La morte invisibile

Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A business man fears for his life so he pays a visit to Detective Wong (Boris Karloff). The next day the man is dead and a suspect is arrested but Wong isn't so sure they've got the right guy. Soon other murders are committed and it's up to Wong and Captain Street (Grant Withers) to try and solve them.

With the likes of Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan being so popular, Monogram decided to get in on the Asian characters and they ended up doing six Mr. Wong pictures, five with actor Boris Karloff. None of the films were all that great but there's no question that this first one was the best of the lot.

This one here benefits from a somewhat better than normal screenplay that offers up an interesting murder scheme and for the most part I thought it played out quite well and the ending was fun and believable. It also doesn't hurt that Karloff himself was so good in the role of Wong.

Yes, we can argue about a white actor playing an Asian character but this is how it was done back in the day, for better or worse. I thought Karloff was really good at playing the low-key and rather laid back character and even though he doesn't talk or move quickly, he's still very much entertaining. I also thought Withers was fun in the role of the typical Detective in these type of movies. You know, the tough guy whose toughness never gets anything done.

THe film certainly shows it's "B" quality production but there's no doubt that it's a mildly entertaining film.

Considering its age (almost 65 years old), this movie has held up reasonably well. Granted, it is a bit slow and dull (it runs only 69 minutes but it feels MUCH longer), and Boris Karloff is not convincing, of course, as an Oriental. However, he does capture the Oriental philosophy of his character, and the plotting itself (particularly the killing method) is ingenious, worthy of a fine crime novel. (**1/2)

In the great tradition of Chinese detectives as Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto, Boris Karloff's Mr. Wong was a solid addition to that venerable kind of films. Is really difficult to think in Karloff as a Chinese person, but the British actor delivers a solid performance, if you can dig his weird accent. The plot is simple, the strange murders are against logic, but Mr. Wong's patience and intelligence can solve the mystery. The other actors are far below Karloff, but the overall fell of the movie is candid and likable. Another completely different Mr. Wong was played before by Bela Lugosi, a villain, but this detective deserves your interest if you are a fan of the genre.

With one more picture to go on his Warners contract (the result "British Intelligence"), and seemingly no end in sight for Hollywood's infamous, self imposed horror ban, Boris Karloff was quick to sign on the dotted line with Poverty Row studio Monogram to begin a six picture stint as an Oriental crime solver in 1938's "Mr. Wong, Detective," which began Aug. 24 for October release, mere weeks after completing the Warners drama "Devil's Island." The actor was well known for portraying ethnic villains during the silent days, first attempting a Chinese character in 1932's "The Miracle Man," then starring as Wu Yen Fang in Warners' 1937 "West of Shanghai," so in the wake of Warner Oland's Charlie Chan and Peter Lorre's Mr. Moto, becoming the third Asian sleuth of the decade held much appeal for him, a heroic character under heavy makeup and hairpiece but no accent. By sheer coincidence, he was already a veteran of not one but two previous Chan titles, his talkie debut in 1929's "Behind That Curtain," in which his role as a Sudanese servant was actually larger than Chan himself (E. L. Park reduced to a cameo in his only screen appearance), and 1936's far better known "Charlie Chan at the Opera," which advertised 'Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff' despite the stars sharing only a single scene together. The character was created by Hugh Wiley as a more genteel and well spoken response to Earl Derr Biggers' creation, his respectful manner, love of tea, and (unlike the pidgin English adopted for "West of Shanghai") eloquent speech revealing an Oxford education, all make him perfectly suited for the British actor. San Francisco provides the setting for the series, Wong initially retained by chemical manufacturer Simon Dayton (John Hamilton), who fears for his life after several mysterious 'accidents,' including the deliberate impersonation of his chauffeur in a failed kidnapping attempt. Wong shows up for his 10AM appointment at Dayton's office only to discover him already dead, shortly after being threatened by Carl Roemer (John St. Polis) for stealing the latter's formula for poison gas, along with both partners, Christian Wilk (Hooper Atchley) and Theodore Meisle (William Gould). Tiny pieces of broken glass put the bloodhound on the scent, revealing that odorless, colorless poison gas was released from inside the sphere when its brittle shell shattered from high pitched sound, such as the screech of a parrot. Suspects Wilk and Meisle, equal partners to inherit Dayton's shares, soon suffer the same fate, even when Wong is present in the next room while Wilk perishes behind the door of his locked study. Not to be overlooked are a trio of foreign spies seeking to stop the shipment of chemical weapons overseas to hurt their respective countries, it was they who sought to kidnap Dayton without success. Grant Withers sports the first name Sam in these first two entries, girlfriend Myra (Maxine Jennings) conveniently working as Dayton's secretary, never seen again in the series (Lee Tong Foo as Wong's manservant would return on three occasions). The identity of the culprit isn't half so puzzling as to how it's carried off, good enough for Monogram to warrant a remake 10 years later for Roland Winters' second Charlie Chan vehicle, "Docks of New Orleans," more threadbare yet still diverting. The second Wong entry would only begin after Karloff's triumphant return to horror in Universal's "Son of Frankenstein."

Throughout the 1930s, Fox Studios made a ton of very successful Charlie Chan films. It isn't surprising that this led to knock-off characters like Mr. Moto (also from Fox) and Mr. Wong (from poverty row giant, Monogram Studios). Frankly, while the Moto and Wong films are pleasant enough B-movies, they are too similar to the Chan films but lack their charm and wit. In the case of Wong and Chan the similarity was even greater as both were of Chinese descent, traveled the world and were "do-gooders" who often helped the helpless when conventional police work failed.

In the early 1940s after Monogram completed six not particularly distinguished films AND Fox decided to discontinue the Chan series, an opportunity arose for Monogram to bring Sidney Toler to the studio and make their own Chan films. As a result, Wong was expendable and since four years had passed since the last film in this series, the studio heads decided they wanted no more Wongs. Besides, if they had Chan AND Wong, the resulting films would be like having two Wongs--and that's just not right.

MR. WONG, DETECTIVE is the first Wong film and there's nothing particularly wong, I mean WRONG about the film. It was entertaining and had a nice mystery. However, it's also an awful lot like several other Monogram films--and is most like their next Wong film, THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG. It's also a lot like the Chan films, MURDER OVER NEW YORK, THE JADE MASK and DOCKS OF NEW ORLEANS. In other words, many plot elements were repeated and after a while the films started to be indistinguishable from each other--something that was NOT a problem with the Fox films.

Overall, it's worth seeing and is possibly the best film of the series--though this isn't saying a lot.