Richard Loo
Richard Loo (October 1, 1903 – November 20, 1983) was an American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1931 and 1982.
Chinese by ancestry and Hawaiian by birth, Loo spent his youth in Hawaii, then moved to California as a teenager. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and began a career in business.
The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent economic depression forced Loo to start over. He became involved with amateur, then professional, theater companies and in 1931 made his first film. Like most Asian actors in non-Asian countries, he played primarily small, stereotypical roles, though he rose quickly to familiarity, if not fame, in a number of films.
His stern features led him to be a favorite movie villain, and the outbreak of World War II gave him greater prominence in roles as vicious Japanese soldiers in such successful pictures as The Purple Heart (1944) and God Is My Co-Pilot (1945). Loo was most often typecast as the Japanese enemy pilot, spy or interrogator during World War II. In the film The Purple Heart he plays a Japanese Imperial Army general who commits suicide because he cannot break down the American prisoners. According to his daughter, Beverly Jane Loo, he didn't mind being typecast as a villain in these movies as he felt very patriotic about playing those parts.
In 1944 he appeared as a Chinese army lieutenant opposite Gregory Peck in The Keys of the Kingdom. He had a rare heroic role as a war-weary Japanese-American soldier in Samuel Fuller's Korean War classic The Steel Helmet (1951), but he spent much of the latter part of his career performing stock roles in films and minor television roles.
In 1974 he appeared as the Thai billionaire tycoon Hai Fat in the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, opposite Roger Moore and Christopher Lee.
Loo was also a teacher of Shaolin monks in three episodes of the 1972–1975 hit TV series Kung Fu and made a further three appearances as a different character. His last acting appearance was in The Incredible Hulk TV series in 1981, but he continued to act in Toyota commercials into 1982.
Loo died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 20, 1983, age 80.
[biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 8.859 |
Birthday | 1903-10-01 |
Place of Birth | Maui, Hawaii, USA |
Also Known As |
1974
The Man with the Golden Gun
6.44/1964
Cool government operative James Bond searches for a stolen invention that can turn the sun's heat into a destructive weapon. He soon crosses paths wit...
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The Man with the Golden Gun
1966
The Sand Pebbles
7.195/238
Engineer Jake Holman arrives aboard the gunboat USS San Pablo, assigned to patrol a tributary of the Yangtze in the middle of exploited and revolution...
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The Sand Pebbles
1948
Women in the Night
3.9/7
During WW2 six allied nations women at Shanghai University are arrested by the Germans accused of killing a German officer and forced to entertain the...
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Women in the Night
1954
Hell and High Water
6.078/51
A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese...
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Hell and High Water
1932
The Secrets of Wu Sin
0/0
A murder mystery about the smuggling of illegal Chinese aliens into America through Chinatown.
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The Secrets of Wu Sin
1933
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
6.1/81
An American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.
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The Bitter Tea of General Yen
1949
The Clay Pigeon
5.5/19
Jim Fletcher, waking up from a coma, finds he is to be given a court martial for treason and charged with informing on fellow inmates in a Japanese pr...
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The Clay Pigeon
1944
The Purple Heart
6/13
This is the story of the crew of a downed bomber, captured after a run over Tokyo, early in the war. Relates the hardships the men endure while in cap...
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The Purple Heart
1945
Betrayal from the East
5.8/4
A carnival showman tries to keep Japanese spies from sabotaging the Panama Canal.
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Betrayal from the East
1949
Malaya
6.538/13
After living abroad for several years, journalist John Royer returns to the United States just after the U.S. enters World War II. His boast that he c...
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Malaya
1943
The Falcon Strikes Back
5.6/13
The Falcon is framed for the murder of a banker and the theft of war bonds. He makes his escape into the mountains where he hides out in a rustic lodg...
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The Falcon Strikes Back
1951
The Steel Helmet
7/77
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
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The Steel Helmet
1944
The Keys of the Kingdom
7/47
A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a prie...
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The Keys of the Kingdom
1945
Back to Bataan
6.2/59
An Army colonel leads a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines.
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Back to Bataan
1955
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
6/80
A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolu...
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Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing
1951
I Was an American Spy
6.2/7
An American nightclub singer in 1940's Singapore becomes a spy for America in an effort to get back at the invading Japanese army. Based on a true sto...
