Quick List: The Mr. Wong Detective Film Series (1938-1940)

In order to compete with Fox's Charlie Chan series and also, their Mr. Moto series, Monogram Pictures (who was noted for churning out multitudes of cheap films in the 1930s and 40s), picked up the rights to writer, Hugh Wiley's, magazine series of Mr. Wong mysteries. Wong is a Chinese detective, based in San Francisco and is portrayed by, legendary actor Boris Karloff. In the first film, Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), Wong is asked by Simon Dayton (John Hamilton, who is most famous for portraying Perry White, in the George Reeves version of the Adventures of Superman, 1952-1958), for his protection. Dayton fears powers from foreign countries, as well as his business partners, are all out to get him. He has a new invisible gas, that can kill quickly and he fears those seeking his discovery. Yep, Perry White is in this film. He's the first victim and it happens right off the bat, at the start of the film. Also, the actual inventor of the gas is a suspect too.

You can't enjoy these films if you try to watch them from a 21st century perspective. Remember, it is 1938. Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), is over 85 years old, but it offers a unique window into the past, like all other classic movies do. It does have those technical problems, like most films from the 1930s. It has barely any soundtrack. It does have a smaller budget than the Charlie Chan films, but Monogram did a pretty good job making their movies with reduced budgets, however they also had their stinkers. So, you really should watch Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), by inserting yourself into a 1938 frame-of-mind. It's actually a pretty good story with a cool mystery attached. It just has that Monogram Pictures quality to the film. Monogram Pictures, probably spent a little extra money on this one, in order to launch the series, but the film does have its dated, growing pains though, with a couple of lazy edits and some questionable acting, coming from the supporting cast. Karloff is good and Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), is also a pretty good mystery story.

The main American detective, Sam Street (Grant Withers), who is in charge of the case, is a jerk and thinks Wong is strange. A lot of these films remind me of Monk (2002-2009), because Tony Shalhoub's, Detective Adrian Monk, works for the same kind of brash police captain, with Ted Levine's Captain Leland Stottlemeyer. Street even has the same relationship problems with his wife/love interest, that Stottlemeyer has with his, on Monk. There also is a cool, interesting angle, about glass bombs and how Wong is able to figure out what it is. The set used for the SFPDs parking garage, seemed a little bit cramped for the squad cars trying to pull out. It was kinda' funny. Wong likes his tea too.

PMTM Grade: 6.7 (C-) = 7 IMDB

The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), should not to be confused with Bela Lugosi's, mystery film, The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), which is something completely different. In The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), the second film in the series, Wong (Boris Karloff), is teamed-up with his American detective buddy again and the director, William Nigh, did do a good job, dialing the good captain back a little this time. The rash Captain Street (Grant Withers), from the last film, Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), was slightly annoying and over-the-top. In this film he is lesser so and it's better. They must have gotten negative feedback from test audiences and made him, a little less brash. There were a couple of other repeat characters, from the first film, that were carried over to this film.

In The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), "The Eye of the Daughter of The Moon", a jewel, is the centerpiece to the story, as Wong has to try and solve, the murder of the antiques dealer (Morgan Wallace), who was in possession of it. The stories in these films are the ones, that are the beginning-roots to all the mystery movies and TV shows that came afterwards. A lot of this stuff reminded me of Columbo (1971-1978) and Monk (2002-2009). Everyone is smoking, but for Wong, that is a good thing. It helps him solve crimes, while he runs around bumming smokes off of everyone, so he can compare evidence. The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), is a little bit better than the first film, Mr. Wong, Detective (1938). This time there are more players in the mix. There are more characters from different backgrounds. It made the film more bold in its design.

PMTM Grade: 6.9 (C) = 7 IMDB

James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff), the great Chinese detective, returns for another mystery in San Francisco. This time, his case is in Chinatown. Wong is asked, once again, to protect another person (this time a beautiful, Chinese Princess, named Lin Hwa, who is portrayed by Lotus Long, who was actually in the last Mr. Wong film, as a different character). As usual, before Wong can even meet with her in his own house, she is killed. The murderer's method of killing is with poison blow darts. Wong's buddy at the San Francisco Police Dept., Inspector Street (Grant Withers), is back too. In the first two films, Withers was referred to as, Police Captain Sam Street, but that has morphed into Captain Bill Street, for this film. There also is a strong female character, with Bobbie Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), the local news reporter, who gives Street all kinds of headaches. Reynolds was the best character in the film. Mr. Wong eventually enlists the aid, from the leaders of Chinatown, which sets up Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939).

