Review of Roar of the Dragon

Robert Dix plays a hard-drinking, paddle-wheel, riverboat skipper in "See Here, Private Hargrove" director Wesley Ruggles' atmospheric adventure yarn "Roar of the Dragon," co-starring Edward Everett Horton, Garbo lookalike Gwili Andre, Arline Judge, and C. Henry Gordon. For the record, "Cimarron" scenarist Howard Estabrook derived his screenplay from George Kibbe Turner's novella "Passage to Hong Kong." Apparently, "King Kong" producer Merian C. Cooper and Jane Bigelow penned the story; I couldn't find anything more in depth about the historical background about this David O. Selznick producer, and IMDb states that there is no copyright for Turner's material. Nevertheless, this exciting 1932 melodrama occurs in Manchuria with a murderous Russian renegade on the rampage, Voronsky (C. Henry Gordon of "Mata Hari"), with his army of Tartar bandits. The ruthless Voronsky aims to exact vengeance on Captain Chauncey Carson (Richard Dix of "Cimarron") because our hero shot off most of the villain's left ear. Apparently, before the film unfolds, Voronsky had had an encounter with our gallant hero and damaged the paddle-wheel on Carson's steamboat. The heroic Carson and his passengers are holed up for the time being in a small town, while labors repair the paddle-wheel. Naturally, the commercial riverboat owner Johnson (Dudley Digges of "Son of Fury") isn't pleased with the way that things are happening when he receives the news that Voronsky has sworn to kill Carson and take the passengers hostage. While Voronsky allows his injured ear to heal, he dispatches a platoon of riflemen to attack the hotel where everybody is holed up. "Roar of the Dragon" takes place principally in the hotel where our heroes and heroines have fortified themselves against Voronsky's depredations. As it turns out, Carson has a small arsenal of weapons at his disposal, and they repulse the initial wave of horsemen with a tripod-mounted machine gun. When Voronsky' second in command returns with news that they haven't killed Carson and taken hostages, he shoots the man on the spot. Edward Everett Horton, who made a name of himself as the narrator of "The Bullwinkle Show," shows a different side of himself. He takes over as the man behind the machine gun and mows down his share of Voronsky's minions. This was a surprise to me since he usually plays more reserved characters in civilized movies. Most everybody escapes from the besieged hotel, but there are a few casualties. "Roar of the Dragon" unspools at a snappy pace and nobody gives a bad performance. Truly, it is tragic that Dix's leading lady, Gwili Andre, had such a brief career as an actress. She had been compared with Greta Garbo in appearance. Ruggles doesn't let the action slow down too often in this 67-minute actioneer.