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I Was an American Spy
1957
Battle Hymn
6.4/19
Dean Hess, who entered the ministry to atone for bombing a German orphanage, decides he’s a failure at preaching. Rejoined to train pilots early in th...
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Battle Hymn
1953
Target Hong Kong
5/2
Yankee soldiers-of-fortune smash a spy plot aimed at seizing Hong Kong.
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Target Hong Kong
1958
The Quiet American
5.8/30
Cynical British journalist Fowler falls in love with a young Vietnamese woman but is dismayed when a naïve U.S. official also begins vying for her att...
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The Quiet American
1962
Confessions of an Opium Eater
5.8/18
Vincent Price stars in this early '60s adaptation of Thomas De Quincey's thriller about an opium addict trying to solve a mystery in San Francisco's C...
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Confessions of an Opium Eater
1940
The Fatal Hour
6/17
When a police officer is murdered, Captain Street looks to Mr. Wong to catch the killer. Prime Suspect: Frank Belden Jr., whose father is a businessma...
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The Fatal Hour
1971
Chandler
4.5/9
A private eye is hired to follow a mobster's former mistress.
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Chandler
1945
First Yank into Tokyo
5.4/5
A U.S. pilot undergoes plastic surgery and drops into Japan to get a captive scientist's (Marc Cramer) atomic secrets.
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First Yank into Tokyo
1959
The Scavengers
5/1
This low-budget Asian-set adventure concerns a reformed smuggler (Vince Edwards of TV's Ben Casey) who finds his missing wife (Carol Ohmart) in Hong K...
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The Scavengers
1942
Star Spangled Rhythm
5.9/8
Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he's the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddie...
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Star Spangled Rhythm
1971
One More Train to Rob
5.441/17
Harker Flet and compatriots Timothy X. Nolan and Katy, along with three other men, steal $40,000 in money and jewelry from a California train in the g...
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One More Train to Rob
1947
Seven Were Saved
6.1/8
A nurse is taking an amnesia victim, who was imprisoned by the Japanese during WW II, to the United States in a plane piloted by Richard Denning. The...
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Seven Were Saved
1943
Flight for Freedom
5.2/6
A fictionalized biopic about aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. A female pilot breaks the Los Angeles to New York record and attracts the interest of th...
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Flight for Freedom
1943
China
6.6/11
Shortly before Pearl Harbor, American opportunist Jones and partner Johnny are in China to sell oil to the invading Japanese army. Cynical about the s...
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China
1962
A Girl Named Tamiko
5/2
A photographer based in Tokyo, who's in love with local beauty Tamiko, begins to court an embassy official so she can help him gain entry into the Uni...
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A Girl Named Tamiko
1954
The Bamboo Prison
6.4/8
A communist POW sides with his North Korean guards against his fellow prisoners.
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The Bamboo Prison
1937
West of Shanghai
5.4/9
American businessmen and missionaries working in China are captured and held prisoner by a local warlord.
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West of Shanghai
1954
The Shanghai Story
4.8/9
Shanghai, China. The last expatriate Westerners still living in the city are imprisoned in a hotel by the communist authorities in order to find the s...
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The Shanghai Story
1939
Daughter of the Tong
5/4
A detective matches wits with the female leader of a crime ring.
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Daughter of the Tong
1939
Panama Patrol
5/1
A U.S. agent attempts to track down a spy ring working to destroy the Panama Canal.
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Panama Patrol
1942
Across the Pacific
6.5/73
Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-marshaled out of the army and boards a Japanese ship f...
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Across the Pacific
1938
Shadows Over Shanghai
5.7/3
A pilot carrying a valuable amulet is shot down over China by a ruthless Russian agent, who also wants the amulet.
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Shadows Over Shanghai
1949
State Department: File 649
5/5
Kenneth Seeley, member of the U. S. State Department's Foreign Service Bureau, and Marge Weldon, a morale worker with the bureau, are assigned to an a...
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State Department: File 649
1947
Web of Danger
4.8/2
Ernie Reardon, the superintendent, and Bill O'Hara, the foreman, of a construction company crew working on a bridge to a remote valley, are constantly...
