wait, is this 1930s B movie occult propaganda?
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2023
- Anna May Wong takes the lead role in the 1930s crime thriller "When Were You Born." In this 1938 b movie, Wong plays Mei Lei Ming, a skilled astrologer who finds herself in the middle of a puzzling mystery surrounding the murder of a prominent San Francisco businessman. Armed with her knowledge of astrology, Mei Lei helps the local police force root out the killer.
What makes this movie all the more intriguing is the fact that it was co-written by the renowned 20th-century mystic, Manly P. Hall. Throughout the film, Hall's script features insights into zodiac signs and astrology. Anna May Wong's Mei Lei, employs her astrological expertise to analyze the suspects' birth charts and in the process tries to convince the audience that there are actually practical applications to astrology.
"When Were You Born" offers is a unique film. However, with a runtime of just over an hour, some may find it occasionally repetitive.
🍿You can watch WHEN WERE YOU BORN here ➡️ • When Were You Born - F...
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Kudos to Warner Bros. for not forcing Wong to affect an accent for this particular movie, her deep, authoritative english sounds spot-on for one born in the good ol' U.S.A., as it should!
Exactly!
Warner Bros. is definitely my favorite studio from the Golden Age Of Cinema.
She was a daughter of a Chinese immigrant family, but Anna May Wong was from California. I don’t know if she spoke Chinese as well as she spoke English.
She did speak Chinese, but not Mandarin. She also trained in elocution in England to get rid of her Californian accent in English.
An excellent actor who sadly never got her due at the time.
Anna May Wong was a wonderful actress. It is very sad to see the path her life took . She died as a result of alcoholism. She never reached her full potential, she felt Hollywood discriminated against her as an Asian woman.
She was probably right.
Thanks for this!
Indeed, her career was extremely limited by racism and discrimination. She had such a presence on screen, and they never fully capitalized on that. The big dummies!
@@CinemaCities1978 The real let-down in this movie was they never told us what happened to the 'Indian Hemp!'
Of course she was. It's a freaking shame. She was highly talented and beautiful and didn't reach her potential. Anna should've got the role in The Good Earth over Luise Rainer. Rainer was a fine actress, but c'mon...
I love 💗 Anne May wonny Don Australia
@@waynej2608 she would have been perfect for the part. Unbelievable snub.
One of the great losses of classic Hollywood is the underuse of Anna May Wong. That she didn't get the lead role in The Good Earth shows the extent of the absurdity of racism. I didn't know about this movie. But I wonder if they turned Wong's character into a psychic and made a Horror/Detective genre mix if it would have had more success. The premise is absurd in any case, but more Anna May Wong in a lead role would have been worth the absurdity.
I totally agree with you. She was great. Another by product of the nasty Hollywood studio system.
My horoscope told me to watch a certain cinema channel today.
Manly was right! That's all the proof I need! ☺
Big come down for Anna May Wong from Shanghai Express. A bit tragic
From the early 30s on her film output became very spotty.
@@CinemaCities1978 She's a very interesting character
I know she is very highly regarded by many, but her performance here is flat, as is her delivery of the (admittedly stilted) dialogue.
I don't believe the film is genuinely occult propaganda; that title is more tongue-in-cheek and clickbait than anything else. However, I do think that Manly P. Hall saw the film and its proposed sequels as a means to enlighten the public and spark interest into what he believed was the power of astrology.
...The future is foretold in our (movie) stars! 👀
He was certainly a big promoter of the occult as were many on the fringes of Hollywood at the time (and still today)
i would like some occult propaganda or more movies like this!!
What were the sequels
I should definitely watch this one. Thanks for posting.😎
Hope you enjoy it!
I love Anna May Wong and I love this film, as silly as it is. It’s just a fun romp, and Wong is believable in the role of the horoscope investigator. Glad you chose to talk about it. I don’t think anyone else gives it the time of day. Review more Anna May Wong!! Check out Impact, if you haven’t already. She has a small but important role.
I agree. It's so silly but it's fun and I love it too.
Where were Keys Luke, Richard Loo and Victor Sen Young when you need them!?!?
they could've done an amazing cross over film
They were at a BBQ at Philip Ahn's pad.
