Black Dragons (1942)
1h 4m | PG-13
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.
Director: William Nigh
Studio: Banner Productions
Genre: Horror, War
Video: 720p
Cast
Bela Lugosi
as Dr. Melcher/ Monsieur Colomb
Clayton Moore
as FBI Agent Richard ‘Dick’ Martin
Joan Barclay
as Alice Saunders
George Pembroke
as Dr. William Saunders
Robert Frazer
as Amos Hanlin
Robert Fiske
as Phillip Wallace
Reviews
If this isn't a piece of propaganda, then I shall never know what it. A secret Japanese society (think Yakuza meets Fu Manchu) gets the Nazis to send an evil doctor to substitute some important American industrialists whose future role will be to sabotage arms production plants during the war (that we didn't know we were going to have yet...!). Those devious Japanese, though, double-cross "Dr. Melcher" (Bela Lugosi) and imprison him so he cannot divulge the secret identities to anyone. Needless to say, he escapes and exacts revenge of the fifth columnists. The deaths of such high profile citizens naturally engage the attention of the FBI - and it's a race against time. It'd make a hell of a lot more sense if you saw the last ten minutes first; as the piecing together of this tale takes quite a bit of cerebral effort - not sure it was quite worth it.