UK, USA, 1960
75m (Germany, Norway), 80m – 35mm, colour
mono, English
A British/American adventure film with some horror elements directed by Anthony Bushell.
Plot Summary
In Hong Kong, 1900, the Red Dragon Tong kill Helena, the daughter of a British sailor, Captain Jackson. Seeking vengeance, Jackson begins to track down the shadowy organisation via one of its ‘collectors'. Eventually he traces the gang to its lair but is captured by its evil leader, Chung King and is tortured. He is rescued by an undercover anti-tong agent but is a marked man, uncovering Tong corruption in even the upper echelons of the East India Trading Company.
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Anthony Bushell
© MCMLX [1960] by Merlin Film Company Ltd
Columbia Pictures Corporation presents a Hammer Film Productions|Hammer Film production
Executive Producer: Michael Carreras
Produced by: Kenneth Hyman
Associate Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys
Written by: Jimmy Sangster
Director of Photography: Arthur Grant
Supervising Editor: James Needs
Editor: Eric Boyd-Perkins
Music Composed by: James Bernard
Sound Recordist: Jock May
Wardrobe Mistress: Molly Arbuthnot
Make-up Artist: Roy Ashton
Hair Stylist: Frieda Steiger
Production Designer: Bernard Robinson
Cast
Christopher Lee (Tong leader)
Yvonne Monlaur (Lee)
Geoffrey Toone (Captain Jackson Sale)
Marne Maitland (Tong resistance fighter posing as beggar)
Brian Worth (District Commissioner Harcourt)
Ewen Solon (Tang Hao, Tong leader's aide)
Roger Delgado (Tang Hao)
Richard Leech (Police Inspector Bob Dean)
Charles Lloyd Pack (Dr Fu Chao)
Marie Burke (Maya)
Barbara Brown (Helena Sale)
Burt Kwouk (Mr Ming)
Alternative Titles
L'Empreinte du dragon rouge – France
Geheimbund Hongkong – Germany (television)
Terror der Tongs – Germany
El terror de los tongs – Spain
Il terrore dei tongs – Italy
References
Periodicals
- The Daily Cinema no.8510 (15 September 1961) p.11 – review
- Dark Terrors no.18 (May 2002) pp.45-47 – illustrated article (Hammer goes east: The Terror of the Tongs by Keith Dudley)
- Kine Weekly vol.518 no.2753 (7 July 1960) p.17 – note (Hammer planning nine off-beat films a year)
- Kine Weekly no.2815 (14 September 1961) p.29 – credits, review
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.28 no.334 (November 1961) p.158 – credits, review
Books
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Horror by Phil Hardy (ed.) pp.137-138
- The Christopher Lee Filmography by Tom Johnson and Mark A. Miller pp.100-103
- The Columbia Checklist: The Feature Films, Cartoons, Serials and Short Subjects of Columbia Pictures, 1922-1988 by Len D. Martin p.244
- Columbia Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1928-1982 by Michael R. Pitts pp.240-241
- English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby pp.100, 101, 103, 150
- Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby p.96
- Feature Films, 1960-1969: A Filmography of English-language and Major Foreign-language United States Releases by Harris M. Lentz III p.459
- The Films of Christopher Lee by Robert W. Pohle Jr and Douglas C. Hart pp.81-82
- Good Versus Evil in the Films of Christopher Lee by Paul Leggett pp.48-60; 167-168
- Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company by Howard Maxford pp.791-793 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- Lord of Misrule (new edition) by Christopher Lee p.192
- The Hammer Story by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes pp.54-55 – illustrated article
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith p.210