Any Anna May Wong movie is worth a look. In this particular case, the title and the excessive emphasis on the astrology took away from the plot such as it was and the dialogue. If they had concentrated on improving those and perhaps placing Mr Hall at the end instead of the beginning, it might have been more successful.
Since the script was co written by Hall, astrology was always going to be the main focus of the plot.
@@CinemaCities1978 Yes, it was going to be there but it could have been woven in much more smoothly and organically. As it was, they kept abruptly pushing it in your face.
Ooooh, looks like a fun one!
It takes itself very seriously but I think that 's what makes even more fun.
@@CinemaCities1978 Nice! I like that 😀
I just watched it - that was fun! A tad bit unrealistic perhaps, it was amusing!
Luise Rainer even won an Oscar for her performance in The Good Earth. Adding injury to insult?🤔
She was great in it, but, really?
"I've got a good few years left, ha ha"
Wong: "YOU'VE GOT A FEW DAYS LEFT" 😂 Get em, Anna May! Someone should've remade this, added another 20 minutes, released it in the early 1970s.
She also tells him to get his affairs in order 😂 😂
The shade!
I love your videos, and I’d have never guessed I’d see something by MP Hall. That is really wild!
This film gives us insight into how big of a personality he was at the time. They gave him 5 minutes to open the film. It is indeed wild.
@@CinemaCities1978 Giving him 5 minutes also could be padding the film to make it feature length.
Looks great ! I'll check it out tonight. Thanks.
in the 1930's, the first 20 minutes of the movie could be a podcast
best quote of this: "it didn't".
Manley P. Hall was a high ranking mason and wrote about his occult beliefs in "The Secret Teachings of All Ages".
The Philosophical Research Society he founded is still there, operating today. I saw a mentalist friend perform there last year.
I need to get back to LA. I want to attend a mentalist show at the Philosophical Research Society, that sounds fascinating
I always felt that Anna May Wong should have had bigger roles; she has a certain presence that would have played well in more important films.
Thanks for sharing this one. I took your advice and stayed away from drinking at title drops... for that, my liver thanks you too.
This sounds like such a hoot! With the amazing Anna May Wong and an opportunity to see at least one Lane sister, I am going to check this one out. Thanks for the heads up on this one.
It's a wild one!
@@CinemaCities1978 I just watched this and it was such campy fun although, personally, I thought the monkey did it.😁
This is certainly interesting! Havent't seen it yet. Another one of the crime genre that featured astrology was "Thirteen Women" with Myrna Loy as a very badass adept of astrologer Swami Yogadachi. That I enjoyed very much, albeit it's too short.
oh Myrna was deliciously sinister in that one but...those girls should've been nicer to her.
Anna May Wong is such a fascinating anomaly of early Hollywood films. And excluding those Piccadilly is such a fascinating silent nobody who enjoys them even seems to talk about.
I just looked up Piccadilly (it's on UA-cam) and I'm watching it tonight. Thank you for the recommendation!
Thanks for this great recommendation! I want to watch this asap. But, I'll check my astrology chart first to make sure this a good time to do so.
Manly P Hall would approve!
40 seconds into your video, I've added the movie to my 'watch later'.
Co written by Many P Hall ?!? Oh my fairy godmother.
Astrology is dope! I always check to see if they cast the same sign as the real-life person they play in biopics. Buddy comedies often have opposite signs, one has what the other doesn’t!
I was really hoping they'd cast the film with actors who shared the same sign as their character. I think that would've been a cool little publicity stunt. Except maybe not so cool for the actor who played the killer😂
Anna Mae Wong?! I’m in!🍿
This sounds like a hoot, and I'll definitely watch. Have you seen 1944's, 'Between Two Worlds'? I starred Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker, and John Garfield, among an ensemble cast. I hate to give anything away as to plot, but for some reason, 'BTW' came to mind while watching this. :)
Looks like a "hoot!" 😸 Thanks!
I've been a fan of this old film for years.
It's a fun watch
The butler did it!
That was a fun little movie. It's a shame it didn't spawn a series.
Thanks!
Thank you so much!!!!! 😊
I haven't seen this one. I'll have to watch it. My mother told me I was named after Jeffrey Lynn when I asked about where they came up with the name from since there were no Jeffreys in the family. I try to watch his movies when I can find them.