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Web of Danger
1939
Lady of the Tropics
6.1/8
Playboy Bill Carey woos a half-caste beauty in French Indochina, but her second-class legal status makes a formidable barrier.
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Lady of the Tropics
1939
Miracles for Sale
6.4/16
A maker of illusions for magicians protects an ingenue likely to be murdered.
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Miracles for Sale
1934
Now and Forever
6.7/17
Freewheeling wanderer Jerry Day and his beautiful wife Toni are at odds over their lifestyle. Jerry can't accept responsibility, but Toni yearns for a...
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Now and Forever
1945
Prison Ship
6/1
Panic arises among Allied POWs aboard a Japanese freighter when they learn that the ship is actually a decoy target for American submarines on night p...
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Prison Ship
1946
Tokyo Rose
5/1
Lotus Long plays the title role, an American-educated Japanese woman broadcasting enemy propaganda to American troops. Captured GI Pete Sherman is one...
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Tokyo Rose
1940
Doomed to Die
5.8/19
Shipping magnate Cyrus Wentworth, downcast over a disaster to his ocean liner 'Wentworth Castle' (carrying, oddly enough, an illicit shipment of Chine...
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Doomed to Die
1948
Rogues' Regiment
6.5/5
A post World War 2, US Army agent is assigned to join the Foreign Legion in search of high ranking Nazi war criminal who may have also enlisted.
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Rogues' Regiment
1941
Secret of the Wastelands
0/0
Hoppy is leading a scientific expedition and the Chinese who have a hidden settlement nearby are trying to stop them. Saulters and his outlaw gang are...
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Secret of the Wastelands
1934
Student Tour
5/2
A philosophy professor accompanies his school's rowing team on a worldwide tour.
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Student Tour
1939
Barricade
5/2
In China, a singer and a journalist meet while traveling on a train attacked by bandits.
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Barricade
1944
The Story of Dr. Wassell
6.3/19
As the Japanese sweep through the East Indies during World War II, Dr. Wassell is determined to escape from Java with some crewmen of the cruiser Marb...
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The Story of Dr. Wassell
1945
China Sky
5.5/4
During World War II, an American mission hospital is headed up by Dr. Gray Thompson and Dr. Sara Durand. Sara is secretly in love with Gray but hides...
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China Sky
1956
Around the World in Eighty Days
6.642/493
Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a ve...
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Around the World in Eighty Days
1953
Destination Gobi
5.7/17
A group of US Navy weathermen taking measurements in the Gobi desert in World War II are forced to seek the help of Mongol nomads to regain their ship...
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Destination Gobi
1937
The Soldier and the Lady
6.5/2
In the face of rebellion in Russia, Czar Alexander II sends soldier Michael Strogoff 2,000 miles away, with a critical message for Grand Duke Vladimir...
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The Soldier and the Lady
1948
The Cobra Strikes
5/1
A newspaper reporter investigates the near-fatal shooting of a medical scientist.
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The Cobra Strikes
1956
The Conqueror
3.5/48
Mongol chief Temujin battles against Tartar armies and for the love of the Tartar princess Bortai. Temujin becomes the emperor Genghis Khan.
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The Conqueror
1936
Stowaway
6.7/23
Chin-Ching gets lost in Shanghai and is befriended by American playboy Tommy Randall. She falls asleep in his car which winds up on a ship headed for...
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Stowaway
1935
Stranded
5.8/5
A Traveler's Aid worker who delights in solving people's problems gets mixed up with gangsters.
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Stranded
1954
Living It Up
6.4/32
Homer Flagg (Lewis) is a railroad worker in the small town of Desert Hole, New Mexico. One day he finds an abandoned automobile at an old atomic provi...
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Living It Up
1938
Blondes at Work
6.1/8
When a rival newspaper publisher complains to his captain about possible collusion between himself and reporter Torchy Blane on scooping her rivals in...
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Blondes at Work
1943
Behind the Rising Sun
5.7/6
A Japanese publisher urges his American-educated son to side with the Axis.
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Behind the Rising Sun
1936
Roaming Lady
5/1
Joyce Reid, a wealthy young debutante, stows away on a cargo ship to China, carrying as passengers her dashing aviator sweetheart, Dan Bailey and and...
