Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)

Just perfect...

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"Mr.Wong, Detective" was made in 1938 with young Boris Karloff 1948 "Charlie Chan in Docks of New Orleans" with Roland Winters they are duplicate films different names, slight differences but Chan has a son in his films sometimes 2 and also Mantan Moreland. There similar scenes and characters of the movies but made in different years. 1.Mr Wong a detective is hired by a man that runs a chemical corporation with 2 partners he is being followed and is scared.2.Mr Chan a detective is hired by a man that runs a chemical corporation with 2 partners he is being followed and is scared.3.In both movies the men that went to Wong and Chan sign an agreement with their partners that whoever dies leaves his share to the living partners. 4.Both men in both movies are waiting for their detective one Wong in one and Chan in the other in their chemical business office. The secretary tells her boss in Mr Wong still has 20 or Mr Chan 20 still has 20 minutes before their meeting.5. A angry man comes in to the chemical office in both movies and wants the owner to pay him more money because he feels the company stole his chemical formula.Mr Wong/Boris Karloff goes to the chemical plant owner that hired him and when he shows up the owner is dead, a gun is there but has not been fired. Both movies Wong and Chan believe the man was not killed by a gun even though a gun was there. I got confused watching these movies. I have so many with Mr.Moto/Peter Lorre, Mr. Wong/Boris Karloff, Charlie Chan one of the Chan actors-Roland Winters and more. Sorry I had to make corrections.

Boris Karloff made his debut as Chinese shamus James Wong in Mr. Wong Detective for Monogram in 1938. It was a popular, but short lived series of films, the last one starring not Karloff but Keye Luke an actual Oriental as the Oxford educated detective. Unlike his fellow oriental sleuths Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto, Karloff spoke in perfect Oxford educated English and not fortune cookie aphorisms.Mr. Wong Detective has Boris Karloff hired by John Hamilton who is one of three partners in an industrial firm. He has the feeling that someone is trailing him and his life in danger. When he dies alone in the proverbial locked room with no gunshot, stab wound, or anything indicating foul play, it's a mystery beyond the comprehension of the cops in the person of Grant Withers. It sure puzzles Wong for the length of the film.One of the reasons I rate this film so high even though it's a B film from Monogram without a whole lot of production values is the absolutely original method of murder the writers thought up for the script. There's also a nice really big red herring in the plot as well. I guarantee you will not be able to figure out exactly how the crime was committed even when you have a couple of the clues.The other Wong films were OK, but not near as original as this one.

This was the first of a modest series of Monogram films to star horror heavyweight Boris Karloff as an Asian sleuth, most likely to try and capitalize off the highly successful Charlie Chan saga from Fox. As a Karloff fan myself, he was my sole reason to take the plunge with this series and this film is pretty much an average affair. The British Boris doesn't seem authentic at playing a Chinese detective, and I had a difficult time buying into him as such with his blackened, slicked-back hair-comb. The plot itself is intriguing enough, with Mr. Wong trying to find out how a poison gas is killing people, and who's the mastermind behind it. I've read that MR. WONG, DETECTIVE is the "best" of this bunch, which leaves me concerned as to what may lie ahead. ** out of ****

Mr. Wong, Detective, is a standard fare B-movie that is delightful owing to the work of Boris Karloff. One does have to stretch one's sense of disbelief to see Karloff as an oriental but what dominates is Karloff's urbane humanity. It has been widely commented that in private life Karloff was gentle and engaging. It's my guess that Karloff here is mostly acting as himself, slightly stooped, charming, and witty. As such it is a testament to his ability as an actor that he could appear in so many villainous roles. As Mr. Wong one see Karloff as one's cultured uncle, full of good cheer, common sense, and abundant with decency. I only wish that it had been Karloff's better fortune to have acted in more diverse roles giving his range and appeal a wider audience. As he was much beloved in the Hollywood community perhaps Karloff didn't do so badly after all.As for the movie itself one requires a rather open sense of credulity. A series of partners in a chemical company are being murdered with poison gas and the police are at wit's end trying to determine the how, why, and who of the matter. Mr. Wong is called in early in the game and begins to pick out the pieces, literally, to the solution of the mystery. Grant Withers is the detective captain, Street, on the case and he lends the movie it's deepest dead spots. He is a loud, blustery, nincompoop of a detective, and in way over his head. If he is meant to lend comic relief, or to provide a dopey foil to the brilliance of Mr. Wong, I would have preferred a characterization not quite so annoying. There are other nefarious characters skulking about, providing red-herring dead ends, and a few twists a turns of the plot. In the end Mr. Wong identifies the killer and Street hauls him annoyingly away.Mr. Wong, Detective is a nice addition for film buffs and a fine example of the film work of Boris Karloff.