Your mom had a bit of a crush on Mr. Lynn. This was actually his first credited role.
@@CinemaCities1978 The family story is that everyone was positive I was going to be a girl. As there were no ultrasounds or other modern technology in 1956 it was a total surprise when I was born. They said they never even discussed boy’s names. My dad didn’t want a junior and they finally finally decided on my mom’s favorite actor.
Classic movies at childbirth seem to run in the family. Fast forward to 1985 when my first grandson was born. Casablanca was playing in the labor room. The next time my son and daughter in law and new grandson came over they asked to watch Casablanca so they could enjoy it. Made a Bogart fan out of my son and he borrowed my dvd and BluRay collection.
Whoah, there’s a full fledged movie starring Anna May Wong? And not as a villain?
She was also in a movie where she helps a Federal agent break up an illegal smuggling ring.
This movie is fantastic! By the the end, everyone believes in astrology. With her voice, Ms Ming could convince me too.
Anyway, thank you CC for uncovering this gem.
👍
Haha! "When were you born?" Will try and squeeze this one in somewhere for the novelty of it. Great breakdown, really interesting that Wong was passed over in favour of white actors for The Good Earth. They were still doing that shit in the 70s with things like Kung Fu! Crazy. Enjoyed watching this, thanks CC!
It's such a strange film. Very silly, yet it takes itself seriously. There's an actor in yellowface in this film as well, which I don't understand because they could've easily cast a Chinese actor in the role of Gow.
I don't believe in astrology (which is typical of Pisces), but last night's fortune cookie did predict I'd be receiving information about an important question that concerns many! I gotta cut down on the fried rice.
Manly P. Hall is no Criswell, but this was a fun movie. It is a shame that Ms. Wong didn't get a series for this chatacter.
Miss Wong doesn’t have an accent, but there’s something in her speech that sounds atypical for an American.
I enjoyed this film. I felt bad for the characters and actors that mentioned WW1 because they thought that couldn't happen again
My question is: "What happened to all that Indian Hemp?"
the cops took care of it 😉
Oh my, what a weird idea for a movie... I'm tempted to say, only in Hollywood! Although maybe this movie had some Hollywood influence; the 1939 film Charlie Chan at Treasure Island also concerns a psychic, as well as a telepathy act--the psychic is shown as fake but the telepathy is shown as real, per the film. I once took a class on Tarot cards, and the teacher referred frequently to one of Hall's books, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, which I bought and have never been able to get through. You can find some of Hall's recorded lectures on UA-cam; he has that oddly precise Mid-Atlantic accent when he speaks, as in this movie--wonder if he took elocution lessons? After seeing these clips of him here, I now can only think of him in tandem with The Amazing Criswell, who also had a bit of a Hollywood career.
I'd have loved to see this movie go to series.
I lost track of the plot, but Anna May Wong's character was weirdly compelling. Her confidently spitting out all her observations made me think of a Sherlock Holmes movie, but instead of Holmes making his deductions with suave condescension, we have her making her astrological pronouncements with unassailable confidence. Fun, if insane (well, she does say a lot of nice things about Leos, so maybe I should take back that 'insane.' 😉).
Such a strange film from a different time. Then again, it's a B-movie so anything goes.
The reason that Anna May Wong was passed over for The Good Earth was because they had already cast Paul Muni, a white actor, in the lead role. So even though he was playing an Asian character, the fact that he was white would have violated the Hays Code's strict anti miscegenation rules.
Miscegenation applies to those having relations together, not working together...that Muni and Wong were portrayed as Chinese would have been acceptable.
While racism could certainly been a factor, pairing stars Paul Muni and Louise Rainer, (who had just won an Oscar for, "The Great Ziegfeld", was like pairing De Niro and Meryl Streep today. The main color Louise B. Meyer focused on was green.
@@diego-search Yes, but the Hays code specified that you could not show a mixed race couple in a relationship on screen. So if they had a white actor and an Asian actress playing a couple in a relationship that would have qualified as miscegenation. Basically, you couldn't do it even if it was pretend.
@@tremorsfan The fact that they were both playing Chinese people wouldn't be a problem. The Code only bans sex between black and white, not other races.
