without his glasses, as shown when he is fumbling for them and the camera shows nothing but a blur from his POV.
- It Works Better with Bullets: When Fu Manchu shows up Sir John's study, Sir John takes a gun from his desk and pulls the trigger. All he gets is a clicking sound.Fu Manchu: My first precaution, naturally.
- Love Dodecahedron: There's Ronald being besotted with Ling Moy, Ah Kee also falling in love with Ling Moy, and Ronald's girlfriend Joan who is pissed off about being thrown over for Ling Moy.
- Staircase Tumble: How Sir John dies, throwing herself down the stairs while under the influence of Fu Manchu's mind control drug.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Warner Roland's third and last Fu Manchu film. But instead of starring as he did in the first two, he is killed off less than a third of the way through the film, leaving Ling Moy behind to finish his revenge scheme.
- Surprise Checkmate: Petrie and his man Rogers are playing chess. Not only does Rogers not see the checkmate Petrie drops on him coming, it takes him quite a while to figure out how he got checkmated.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Fu Manchu puts a drug in Sir John's cigars. To poison him? No, to control his mind so Fu Manchu can force him to fling himself down the stairs while his family watches.
- Thanatos Gambit: Fu Manchu knows he is dying (pretty damn slowly, but whatever) from the bullet Ah Kee fired into his chest. So he has himself and Ling Moy strike a pose that looks like he's about to stab her. The good guys come crashing in, Ah Kee shoots Fu Manchu again, and this scene where Ling Moy looks like Fu Manchu's victim makes Ah Kee and Roland trust her.
- Third-Person Person: Ling Moy has a habit of lapsing into this when she wants to sound formal, like when she meets Ronald Petrie for the first time and says "Ling Moy is honored."
- Together in Death: Ah Kee took a fall from what looked like the third floor of Ling Moy's mansion. But he's still able to wobble to his feet, make it back into the house, and shoot Ling Moy just as she's about to stab Ronald In the Back. After she collapses and dies, Ah Kee crawls over, and falls over dead right on top of her.
- Yellowface: One of many times that Warner Oland, who was a white guy from Sweden, played an Asian man.
- Yellow Peril: Fu Manchu is probably the Trope Codifier. In this one Fu Manchu the evil Chinese man is killed off and his daughter is left to carry out his revenge.
