North of Shanghai
Cast & Crew
D. Ross Lederman
James Craig
Betty Furness
Keye Luke
Morgan Conway
Joseph Downing
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When newspaper reporter Helen Warner exposes the illegal activities of a gang of racketeers, she is threatened by the crooks, and, as a result, is sent by her boss on a vacation to China to avoid danger. On the ship to China, Helen befriends newsreel cameraman Jed Howard, but keeps her profession a secret from him. The two arrive in Shanghai just as war breaks out in North China, and, after seeing Jed depart for the front, Helen reports at the Shanghai office of her newspaper to manager Bob Laird. While getting her credentials to cover the war, Helen meets Chandler, a sinister fellow passenger travelling aboard her ship. Helen's suspicions are raised when both Chandler and Laird insist that Chandler had not been out of the country recently. While Jed and his Chinese assistant, Jimmy Riley, are in the thick of the action, Jimmy sees one of his countrymen fall and attempts to enter the battle, but is subdued by Jed, who rushes him back to Shanghai. En route, they collide with Helen's car. Helen informs Jed that a missionary told her that the Chinese army was routed when a trainload of reinforcements was dynamited by enemies. When Helen and Jed attempt to locate the missionary, they find him murdered. While investigating the mystery, Jimmy is shot and killed by an assassin. An attempt is made on Jed's life, and his assistant, when caught, swallows poison to avoid being captured. Helen, suspecting Laird, finds a secret passageway under his office leading to another office, in which Laird and the others are gathered. Helen and Jed overhear a plot to signal bombing planes to attack a Chinese arsenal. The two are discovered, but escape and turn to a tong, a secret society, with a plan to trap the spies and save the arsenal. Three airplanes are then placed at Jed's disposal. As arranged, Jed goes aloft while Helen and the tong watch the house they suspect is spy headquarters. The city, hearing airplanes overhead, turns off all lights. The conspirators, believing the airplanes to be enemy bombers, shoot a rocket signal to light the arsenal, an act which betrays their guilt and indicates their whereabouts. Helen and the tong capture the spies and the real enemy bombers fly over later to find no illuminated target below. Jed and Helen then return home to be married.
Director
D. Ross Lederman
Cast
James Craig
Betty Furness
Keye Luke
Morgan Conway
Joseph Downing
Russell Hicks
Dorothy Gulliver
Honorable Wu
Dick Curtis
E. Alyn Warren
Richard Loo
Lotus Liu
Chester Gan
Philip Ahn
Ed Laughton
Louis Vincenot
James B. Leong
Stanley Brown
John Dilson
Lester Dorr
Victor Wong
Beatrice Curtis
Beatrice Blinn
Estelle Etterre
Eddie Fetherston
Tom Lee
Matty Roubert
Cy Schindell
Walter Merrill
Eugene Anderson Jr.
Al Herman
Gene Stone
Bruce Wong
Lola Jensen
Eric Alden
Bob Evans
Helen Foster
Henry Taylor
Arthur Stuart Hull
Cyril Ring
Reginald Simpson
Bert Moorhouse
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The above plot summary was largely based on a synopsis contained in the file for the film in the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library. The working title of this film was Life Is Cheap. A Hollywood Reporter production chart lists John Tyrrell and Cy Kendall in the cast, but their appearance in the released film has not been confirmed.