OMG! I had no idea Manly Hall was in movies - he is still remembered in occult circles (don't ask me how I know) for his big book The Secret Teachings of All Ages. He seems very charismatic and very Hollywood Mystic here (see Criswell Predicts!)
The movie sounds terrible!
But, it's a glorious kind of terrible. The movie really wants us to believe in the power of astrology 😂
@@CinemaCities1978 I believe you, but I don't even have enough time for all the GOOD movies
I have a friend named Margaret Lindsay (not the one in the film). I’ll have to tell her about this movie.
Mr Manley Hall -- who here intro'd "the Strangest of the Sciences" -- may have been an inspiration for Ed Wood's unforgettable Criswell?
Criswell was a well known show biz psychic, but I think his reputation was that his predictions never came true.
@@CinemaCities1978 My goodness! Well, for better or worse, he's immortal now!
This Hall fellow was kinda interesting. His “spiritual path” cycled him through a lot of the more esoteric brands of Christianity, plus Freemasonry. His writings influenced such people as Ronald Reagan.
I spent some time researching him, and I find him fascinating. He was very much a part of the culture, speaking all over the country, and his books were bestsellers.
Manley was a genius and his classic tome "The Secret Teachings of all Ages" was and still is a remarkable accomplishment for a young man in his twenties. Like a lot of esoteric subjects, this one does not translate very well on the silver screen, but is still worth the time especially since it qualifies as a noire B movie... P.S. How did I know you were a Scorpio? Cheers!
I've seen a few other videos from the Manly Hall Archive channel and I think those do a much better job of communicating his teachings/philosophy. This one is very clunky and a bit TOO much, but still an overall interesting watch.
I don’t know if he was necessarily a genius…I mean, astrology can’t actually solve crimes…but this film does look like a lot of fun!
Hey, I’m crabby too.
did you also feel called out by Ms. Ming😂
4:34 He's really good, that's exactly what I'd want. Spooky.
HA! Oh brother, that was a hoot! YUP!....that truly was silly but immensely enjoyable. Seems to me that the object of the film was to sell the audience of the day on astrology. Anna May Wong's character was SO damn annoying, not to mention insulting. I felt like saying to her, "Do you ever talk about anything else, Mei Lei? Can we drop the astrology bit for just five minutes?!" She's the kind of bore, and we've ALL known someone like this, that shows up at a party, you see her enter from across the room and turn your back, just HOPING she doesn't spot you.
Anyway, on a more serious vein, I share my fellow posters' sympathies re Anna May Wong. In addition to "The Good Earth", she was also screwed out of the main female lead in the Lon Chaney film, "Mr. Wu" from 1927. For those of you who admire silent films, I recommend it. It's a really good story. However, Anna May should have had the role of Lon Chaney's (Mr. Wu) daughter, Nang Ping. Instead, it went to French actress Renee Adoree while Anna May was relegated to playing a friend and lady in waiting to Nang Ping. There's a really good print of the film here on You Tube if anyone is interested. Anyway, thanks for posting this, Sydney. It was offbeat and enjoyable.
Wonderful costumes, handsome men and a monkey is enough for me to watch.
Lolz, I'm also a lunar tic.
You’d think a Chinese astrologer would use the Chinese zodiac, not the Western one, but oh well …
I’m so early you’d think I was an Aires. Manley P Hall looks so 1930’s snake oil. This does look like a thinly veiled, maybe totally unveiled, astrology vehicle. Have to admit my first thought was Battlefield Earth proselytizing for Scientology (I didn’t see it but that doesn’t mean I can’t judge it).
it's totally unveiled 😂
You’re an Aires? Que bueno! Or Buenos.
@@davidhull1481 No, soy un Taurus. Obstinado como el toro.
It interesting that Ana May Wong has one of the worst fake Chinese accents in movie history.
Its a mediocre little curiosity only made interesting by the appearance of Ms. Wong. Its too bad she couldn't get better roles than this.
Well, wasn't that a stinker. Thank God for the monkey without whom the murder never would have been solved. Anyway, more ammunition to tease my astrology following friends with. Thank you for your wonderfully entertaining channel.
The little monkey was the real MVP. 😂
Anna May Wong's character reminds me of the 1970s when astrology was at a fad level, of those annoying people really INTO astrology, where every sentence/reference is astrology related...."what sign are you..." "...goes to figure, you're an aries..."