Princess
Ling Moy might be cinema’s most reluctant femme fatale villainess. As a dancer
with an international reputation, she really did not need vengeance or world
domination. Unfortunately, they were very much part of her family business,
because she just so happens to be the daughter of the nefarious Dr. Fu Manchu.
Fu Manchu films were problematic in their day and even more so now, but the legendary
Anna May Wong elevates and deepens Lloyd Corrigan’s Daughter of the Dragon, which screens as part of the Metrograph’s
upcoming sidebar, Anna May Wong: Empress of Chinatown.
Despite
her fame and artistry, the Princess always yearned to know her father, but
their scheduled meeting comes nearly too late. Fu Manchu managed to murder his
old nemesis, Sir John Petrie, but he was seriously wounded in the process. Secretly
encamped with the Petries’ duplicitous next-door neighbor Morloff, Fu Manchu
extracts a “son’s vow” from Ling Moy to finish his biblical vengeance by
killing Petrie’s wastrel son Ronald. To facilitate the scheme, Fu sacrifices
his own life, during what Petrie mistakenly believes is the rescue of Ling Moy.
Biding
her time, Ling Moy starts to see Petrie socially, greatly annoying his blonde
on-again-off-again girlfriend. Further complicating matters, she genuinely starts
to fall for him. Meanwhile, Ah Kee, a Chinese detective serving as a consultant
to Scotland Yard, falls head over heels for Ling Moy. She encourages his
infatuation for tactical reasons, but she is really in love with her intended
victim.
Frankly,
Daughter remains an interesting film
precisely because of its thorny racial-sexual dynamics. The Chinese princess
falling for the well-heeled Yankee, while friend-zoning her infatuated
countrymen still has provocative resonance. It is particularly potent in Daughter, because Ling Moy and Ah Kee
are played by Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa (a huge Hollywood star during
the silent era, as well as a Zen Master and a veteran of the French Resistance).
They basically blow everyone else off the screen with their star-presence and eternal
attractiveness. Indeed, it is easy to forget professional fake-Asian Warner
Oland appears as Fu Manchu. Thanks to Wong and Hayakawa, Daughter becomes more of a tragedy than a “Yellow Peril” horror
film, sort of like a Madame Butterfly for
the Hollywood Bungalow set.
