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A Chinese princess coming to Mr. Wong for help is killed in his home by a poisoned dart. This movie introduces a clichéd nosy reporter character, Bobbie Logan, played by the beautiful Marjorie Reynolds. She would appear in the rest of the Wong films. I take it as a sign they knew the Wong series wasn't working quite right and felt it needed some more side characters. Perhaps they just wanted to rip off Torchy Blane. Who knows? Grant Withers returns as Captain Street. He doesn't bark as much as he usually does, except when Bobbie's around. She's his girlfriend and he wants her to stay out of trouble. Another Torchy Blane similarity. Curiously, 1939 was also the year Torchy Blane in Chinatown was released. This is a watchable movie, as all the Wongs are, but nothing special.

1939's "Mr. Wong in Chinatown" was Monogram's third entry in their six picture detective series, its May shooting introducing a new character to the dynamic between Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong and Grant Withers as Capt. Bill Street, Marjorie Reynolds as Roberta 'Bobbie' Logan, blonde reporter and new wisecracking sweetheart of the increasingly downtrodden captain. Less complicated than its predecessors, it begins with Lotus Long's second series appearance, making a late night call upon Mr. Wong, who soon discovers her dead from a poisoned dart fired from a Chinese 'sleeve gun' like one he himself owns. Bobbie Logan identifies her as Lin Hwa, a princess who has spent the previous three weeks in San Francisco attempting to secure airplanes for her brother's fight against the Japanese. A dying clue was scribbled down before she expired, identifying 'Captain J,' of which two men made her acquaintance, the captain of the ship that brought her from China (William Royle), and the man whose Los Angeles company was negotiating to sell her the planes (George Lynn). A search of Lin Hwa's apartment reveals two faithful companions, Lilly Mae (Bessie Loo) and a mute dwarf (Angelo Rossitto), neither of whom are destined to live long, while Wong's inquiries with bank president Davidson (Huntley Gordon) ends up with a ride in a booby trapped taxi cab. Having learned that every penny deposited by the princess has been withdrawn through forged checks, the irate captains kidnap both Wong and Davidson to learn the whereabouts of the missing money, but the actual killer is tripped up by a little sleight of hand (this would be the last time seeing Karloff's Wong in his home). As obnoxious as reporters generally are in such films, it's a pleasant surprise to find Bobbie Logan better able to protect Mr. Wong than her police captain boyfriend, though their bickering only slows the picture to a crawl. Like first entry "Mr. Wong, Detective," this too would become a Charlie Chan remake for Monogram in 1947, "The Chinese Ring" not only marking the debut of 42 year old Roland Winters as Chan but also retaining the pretty reporter character in the person of Louise Currie, while the dwarf is rewritten as a Chinese boy. In for just one scene as an aged tong leader, Richard Loo previously played Karloff's lieutenant in "West of Shanghai," and would also feature in the next two entries (before filming the next series title, Karloff would complete "The Man They Could Not Hang" at Columbia and "Tower of London" at Universal).

Once again, Boris Karloff solves a case, as James Lee Wong, the Chinese amateur detective in San Francisco. There are plenty of villains again as usual, and this time the fact that there is a war going on in China is the background to a desperate plan to buy war planes in California for shipping to a general in China. But the plan goes seriously wrong due to corruption and murder in San Francisco. Grant Withers plays the Detective Inspector again, but this time he overacts a bit less, though he continues shouting too much. In fact, he shouts so much that Mr. Wong drolly remarks to him: 'I absolutely assure you I am not deaf.' So clearly Withers had been instructed by the director to behave like this. Marjorie Reynolds plays a young woman reporter for a local newspaper who is after a story, and another story, and another story. She interferes and will not go away, but she ends up by saving Mr. Wong's life when he is trapped in a car about to explode. More than a million dollars has been stolen, and several people have been murdered. Who is behind this? Is it the mysterious Chinese dwarf who cannot speak? Is it one of the two captains whose name begins with 'J'? Is it someone from Chinatown? Is it the banker? There is plenty to figure out.