As you know, Boris Karloff was a British actor, who was made universally famous doing classic horror films. He made the Frankenstein monster and the Mummy household names. He was, somewhat, following in the footsteps of Lon Chaney SR., who was part of the first generation of classic movie monster actors before Karloff. Plus, the original Chaney was famously known as "The Man of a Thousand Faces". Chaney also played Asian characters, a few times, in a couple of films. It was normal practice during the golden-age of film, for actors to play different ethnic characters. For both Lon Chaney and Karloff, that is what acting was, which was being someone completely different than you. They were only judged on their acting ability. Karloff ended-up being a legend, so pretending to be an Asian man, was handled as well as, any of his other great characters. Another interesting thing I noticed, was this time, Wong barely wears his glasses in this film. My guess is, producers might have felt, that moviegoing audiences, not totally familiar with the characters, were getting Mr. Wong confused with Peter Lorre's Mr. Moto series over at Fox Film Productions. To add to the confusion, the Charlie Chan movies were popular too, so you can understand the need for clarification. Asian detectives, solving crimes, was very popular during those early decades of cinema.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939), compared to the last two films, is less on detail and more on action. This film is slightly thin on the plot, but stronger on the action. Some audience participants might like the detailed stuff and less flash, while I enjoyed the balance of the two, with the extra energy. The production values do look like they've gone up a little bit. The producers must have been feeling good about the popularity of the character and added some extra cash for this film. They even blow up a car in this one. There even was some fisticuffs too. There are more outdoor scenes, multiple set-pieces and better filming locations. In the first two films, the stories stayed mostly inside a house or at Street's office. We even take a trip down to the San Francisco boat docks and shipyard, albeit, in part, shot on a soundstage. The filmmakers definitely tried to turn up the action and energy, for this third installment. Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939), is no better or worse than the first two Mr. Wong films.

PMTM Grade: 6.9 (C) = 7 IMDB

In the fourth installment of Boris Karloff's Detective Mr. Wong series, Jason Robards SR., is one of the victims in The Fatal Hour (1940). I'm glad to see, that filmmakers started using more music in their soundtracks, as the 1940s dawned. The moments of silence in earlier talkies is tough for some viewers in the 21st century, especially when you can hear the camera cranking sounds in the background, which was a big problem for productions back then. The introduction of longer soundtracks helped cover-up those flaws in the audio and gave the film more polish. In The Fatal Hour (1940), the first wireless remote control radio is being sold at a store and it becomes part of the main thread to this mystery. This revelation will remind viewers where we were technologically in 1940. The size of the remote control box used in the film is comparable to the size of a 4-slice toaster today.

Karloff, Grant Withers as Captain Street and Marjorie Reynolds as Bobbie Logan, the newspaper reporter, work well with each other. They are coming into their own in this fourth film. There are some sloppy moments in The Fatal Hour (1940), like weird edits and acting miscues. The film returns to mostly interior settings and got away from the more creative set-pieces seen in the last film, Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939). Monogram Pictures must have started pulling- back the budgets on these films again and sent this story back into the confines of interior sets, that cheapened the believability factor of the film. The Fatal Hour (1940), is basically an assembly line production, common for Monogram Pictures, that ends abruptly. Budget cuts are never good for a film production, especially a production, that's trying to become a franchise.

PMTM Grade: 6.3 (D+) = 6 IMDB

Director William Nigh, who directed all four of the previous Mr. Wong films, returns for the fifth film, Doomed to Die (1940). This film is also the final Mr. Wong movie starring Boris Karloff, as Detective James Lee Wong. These low-budget, detective films, produced by Monogram Pictures, have evolved to, the very-formulaic point of their journey. The utilization of many repeat-actors, used as different characters, all across, all five, of the Mr. Wong movies, was widespread. This use of talent indicates they needed lower-budgets, by utilizing the same actor-pool, for each film. The last two films of the five, used a lot of stock footage too, which is another sign of low film budgets. Monogram Pictures was churning out movies at a record pace. They had to entertain a viewing public, who's only form of entertainment was the radio and the movie theaters. The need for content was another reason for stretching out budgets over many titles. Monogram was a conveyer-belt of quick filmmaking. The mystery surrounding the murder of a shipping magnate, named Cyrus Wentworth (Melvin Lang), comes full-circle, in Doomed to Die (1940).

