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.