For Boris Karloff fans Mr Wong in Chinatown makes for good curiosity value and has good things that makes it a little more than that. Mr Wong in Chinatown is far from bad and Karloff has certainly done worse(look at the Mexican films he did) but he has also done better and deserved better. If asked whether Mr Wong in Chinatown is recommended, I'd say yes but only partially. There are some good things, Karloff is still commanding and gives a very good performance(as said many times by me one of those actors that gave his all regardless of the material). Marjorie Reynolds is the other, and in a way only other, standout in the cast, she brings a great deal of sass to Logan and really spices things up but deserved better material to do so more. Some of the sparring-constant- between her and Grant Withers is entertaining. The closing gag is great. The music has its jauntiness and eeriness. The sets are appropriate and nicely done. And Lotus Long while killed off quickly, perhaps too quickly, she makes for a sensual presence and makes things promising to begin with. However, while the sparring between Reynolds and Withers is fun their chemistry could have been better, aside from their dialogue the chemistry doesn't gel. And Withers to me is the problem, his performance more scenery-chewing rather than subtle and often of the worst kind, the shouting and frozen facial expressions did get annoying after a while. The photography is serviceable but could have been more fluid, the low-budget does show. Outside of the verbal sparring and the closing gag, the dialogue does come across as stilted and could have developed things more. The story shows good potential but peters out after the beginning but picks up at the final solution, which is a nice surprise, the mystery did feel weak because of the dull pacing(the film did feel longer than it was), lack of suspense and tension, the lacking dialogue and that really only two performances stood out. It also got very routine and didn't contain that many surprises. In conclusion, a watchable film with interest points but not great, one of the weaker entries of the series. 5.5/10 Bethany Cox

Poor Lotus Long the oriental actress who got murdered in two Mr. Wong vehicles. In Mr. Wong In Chinatown she no longer arrives at Boris Karloff's home when she's killed with a poison dart fired through the window of his study.

Probably because the victim was Chinese, Mr. Wong would have gotten involved in any case, but won't these movie villains ever learn? Doing it that way was an open invitation.

Lotus lives long enough to leave a written cryptic clue and Karloff and police captain Grant Withers go chasing leads. The victim was a Chinese princess in town allegedly to buy airplanes for her country during war time. The clue itself by the way turns out to be a bit of a red herring.

Mr. Wong In Chinatown marks the first appearance of Marjorie Reynolds in this series as Withers's pesky reporter girl friend. Reynolds is in the snoop and scoop Lois Lane school of journalism. She actually does prove useful, more at times than Myrna Loy was to William Powell.

But this is Monogram, not MGM so the production values are really on the cheap here. Still for that studio this isn't a bad film.

As a fan of 1930s-1940s movies with an "Oriental" protagonist, I have collected all of the Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, and Mr. Wong movies. However, this movie would have been much better had the all-too-frequent, painfully annoying, and downright noisy cat-fights between Captain Bill Street and Reporter Bobbie Logan ended up on the editor's cutting-room floor.

Another problem with this film is that Mr. Wong plays a much too passive role. All he seems to do is follow the lead of either the Captain or the Reporter. Bottom line: one quickly begins to wonder why Mr. Wong is in this movie, because he doesn't seem to be necessary to the plot.

Karloff as a chinese person would always be tough to believe but he does it so well, and his performance is so straight, classy and self-effacing that I ended up forgetting that aspect and I just took it as is.

Good decision, too, in that it allowed me to really enjoy this whodunnit. William Nigh's direction is sound, the screenplay cleverly hands out red herrings, photography is smooth - a lot of it inside gorgeous cars - and acting is quite good, especially from Karloff, Reynolds and Gordon, as the chief villain.

Well worth watching B pic.

It certainly doesn't waste any time getting started: the murder occurs in the first three minutes, and in Mr.Wong's house, no less! And with the always dependable and dignified Boris Karloff in the title role again, you'd think this could develop in a pretty interesting mystery. Wrong! This film is tremendously boring. Mr.Wong has boring conversations with boring suspects who have boring motives. I had stated once that every whodunit is inherently interesting if it is at least executed with a minimum level of competence...this film proves the importance of the "competence" part. 1 star out of 4, strictly for Karloff.

