This film played in Singapore (and elsewhere in "Nanyang"?). Mad Fire Mad Love was filmed entirely in and around Hawaii. Yet it too has "gone missing" from history, even in Robert Schmitt's gem, Hawaii in the Movies 1898-1959, published
by the Hawaiian Historical Society in 1988. My efforts to elicit interest in Eng from that and local Hawaiian historical centres has so far yielded no information even though this rare colour feature involved considerable local resources in Honolulu and elsewhere in Hawaii - as likely a place as any for rediscovering this film.
Esther Eng (1914-1970) was one of Chinese cinema's greatest female directors - oddly, an American too. This is one of her ten lost films (nine of them as director). For a long time, I've been developing a project on Esther Eng's life and would love to hear of anything new on her films via frankmondial@yahoo.com . See also www.estherengstory.com on this only known American woman directing commercial movies between the Hollywood careers of Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino. Also a famous New York restaurateur, hers is one of the strangest disappearing acts in film history. Central/South America offers reasonable hope for rediscovering movies that she distributed there (maybe her own too) in the 1940s, including to Havana, Cuba. Detailed portraits of her appear in "China Daily" (HK English edition) of 23/24 January 2010 and "Women of China" (Beijing, June 2006, English edition). See http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/2010-01/23/content_9365379.htm
Frank Bren, 23.02.2010
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