Madam Slender Plum (1967)
Before director Lo Wei helped to discover Bruce Lee and the king of kung-fu comedy Jackie Chan, in Madam Slender Plum, Lo perpetuates the career of yet another Shaw's non-action, femme fatale starlet; the sleek and sexy, puppy-eyed Eurasian Jenny Hu. It's a melodrama with a touch of murder-mystery in the vein of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie where Diana Chang plays the mother with Jenny playing her oldest daughter.
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Just perfect...
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Blistering performances.
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
This film from the Shaw Brothers stars the sexy Diana Chang as Xiumei, a lady who makes good as a nightclub owner after her husband leaves her and her daughter Lilian (the Eurasian beauty Jenny Hu) in disgrace. Her husband left because he made bad investments and their younger daughter tragically died in a fall. Xiumei pulls herself up by her bootstraps and becomes successful and re-meets an old school friend who wants to be with her. He eventually has designs, since Xiumei still pines for her husband, for Lilian, who is interested, since he pays the attention to her her busy, successful mom can't. You already know what happens to the guy, the first scene has him being killed in a struggle with Xiumei. But, is that how it really happened? You may be surprised. I've seen one other Jenny Hu film, "Love Without End" and that was as dramatic as this one. She was only about 20 when she did this role, and she is a pretty good actress. Diana Chang is as good, she is likable in her role. If you like melodrama with a splash of murder mystery, this is good viewing. One caution to you, though: If you buy the DVD, please stop yourself from looking at the picture on the back of the case. Inexplicably, they're giving away the mystery! Don't look at it if you want to see the whole film. Its a good old fashioned mystery which moves along fairly well. I think you'll like it.