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!!

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.

I've seen several Mr. Wong films and I can definitely understand why Monogram Studios decided to drop the series in favor of making Charlie Chan films. Unlike the Chan films, the Wong series is pretty dull--with unlikable or bland supporting characters and a very low energy level in the movies. It's like the characters are just walking through the lines and putting little into it--particularly Boris Karloff, who was capable of so much better work than this. His supporting characters don't help, as Grant Withers is a pretty dull police inspector and Marjorie Reynolds in her first of four appearances in the Wong series as the nosy reporter is a tad annoying.

The film begins with a Chinese princess coming to Wong's house. When his butler goes to get Wong, an unseen person kills the lady with a poisonous dart! It turns out that the princess was in America to buy planes for their war with the Japanese, though since the US was not yet at war with Japan, they were never mentioned by name. Why she was killed and unable to complete her mission is mildly interesting, but that's about all. My advice is try to see a different B-detective series, such as Sherlock Holmes, The Falcon or Charlie Chan--they are just a lot more interesting and fun to watch.

When the Princess "Lin Hwa" (Lotus Long) is killed by a poisoned dart in the home of our eponymous San Francisco detective (Boris Karloff) she leaves him one, singly enigmatic, clue which he must utilise to thwart a gang involved with the Japanese occupation of China. Local plod "Capt. Street" (Grant Withers) bucks the trend of many similar style adventure films, and demonstrates some competence as the pair soon discover the foggy docks of their city harbour much more than just ships. There is never any doubt who will come a cropper in the end, but William Nigh gets a lot from his star, a limited script and an even more limited budget and presents us with a basic, but acceptable murder mystery with shades of political intrigue.

The extended scene of Wong and a banker talking about paperwork gives you an idea of the pace of this one. Marjorie Reynolds brightens up the proceedings as she is known to do, but that's about all there is to say about this lesser entry. And dog lovers beware: 2 dogs are shot offscreen and their bodies are shown later in the film.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

** (out of 4)

Princess Lin Hwa frantically rushes to Detective Wong (Boris Karloff) but before he can see her she is dead. It turns out that she was shot with a poisonous dart so Wong investigates and finds that the Chinese woman was in America trying to buy warplanes. Pretty soon more bodies are found so Wong and Captain Street (Grant Withers) must try and figure out what's going on.

MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN was the third film in the series and it was certainly a step down from the previous two entries. The first two films were obviously cheap "B" pictures but they at least featured decent stories and benefited from having someone like Karloff in the lead. This film has a fairly bland story and there's just not much life to it.

The biggest problem with the film is that the screenplay just doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen countless times before. This time out we have a female reporter thrown in who of course is the girlfriend to Captain Streets, which leads to a bunch of arguing between the two. None of the dialogue is overly clever or charming so the fighting just comes across as annoying.

Karloff is once again good in his role, although, as with the first two films, he doesn't even bother trying to act or loo Asian. He at least keeps the film mildly amusing and I'd also say that Withers gives the film a little entertainment as well. Marjorie Reynolds does what she can as the reporter and come off mildy charming at times.

MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN isn't a horrible movie but at the same time it's just too routine and bland to make much of an impression.

Mr. Wong, played by Boris Karloff, who is very unconvincing, by the way, as a Chinese detective, with his impeccable British accent, is nothing more than an imitation of the popular Charlie Chan, a character from a series of films that were hugely successful at the time. Incidentally, he is so similar to Charlie Chan that this film would be remade, with Roland Winters as Charlie Chan, in 1947 and under the title The Chinese Ring.

It is a typical detective story of its time, not particularly interesting, I would even say banal, with nothing that distinguishes it from hundreds of others produced at the time.

Only for curious fans of Boris Karloff or of the old detective films of the 30s and 40s.

There was a documentary on public television some time ago about the Chinese in the movies. It was short because they were mostly background in early films. God forbid a Chinese person was ever cast as a Chinese person in a movie.

Boris Karloff, who was a wonderful actor, is Mr. Wong. I'm not sure where this comes in the series but I'll give you two words to describe it - Monogram Studios.

