China Smith

Season

1952

USA

7.2

Con artist and private eye China Smith works out of a bar in Singapore, roaming Asia in search of beautiful women (who like his tough style) and quick money. His nemeses are the friendly British Inspector and the scheming "empress."

Episode List

S1 • E1

The Bamboo Coffin

A Singapore rubber company hires China Smith to track down an escaped prisoner who once lead a gang of thieves dealing in stolen rubber. Smith determines that a manager of one of the company's rubber plantations may be involved in the thefts, but when the man is found shot in the back, he must cast his net wider to capture his quarry.

S1 • E2

Celestial Pebbles

Hired to recover stolen jewels, Smith begins to suspect that the owner has withheld information about the theft.

S1 • E3

The Corpse with the Purple Ear

S1 • E4

Cruise to Colombo

S1 • E5

Curse of the River Gods

S1 • E6

Devil-in-the-Godown

Con artist/private eye, China Smith, investigates the murder of a newspaperman. The investigation leads him to a brotherhood of assassins and an arson-for-hire ring.

S1 • E7

Dynasty of the Dead

S1 • E8

Espionage Express

S1 • E9

High Sea

A Chinese gambler is accused of throwing a man off the deck of the SS Calebar. China Smith investigates and in the process he encounters a dancer and her knife throwing husband as well as a ship's officer with a secret.

S1 • E10

The Jade Trap

S1 • E11

Jungle Dragon

A young woman hires China Smith to find her fiance after he has been banished, by his family, to Malaya.

S1 • E12

The Kaprielian Cipher

As China Smith attempts to compile a dossier on fabulous Max Kaprielien, he discovers that the man has many sides and is surrounded by mystery.

S1 • E13

Killer in the Kampong

A tin company hires China Smith to negotiate "tribute" with a local bandit leader who has raised his rates for not attacking company trucks eight-fold in recent months. When Smith penetrates the bandits' stronghold and learns that the outlaws have made no such demands. It's up to the beachcomber to discover where the money is disappearing.

S1 • E14

Kris of Death

The British army hires China Smith to investigate rumors that one of their officers has excepted a hefty bribe from the Singapore underworld. Smith is accused of murder by the colonial forces when the colonel he suspects of accepting the bribe is found murdered and the crooks suspect China of stealing their $40,000 from the dead officer.

S1 • E15

Moon Flower

China Smith gives his friend Kwong money for his debts the man insists on giving Smith something in return. The adventurer is presented with Moon Flower, Kwong's lovely daughter, but Smith is at a loss of what to do with his gift.

S1 • E16

My Ship Has a Golden Keel

Smith takes a job for Leora, a new singer at Julio Frontera's night club. She wants her suitcases, left on a yacht she fled. Smith cons Frontera out of a dinner jacket and boards the yacht as a party guest. He's caught by the owner, Endicott,and a mercenary steward named Choy. He escapes without the suitcases, but Choy has agreed to help him if he comes back later that night. There are two betrayals and some waving of guns because the suitcases might contain gold. The show ends with Smith and a tippling piano player called "Cutty" singing a duet about wished-for fortunes--"A Ship with a Golden Keel."

S1 • E17

Pagoda in the Jungle

S1 • E18

The Phantom Sampan

Peaceable Smith mugs a sailor. He rifles the man's wallet, then gives it to Inspector Hobson as found property. The inspector tells him a cautionary tale of another Singapore rapscallion, a river pirate who drove Straits Settlement Rubber almost to ruin; the firm survived only because a businessman, Wu Chow, bought into it. But the elusive pirate found it wise to retire from Hobson's jurisdiction--Smith take note! Straits Settlement, though, wants Smith to deal with a new problem. The company needs Wu Chow's vote for "the S and M merger" but he's paralyzed by fear. Smith knows how "The Collector" frightens wealthy Chinese in Singapore, who pay to protect their relatives in Red China. But Wu Chow has no relatives there. Hobson's story of the pirate and his phantom sampan explain the situation. The Collector inadvertently dispenses justice. Hobson proves to be a very good shot.

S1 • E19

Port of Thieves

S1 • E20

Shanghai Clipper

A man disappears from an airplane. Did he jump or was he pushed? Why did witnesses see nothing? Was he carrying a map of a fabulous oil discovery that is now missing? China Smith is hired to find answers.

S1 • E21

Straight Settlement

China Smith is accused of stealing a shipment of drugs that are necessary to save the life of a wealthy, dying, dying, Singapore man.

S1 • E22

The Tanaka Archive

S1 • E23

The Wondrous Funeral of Sergeant Ko

S1 • E24

Wreath of Poppies

China Smith investigates any deaths that all have in common the use of Tiger Tonic herbs.

S1 • E25

Year of the Phoenix

China Smith has been hired to find a man missing from his London family. Smith believes the missing man may be a rum soaked derelict that he has located.