User Reviews

Mr. Wu is most renowned for Lon Chaney's makeup, but I'd have to say that after watching it the real star is Renee Adoree as Wu Nang Ping, Mr. Wu's daughter, and the only family he's had since his wife died in Nang Ping's infancy. Mr. Wu was a Mandarin raised learning the ways of the west, and since his tutor in western philosophy since his childhood, James Muir (Claude King), remained with him until his middle age, you'd have to believe there was a bond of friendship here, just not one of teacher and student. That's part of what makes what follows to be somewhat hard to believe when Wu basically stereotypes all Westerners as evil after receiving a terrible shock.

Right before Nang Ping's arranged marriage to another Mandarin, a destiny she readily accepts, she accidentally meets the son of a wealthy British family (Ralph Forbes as Basil Gregory) they both become infatuated with one another and Nang Ping becomes pregnant with his child. I've seen some summaries of this film saying that the British boy uses the girl and then abandons her, but when they both realize it will never work due to insurmountable cultural differences on both sides and must say goodbye forever, you can see the pain in the boy's face as much as Nang Ping's. Nang Ping lies and tells Basil that she really isn't pregnant so that he will go back to his family.

The problem is she really is pregnant, and worse, her father has found out what has been going on and with whom. To put it mildly, Mr. Wu does not take this news well. He decides to wreak havoc on the Gregory family by making Mrs. Gregory choose between her two children - either the death of her son or the rape of her daughter by one of Wu's servants. One thing I thought strange here - in spite of the fact that Chinese society at that time was a male dominated society, Mr. Wu chooses to deal with Mrs. Gregory, not Mr. Gregory when presenting this horrible choice. Wu may be blinded by fury, but he could at least see from an earlier meeting that Mr. Gregory was a complete dolt (think of a silent film version of Homer Simpson folks) and that Mrs. Gregory was the more sensitive and intelligent of the two, and therefore would be more devastated by having to choose between her two children.

I'll let you watch and see how this all plays out. Renee Adoree really does shine as Nang Ping, and we have very few performances of hers that survive by which to judge. She fell ill with tuberculosis in 1930 and died in 1933, so she has only small parts in the few talkies in which she participated. Ironically, the best known member of the cast today besides Lon Chaney is Anna May Wong as Loo Song, Mr. Wu's bride that lives only a year after their marriage and dies in childbirth, thus she hardly has any screen time.

Mr. Wu is easily one of Lon Chaney's weaker films but it contains one of the most inspired premises he was ever apart of. I was somewhat afraid of the film walking in thinking it would be socially backward and racist to Asians but I found that the film actually wasn't. It is a story about how the laws of each culture can come back and haunt people if they follow them to the keel. Wu means well but he knows the world is growing smaller and that the laid back culture of the east will effect how he can raise his daughter. Wu's daughter falls in love with a Westerner. Despite the social changes Wu expects his daughter Nang Ping to obey the laws of her fore fathers and she does despite tragic results. It is implied that Nang Ping is carrying the child of the Westerner Basil Gregory. Wu looks into his books and sees what must be done, he will have to kill his beloved daughter to save her soul. Wu is broken by the realization of what he has to do but the fact remains that he feels he must do it. Nang Ping accepts her punishment willingly and that is what makes Wu lose his honor and go mad. He decides to embrace the Western' culture of an "Eye for an Eye". Mrs Gregory shrugs off her son's playfulness and this is something Wu cannot accept. Either her son dies or her daughter is to be raped.

I actually found that I really liked this film despite the performance of Lon Chaney. He's not bad in the picture but he is not up to par of what we would expect. All in all I feel Mr. Wu is a better showcase of Chaney the make-up magician than Chaney the actor. The Make-Up is incredible for the picture, Grandfather Wu graces the screen for a mere five minutes but the make-up is breathtakingly real. I wish we saw more of this character because Chaney as Grandfather Wu is extraordinary. Every mannerism and motion is so life like. I can easily understand why the introduction at the beginning was included. Mr. Wu is something else, the make-up is okay but that is it. The design is the less inspired of Chaney's oriental make-up designs, he looks more like a caricature than a person. The make-up also severely limits his eyes which were one of Chaney's strongest points and it hinders his performance. Despite this however Chaney does still have a huge amount of presence as Wu and the scenes with his daughter before he murders her are very powerful.

What really amazes me is that Mr.Wu could have been interesting without Chaney. I like the premise of a culture shock a lot. The fact that we get Lon Chaney only adds icing to the cake. Wu isn't a great film but it is an entertaining one

