Remake
This is almost a word for word remake of Mr. Wong in Chinatown(1939). It's not quite as entertaining, however.
shareIt isn't just almost word-for-word, they even used the EXACT SAME SETS and CAMERA SET-UPS! It's like re-staging a live play and only the actors have changed. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
shareCaptain J... Captain K...
Well, we don't see the attempt to blow up Wong, I mean Chan, done by Jackson, I mean Kelso...
I like the very different delivery of the detective who plays the Street role here; "There'd be flash light bulbs all over the place", so casual compared to the harried delivery of Grant Withers. "I think the dumb act is just a gag", is another one... very different and unconvincing delivery compared to Street.
Oh, and we never see Chan say "Tea for the inspector, quickly!", to which the detective replies, "Tea! That's all I need!"
In Docks of New Orleans they remake Mr Wong Detective and one funny change is how in the first movie, Street asks someone some questions and the punch line is that he reveals himself to be the "office manager" of the murder victim, Dayton, the head of the chemical company. We don't often hear of "office managers" in any film, but this shows that this person had the authority to be in the victim's office so he had this purpose there, Street was behaving as if he was suspicious in knowing these things about the office and then was wrong-footed.
In Docks of New Orleans, this same "office manager" is brought up in the conversation between the three principals (before the first murder victim dies, Lafontaine instead of Dayton in the first film) about the agreement to deal with what happens "when one of us dies", and one of them says, "Your office manager, Thompson, I don't trust him!" and the other says "Why don't you fire him and make sure". I don't know but I have never heard of people in a film argue about an office manager being untrustworthy except for here!