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Roaming Lady
1943
Destroyer
6.567/15
Flagwaving story of a new American destroyer, the JOHN PAUL JONES, from the day her keel is laid, to what was very nearly her last voyage. Among the c...
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Destroyer
1943
So Proudly We Hail
5.5/21
During the start of the Pacific campaign in World War II, Lieutenant Janet Davidson is the head of a group of U.S. military nurses who are trapped beh...
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So Proudly We Hail
1948
Half Past Midnight
6/1
A detective encounters a woman in a nightclub. He finds that she is being blackmailed by a dancer who is murdered that very night. Of course, the woma...
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Half Past Midnight
1942
Road to Morocco
6.8/66
Two carefree castaways on a desert shore find an Arabian Nights city, where they compete for the luscious Princess Shalmar.
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Road to Morocco
1945
China's Little Devils
0/0
In this propaganda film, a courageous group of Chinese children risk their lives to assist downed American pilots escape the ruthless Japanese oppress...
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China's Little Devils
1945
God Is My Co-Pilot
7/7
Robert L. Scott has dreamed his whole life of being a fighter pilot, but when war comes he finds himself flying transport planes over The Hump into Ch...
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God Is My Co-Pilot
1936
Mad Holiday
6/6
A temperamental film star's vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder.
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Mad Holiday
1958
Hong Kong Affair
0/0
An American businessman travels to Hong Kong to find out why his tea plantation isn't making money. When he gets there he discovers that his business...
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Hong Kong Affair
1955
Soldier of Fortune
5.9/29
An American woman arrives in Hong Kong to unravel the mystery of her missing photographer husband. After getting nowhere with the authorities, she is...
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Soldier of Fortune
1947
Beyond Our Own
0/0
This latter-day parable focuses on two brothers. Peter Rogers is an ambitious, hard-driving attorney. Bob Rogers is a thoughtful, contemplative doctor...
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Beyond Our Own
1953
China Venture
7.5/2
American soldiers undertake a mission to capture a Japanese admiral who has survived an air crash in China during WWII.
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China Venture
1943
The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
6.4/7
A missionary tries to outwit the U.S. government and smuggle Chinese orphans into the country.
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The Amazing Mrs. Holliday
2002
The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
5.8/4
Samuel Fuller discusses his career as a filmmaker, illustrated by plenty of clips.
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The Men Who Made the Movies: Samuel Fuller
1962
Diamond Head
5.4/9
Rich Hawaiian pineapple grower and US Senatorial candidate Richard Howland tries to control everything and everyone around him, including his headstro...
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Diamond Head
1969
Marcus Welby, M.D.
0/0
The pilot film for the long-run series introduced the kindly small-town general practitioner who, following a mild coronary, grudgingly brings in an i...
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Marcus Welby, M.D.
1972
Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon
7/21
After avenging the death of his teacher, a Shaolin monk flees China to the American West and helps people while being pursued by bounty hunters.
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Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon
1955
House of Bamboo
6.1/62
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen...
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House of Bamboo
1942
Wake Island
5.5/23
In late 1941, with no hope of relief or re-supply, a small band of United States Marines tries to keep the Japanese Navy from capturing their island b...
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Wake Island
1939
North of Shanghai
0/0
In this newspaper drama, a female reporter and a newsreel cameraman are both assigned to cover the Sino-Japanese war. They meet on the boat ride over...
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North of Shanghai
1937
The Good Earth
6.2/63
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the man...
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The Good Earth
1937
Lost Horizon
7/202
British diplomat Robert Conway and a small group of civilians crash land in the Himalayas, and are rescued by the people of the mysterious, Eden-like...
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Lost Horizon
1948
To the Ends of the Earth
5.6/16
A treasury agent becomes obsessed with exposing an international drug ring.
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To the Ends of the Earth
1976
Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur
0/0
U.S. President Harry S Truman and his commander in the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur, disagree on war strategy. Their conflict comes to a head...
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Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur
1935
China Seas
6.303/33
Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only ris...
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China Seas
1939
Mr. Wong in Chinatown
5.4/19
A pretty Chinese woman, seeking help from San Francisco detective James Lee Wong, is killed by a poisoned dart in his front hall, having time only to...
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Mr. Wong in Chinatown
1952
5 Fingers
7.571/84
During WWII, the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.
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