Even though this isn't a horror movie, I feel the need to talk about it during October because it features Lon Chaney, arguably the very first horror movie star. It also features Anna May Wong in a smaller role. She's often been called the first american movie star of chinese ancestry. In this movie, Chaney plays a part that doesn't fit him, and you'll discover why almost immediately. He plays two characters actually. In the very beginning, he appears as Grandfather Wu, a chinese man who wants his grandson to study in england. Shortly after, Chaney plays a younger version of his character's grandson when he marries a girl who dies shortly after having a daughter. Many years later, Wu's daughter Nang (Renee Adoree) listens to Wu's wishes about how he wants her to marry a mandarin. She goes against her father's wishes and says she wants to marry a brit. The father of the man Nang wants to marry is bigoted against asians, but Nang wants to marry his son anyway. Nang's boyfriend tells her he must go back to britain, but Nang is already pregnant with his child. It turns out Nang can't marry him anyway because Wu already prearranged her marriage with someone from her own country. When Wu discovers his daughter is actively disobeying his wishes to marry a chinese person, he decides she must die. Wu kills Nang with a sword and then prepares to seek vengeance on her boyfriend's family as well, arguing they took away everything that was important to him. He invites some members of his family to his house and traps them by acting deceitfully. One of the women Wu captures manages to get free and stab him, after which a wraith of his daughter shows up. Wu follows the ghost and then dies. Chaney may have been the man of a thousand faces, but it's still a mystery almost a century later why MGM couldn't get a chinese actor to play a chinese character. No matter how much makeup Chaney has on, he still looks caucasian. It's probably because audiences back in the 20s were willing to see Chaney in just about any movie, and it wouldn't have made money if someone else was cast. This movie in general reminds me a lot of Hatchet Man, a little known 30s film starring Edward G Robinson. Both of these movies feature non-asian actors playing chinese characters, both feature murder as a central theme, and both use a girl as bait for the main character. This movie may not be anything remarkable, but like I wrote, silent film fans will watch Chaney in just about anything, no matter how old it is.

I again watched MR. WU (1927) and WHERE EAST IS EAST (1929) last night, expecting to find them creaky and, well, of little interest outside of Chaney's presence. I was pleasantly surprised because both films had a lot going for them (incidentally, they are both set in the Orient), though their approach to the narrative was far from subtle.

Chaney has a dual role in MR. WU - as a dying old Mandarin, and his grandson (who grows up schooled in the ways of the West, while learning never to forget the laws of his land) - and he is completely convincing as always. His daughter, curiously, is played by the French Renee' Adoree' (from THE BLACK BIRD) and, unfortunately, her attempts to essay the typical Oriental mannerisms appear somewhat overdone when seen today. Ralph Forbes is the visiting young English diplomat who apparently defiles the innocent girl, forcing Chaney to summarily execute his daughter and extract a terrible revenge on him and his entire family.

The sets and costumes are lavish and beautiful to behold, but Chaney commands attention throughout. While outwardly benign and condescending to the invading Western community, he harbors the utmost contempt for them and this comes to the fore during the film's climax. Director William Nigh (who later directed several programmers starring both Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff), unfortunately, has a tendency – shared with Tod Browning – to cut away at key moments, so that both Adoree's death and Chaney's fatal stabbing (by Forbes's brave mother, Louise Dresser) occur off-screen! The film's pace is fairly slow but picks up during the melodramatic third act, which plays out almost like a Fu Manchu caper – in which part Chaney would have been terrific!

"Mr. Wu" is yet another classic performance from the legendary Lon Chaney. In it he plays both the title character and his aged grandfather.

The aging Mr. Wu (Chaney) engages Mr. Muir (Claude King) to tutor his young son (Sonny Loy)in the ways of the western civilizations in preparation for his eventual ascension as the mandarin Wu. In an interesting moment the elder Wu is informed that his son's future bride has just been born. This is an important plot point as we will see later.

Fast forward to the younger Wu's (Chaney again) marriage as the elder Wu readies to meet his ancestors. Fast forward again to the death in child birth of Wu's young wife who has borne him a daughter. The daughter grows up to be Nang Ping (Renee Adoree) the apple of Mr. Wu's eye whom he plans to wed to another mandarin in accordance with Chinese tradition.

One day while frolicking in her lotus garden, Nang Ping meets a young European Basil Gregory (Ralph Forbes) and they fall in love. Although the word "pregnancy" is not specifically mentioned, there is no doubt what Nan Ping is whispering in Basil's ear. When Mr. Wu is informed of this forbidden liaison, we begin to see his darker side.

First, he slays the messenger who brought him the news and then prepares to follow his ancient laws in dealing with the situation. Next he plots his revenge on Basil's family, his bigoted father (Holmes Herbert), his domineering mother (Louise Dresser) and his sister (Gertrude Olmstead).

Again Chaney becomes the character(s) he plays. His depiction of the grandfather is reminiscent of his Yen Sin in "Shadows" (1921). He becomes the aging mandarin all bent over and wrinkled up in an amazing transformation. His younger Wu is the stern yet loving mandarin with those signature Chaney facial expressions. He is able to project kindness, sternness, anger, tragedy and sadistic pleasure all with his face.

Louise Dresser almost steals the movie as Mrs. Gregory as she is forced to make a life altering decision by Wu. I thought that Renee Adoree looked a little plump and suffered in comparison to the beauty of her friend and companion Loo Sung (Anna May Wong). And where was Mr. Gregory during the film's climatic scenes?

Although "Mr. Wu" is not usually counted among Lon Chaney's greatest films, it is nonetheless a riveting 90 minutes of entertainment.