Mr. Wong doesn't even make his first appearance, in the film, until 16 minutes into a 68-minute film. It was a weird reminder, that this was Boris' last film as the Chinese sleuth. They did juice-up the action with a cool car-chase, that was pretty good for a lower-budgeted, 1940 film. However, the banter between Marjorie Reynolds and Grant Withers' Captain Street, is starting to get a little old and it also felt, somewhat juvenile. They tweaked Reynolds' Bobbie character a little bit, by making her hair darker. She also seemed even more tougher, which was good. She isn't a bad character and was, one of the more brighter points to the series. Doomed to Die (1940), ends quickly and with a silly finish. They reference a joke, that happened 45 minutes earlier in the film and try to get a laugh out of it again, right before the end credits. The series was running out of gas. It's not surprising, that Karloff never came back. I still felt Doomed to Die (1940), was still good enough, to be considered fair and it was an interesting conclusion, to this five-picture series.

PMTM Grade: 6.1 (D+) = 6 IMDB

I love it when people today complain about Hollywood doing too many sequels, prequels, franchises or concepts, like shared universes, but what they forget is, this in not something new. These concepts have been around since motion-pictures began. So, don't waste time worrying about it. Just, go with it. In the case of Phantom of Chinatown (1940), this film is a prequel to the other five Mr. Wong films, produced by Monogram Pictures. Wong is now a younger man, played by veteran Chinese-American actor, Keye Luke. Keye Luke already had done a bunch of the Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland, over at 20th Century Fox, as well as, a couple of the Mr. Moto films, with Peter Lorre. He also had begun his turn as Kato in the original Green Hornet series (1939-1941), so he was doing the right type of films, when he was cast as the younger James Lee Wong, for Phantom of Chinatown (1940).

To keep things synonymous with the original Karloff films, the producers used the same theme music for this film. Grant Withers returns as Captain Sam Street, to show the fans, his first meeting with Mr. Wong. All of this, was part of the same universe as the Karloff films. In fact, the studio had hopes of continuing this series with Luke, but for some unknown reason, they never returned to it after Phantom of Chinatown (1940). The story revolves around another case involving ancient artifacts, this time from China. In an overused plot-device, even for 1940, the expedition leader, Dr. Benton (Charles F. Miller), gets poisoned. Send in Keye Luke as Mr. Wong. Once again, just like in the earlier films, there are appearances of many repeat-actors from the previous films. Lotus Long is back, this time as Dr. Benton's secretary. She also plays-off as being a love-interest for Wong.

Phantom of Chinatown (1940), is slow and boring in some parts, but does try hard to give the audience a little bit of energy. Energy not really felt in the more cerebral mystery stories from Karloff. This one tries to beef things up with a 1940 car chase and a fisticuff scrapple at the end of the film. This was where Luke's experience as Kato helped with this film, as Wong gets into a big fist-fight, at the big climax of the movie, which would never happen with Karloff's Wong. Luke also gets a great line when he makes fun of foreigners going to other countries to dig up tombs, by replying, "They tell me that a Chinese archaeological expedition is digging up the body of George Washington in exchange". It was a very funny line, making fun of archeology, but Luke flubbed it a little bit. There were a couple of botched lines from many of the actors in this film. Luke, new Wong director Phil Rosen and the rest of the filmmakers, do their best to save this slow and boring film. Phantom of Chinatown (1940), deserves an E for Effort, mostly as an interest-piece.

PMTM Grade: 5.2 (E+) = 5 IMDB

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), has nothing to do with the detective/crime films, starring Boris Karloff, about Detective James Lee Wong. This is also a Monogram Pictures production, like the Boris Karloff series. The film is oddly enough, directed by William Nigh, who directed the first five Mr. Wong films with Karloff, so you can see the confusion. The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), is Bela Lugosi as an evil Chinese man, searching for lost coins, that are said to give off magical powers. He also kills people to accomplish his goals. No one knows who Wong is. He is a name without a face. That's the mysterious part to The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934). From here, the film tends to go off the rails a little. The film wraps up too quickly and conveniently, which kills any tangible believability at all.

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), can't make up its mind, if it's a crime drama, horror film or a comedy, especially with Wallace Ford, as news reporter, Jay Barton, cracking jokes at every turn or Arline Judge as the annoying Peg or Robert Emmett O'Connor, as the lovable, goofy Irishman, police officer, 'Mac' McGillicuddy. The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), has one of those low Monogram budgets. Bela's makeup isn't too bad. If you didn't know it was him, it works convincingly. Mr. Wong veteran actress, Lotus Long is back again, this time as Moonflower, the niece of Mr. Wong. Long seemed to be a staple actress over there at Monogram. She's in, at least, three of the Mr. Wong Detective films. The filmmakers tried to make something interesting with The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934), but manage to go pretty basic. Even though the story is simple, the film is still a recommended watch, because of its oddly interesting cast. It's also required viewing for Lugosi fans.

PMTM Grade: 4.7 (E) = 5 IMDB