Review of I Cover Chinatown

Although interiors were filmed at RKO Studios, this film was not released by RKO and has been difficult to obtain, but now an excellent print has surfaced on an Alpha DVD. Why the excitement? It was the first movie to be directed by Norman Foster (whom Orson Welles regarded as the best director in the world – aside from himself, of course!) Foster was an actor at this stage of his career but soon switched full-time to directing, In fact, he abandoned acting altogether after playing a bit in his Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), but resumed his acting career in 1972. His most famous film was the Orson Welles vehicle, Journey Intro Fear (1942), which Welles himself partially re-edited and re-shot. (Fortunately, both versions are available on DVD, and both have played on TV in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, England and France). Anyway, getting back to I Cover Chinatown, this movie was largely shot on location in San Francisco's Chinatown. Theodore Von Eltz is the villain you love to hiss, and then, of course, there's Elaine Sheppard, here making little impression despite her impressive debut as the female lead in the Clyde Beatty serial, Darkest Africa. (Miss Sheppard was nothing if not determined. When her first attempt at a movie career gradually petered out in 1940, she started at the top again in 1943, and when that gradually petered out in 1945, she started again at the top in 1951. But this third time, there were no further takers. I suppose she could have gone into TV, but I'm glad to say she didn't choose that route. Presumably, she wanted success in the movies, or nothing! An admirable ambition, but you can see why she didn't make the grade. She's a fine actress, but she doesn't stay in the mind. I saw this movie last night but already I've forgotten what she looked like, although I can picture just about everyone else in the cast firmly in my mind, including Eddie Gribbon – not an actor known to me at all despite his 204 credits – who has only a very, very small role).