Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

Strong and Moving!

Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

'Mr. Wong in Chinatown' is quiet but lively. Good movie, dramatic, atmospheric, suspenseful, a genuine mystery chiller, with one scene set in Chinatown (so don't expect much about colorful exotic shocker; yet the Chinese princess had charm and appeal), and the rest in offices, houses, etc.; it's also a screwball. Karloff plays Wong as a good-natured gentleman, and he sometimes resembles a bit Irons, Wong puts few questions, and sometimes needs help (he's rescued by the girl in this movie); Wong meets some really tough businessmen, who do not hesitate before the strongest measures, and his visit to the Chinese oldsters is nice, but Wong's two pals, the policeman and the newspaper girl, provide good roles. The screwball is funny. Wong, charming, soft-spoken, mild, reasonably streetwise, would of made an actor's career, but Karloff did so many interesting performances, that this one got less love. I missed such an old mystery movie, and this one did charm me. In these old movies, they disposed easily of secondary characters (like Carradine in a Moto outing, and the dwarf here), not to mention bit players and lesser parts. These movies were like episodes of the serials they made once, but on a bigger budget perhaps.

I get these Oriental gentlemen -- Mr. Wong, Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto -- mixed up because they all look alike. This one has Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong investigating the murder of a Chinese princess fresh off the ship from Hangkow. She's the sister of an important warlord and had intended to buy airplanes so that he could defend his province and wage battle against "the other powers." This is 1939. The war had not yet started for the United States but there was a good deal of rivalry for Pacific territories and a lot of enmity based on "the other power's" invasion of first Manchuria and then China itself in the early 30s. But of course, before Pearl Harbor, no one could use words like "Japan", "Chiang Kai-Sheck", or the Wellesly-educated and charming "Madam Chiang Kai-Sheck." The resemblance between the fictional and real elements of the story may be coincidental, but I doubt it. The Japanese equivalent of Charlie Chan -- Mr. Moto -- made his last film appearance in 1939. The Green Hornet's faithful valet, Kato, lost his Japanese ancestry in the same year, becoming first a Korean, then a Filipino.That's a bit of arcana, I know, but there isn't really much to say about the film itself. Boris Karloff has both his eyelids and his hair pasted back. He doesn't try a Chinese accent, nor is he called on to speak any Chinese, thank the merciful heavens. He's a perfect gentleman throughout. And his fulgurating intuition allows him to solve mysteries with only the slightest of clues. Having overheard one of the characters order a nice headstone for a dog's grave, Wong is able to conclude that a dwarf is actually buried there "because one does not order an expensive headstone for a savage dog." This guy makes Columbo seem dim-witted.There's a relationship between a sassy blond reporter and the police detective who is always insulting her, sometimes pushing her around, shoving an apple into her mouth, telling her to "get lost." It's supposed to be funny.Yes, it's another blockbuster from MONOGRAM STUDIOS. That means "no extras," so the story has a handful of the same characters walking or driving from one location to another. Some of the interiors use the same sets with the furniture rearranged.It's the kind of B feature that you'll either find very entertaining or dull throughout. I don't think there's any third possibility.

A distressed Oriental woman comes knocking on the door of James Lee Wong seeking his help. Before we get to learn her request, she is murdered by a poisoned dart, fired through the open window of Wong's study. She is Princess Lin Hwa, a woman of high degree from the Wang-Ki family, as evidenced by a ring displaying her family crest.As in prior Mr. Wong films, James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff) is accompanied in his investigation by Police Captain Bill Street (Grant Withers), though he needn't bother, as the detective is mostly ineffective in getting any real police work done. It's Wong himself who develops his leads and is more effectively helped by Herald newspaper reporter Roberta Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), a somewhat romantic interest for Street, though she's pretty much pushed around by the Captain for most of the film, while maintaining a wry smile and quick wit to counteract the blustering bully.In her last minutes before dying, Lin Hwa manages to scribble a curiously worded "Captain J" on a piece of paper, pointing Wong to not one but two different but connected leads - Captain James of the steamship "Maid of the Orient", and Captain Guy Jackson (everybody's a Captain!) of the Phelps Aviation Company. It's revealed that the Princess was arranging for the sale of airplanes to her brother in China, but the two Captain J's were conspiring to rid her of her money without fulfilling their end of the bargain.The real villain behind the murders though is the outwardly helpful bank president Davidson (Huntley Gordon), having had access to Lin Hwa's bank account and freely forging checks to relieve her account of a million dollars. The giveaway - Davidson claimed to have had a vicious dog buried with an expensive headstone, but Wong correctly surmises that the grave actually conceals the body of a mute dwarf that was a friend of the Princess.Monogram Pictures released this movie in 1939, and later remade the film in 1947 with another Oriental Detective in the lead role, casting Roland Winters in his first screen appearance as Charlie Chan. "The Chinese Ring" is virtually a carbon copy of the Wong movie, with the "Captain J" clue changed by one letter to "Captain K". From there it moves along at pretty much the same pace until Chan's revelation of the killer. Both films are passable, but if you've seen one, you've seen both.

Princess Lin Hwa(Lotus Long) visits Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) at his residence for assistance, however, she is killed by a poisoned arrow. Mr. Wong, with Capt. Street (Grant Withers), seeks the murderer. They are helped by Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), a reporter and Street's girfriend. They arrive at the princess's apartment to investigate and look for clues, at the same time they find her maid has been murdered. The only witness to the murder is a mute dwarf (Angelo Rosita) who mysteriously disappears. Karloff held this picture together and has made this film a true Mr. Wong series classic for all Karloff fans. It is difficult to critize this film, it was made with a very low budget and was considered a "B" film in 1939, which was usually shown with another picture, news and a cartoon. Boris Karloff was between filming of horror movies and this Mr. Wong series gave him a small income.(not like the large salaries of movie stars today. However, Karloff is very calm and unmoved in this film and nothing seems to bother Mr. Wong at all!!