The eyes rolled when Bronx born Sylvia Sidney was cast in "Madam Butterfly", co-starring Cary Grant, and in this cheesy one reeler, he's with a presumed real Chinese woman (Anna Chang),born right near the Brooklyn Navy yard according to her character, one who translates "scram" from Chinese into English, then breaks into a song and dance while looking like an Asian Betty Boop. Certain offenses in structure of early films can be forgiven as a symbol of their times, but this is beyond any element of good taste. Something tells me that this was considered outlandish and offensive the moment it introduced the Chinese version of Crosby and showed the difference in Grant and Chang's height.

It was okay, but it wasn't very good. I didn't much care for it myself. Singapore Sue! She wasn't that hot. It was kind of a musical if you know what I mean, but quite a short one too, at that. I guess you could call it a musical because it had lots of music in it. Well at least she did sing a song, one song.

I picked up this movie short, with 7 other titles, at a library discard sale and I'm so glad I did. "Singapore Sue" took me by surprise as I got to see a young and up-coming Cary Grant and a delightful Asian actress Anna Chang. You can see the "raw" Cary as he portrayed a sailor looking for love. His character looks so odd compared to the way we think of him today. But the most charming part to me was seeing Anna Chang sing and dance around in her little outfit that was risqué for the period. She and the other Chinese singer/actor, I believe to be Joe Wong (the only other Chinese name in the credits),were great! A very charming and entertaining short film not typical for the period because of the use of prominent Chinese actors in an American film.

Kino Video "Rhapsodies in Black & Blue" vol. 4, VHS with other musical shorts including Eddie Cantor, Rudy Vallee, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Merman and more. If anyone has any of the other three in the series, let me know!