Library and Archives Canada
The Secrets of Chinatown is a 1934 feature-length film set in British Columbia. It was directed by Fred Newmeyer and produced by Kenneth Bishop. From 1928 to 1937, British law required that fifteen percent of films shown in Britain be of Commonwealth origin, which limited the number of American imports. Filmed and set in Canada, The Secrets of Chinatown is known as a “quota quickie” – one of twenty-two low-budget feature films made in the British quota years by registered Canadian companies with American backing. The film’s script was adapted from Guy Morton’s novel, The Black Robe, which was the film’s alternate title when it screened in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, so as not to offend the large Chinese populations in those cities. Harry Hastings, a lead actor in the film, reportedly prefaced each of the Victoria screenings with a reminder of the film’s ‘fictional’ nature. Vancouver’s Chinese Consul requested that film be removed from circulation, citing racist slurs, negative portrayals of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, and misrepresentations of Chinatown. However, British Columbia’s film censor did not deem the film’s material sufficiently offensive to warrant censorship.
The Secrets of Chinatown is a feature-length film about opium smugglers in British Columbia. The complicated plot follows private eye Donegal Dawn (Raymond Lawrence) as he investigates the disappearance of two men in Chinatown. Dawn’s friend, Robert Rande (Nick Stuart), gets embroiled in the case when he falls for Zenobia (Lucille Browne), a white girl working at a Chinese curio shop who is under the spell of a secret society of robed Chinese villains.
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