0
0

It is prior to the commencement of World War II, and Japan's fiendish Black Dragon Society is hatching an evil plot with the Nazis. They instruct a brilliant scientist, Dr. Melcher, to travel to Japan on a secret mission. There he operates on six Japanese conspirators, transforming them to resemble six American leaders. The actual leaders are murdered and replaced with their likeness and Dr. Melcher is condemned to a lifetime of imprisonment so the secret may die with him.

Black Dragons is a 1942 American film directed by William Nigh and starring Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, and George Pembroke. The cast includes Clayton Moore (later famous as the Lone Ranger), who plays a handsome detective. The Black Dragon Society also appears in Let’s Get Tough! a 1942 East Side Kids film made by the same team of writer Harvey Gates and producer Sam Katzman.

Plot
Prior to the beginning of World War II, the Nazis, at the request of Japan’s Black Dragon Society, sends Doctor Melcher to Japan to transform six Japanese into identical likenesses of six prominent Americans. The Americans are done away with and Melcher, on the orders of High Dragon Yakhamea, is imprisoned so his secret will die with him. In his cell, Melcher switches places with the soon-to-be-released Colomb and, when he is freed, follows the six Japanese to America, where they have assumed the positions of the industrialists and are causing sabotage in the Monogram defense plants that didn’t exist yet as the war hadn’t started. One by one Melcher kills the impostors, despite the fact they are performing for-free work for his employer Adolph, and dumps their bodies on the steps of the Japanese Embassy, which still existed as the war hadn’t started. FBI Chief Colton and agent Dick Martin finally piece together what the five murdered men had in common—aha, a visit to Japan—and stake out the sixth man as bait for Melcher.

Cast
Bela Lugosi as Dr. Melcher aka Monsieur Colomb / Cell Prisoner
Joan Barclay as Alice Saunders
George Pembroke as Dr. Bill Saunders
Clayton Moore as Dick Martin
Robert Frazer as Amos Hanlin
Edward Peil, Sr. as Philip Wallace (credited as Edward Piel Sr.)
Robert Fiske as Ryder
Irving Mitchell as John Van Dyke
Kenneth Harlan as FBI Chief Colton
Max Hoffman Jr. as Kearney
Frank Melton as FBI Agent
Joseph Eggenton as Stevens
I. Stanford Jolley as The Dragon (credited as Stanford Jolley)
Jack Cheatham as Policeman (uncredited)
Jack Chefe as Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
Bernard Gorcey as The Cabbie (uncredited)
Jack Holmes as Industrialist (uncredited)
Ethelreda Leopold as Girl at Party (uncredited)
Carl M. Leviness as Industrialist (uncredited)

0
Be the first to review “Black Dragons”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

There are no reviews yet.