A woman visits Mr. Wong, but before she can speak to him, she is killed with a poison dart. She has time to write a partial note with the words "Captain J." Naturally there are two Captain Js here.

The film has to do with airplanes she was buying for her brother, an important person with the Chinese air command, and the apparent smuggling of them. Don't ask me how one does that. Aren't they kind of large? It also has to do with stealing money.

It's just okay but it's nice to see Karloff as someone other than Frankenstein.

Mr Wong in Chinatown is a classic example of a mystery where the biggest twist is just how quickly you can figure out who the bad guys are. The writers seem to have mislaid the actual "mystery," leaving us with a film that feels less like a thrilling whodunit and more like a waiting game for Mr Wong to connect the dots. The story is as transparent as the fog rolling through Chinatown - you'll know who the culprits are long before Wong's "brilliant" deductions. By the time the twist rears its head, it's more of a "really? That was it?" moment than an "Aha!" revelation.

The direction is typical for its era, competent without being flashy. It's the cinematic equivalent of a well-worn suit - nothing special, but it gets the job done. The performances are serviceable, though Boris Karloff's attempt at an Asian detective is more "Sherlock Holmes in Fancy Dress" than culturally convincing. The female reporter steals the show with her sarcastic wit, providing a touch of much-needed spunk.

At just over an hour, Mr Wong in Chinatown is an easy watch - perfect for a lazy Sunday breakfast, though don't expect it to keep you on the edge of your seat.

I give it a 9 out of ten for sentimental reasons and for the appearance of Boris Karloff. NOT really that bad of a mystery, and actually starts out fairly interesting with the death of a Chinese princess, a plot later be used in one of Monogram's CHARLIE CHAN films.

Karloff is the whole show, doing a very good job as the Oriental detective. In fact, he was no stranger to such roles, playing the fiendish doctor in the MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932) and as the Chinese warlord in WEST OF SHANGHAi (1937) for Warner Brothers, which may have lead to this role.

True, it does move slowly at times, but there's that campy old film feel, all about the princess investing in war planes to strengthen China's reserves -- and someone on the opposing side out to weaken the country and silence her. Pick your suspects. There's a choice few.

Boris Karloff actually wanted to move onto other projects (signing a contract with Columbia Pictures) and left the series, opening the door for Bela Lugosi, who would go on to do a series of cult horror flicks.

Not to be confused with the MYSTERY OF MR. WONG (1935), a B thriller starring Lugosi, also produced by Monogram.

Directed by William Nigh, who specialized in low budgeters, more than likely because he got them done quick and as cheap as possible. Nigh was actually one of the famous Keystone Cops before becoming an accomplished director of many silent films. He successfully switched to sound films, but generally found himself handling B productions. That said, he cranked out a ton of them, regarded as a very good craftsman as shown here, regarded as the most stylish episode.

One of the first films to be put on vhs, now on dvd, also a box set with other Mr. Wong episodes. Thanks always to RETRO for running this oldie, best late nights.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

I've seen a number of these Boris Karloff movies where he plays the Chinese detective Mr. Wong, and I can never quite get used to the idea that they cast Karloff in that role. Oddly, he's the best part of the series (he was a great actor, really, going far beyond being a great Monster.

There was the potential at first for some pre-WWII intrigue, because the key element behind the murders with the poison darts is a shipment of airplanes (which seem a bit tricky to smuggle, but whatever). Nothing really comes of it, however. Strickly low budget.

For a full intro to the series, check out this very nice site: cheddarbay.com/0000celebrityfiles/films/wong/wong.html

This one is a routine affair, with the chipper female reporter to spice up the dialog. I'm not sure I'd recommend it in particular!

Reviewer Planktonrules nails the key problem. The movie is indeed "low-energy". Karloff walks through the Wong role with only eye makeup to suggest he's not Philo Vance, Crime Doctor, or any one of the other myriad sleuths of the 30's. Then too, count up his lines that are surprisingly few, suggesting his part was shot in a couple of days, probably all low-budget Monogram could afford for a headliner like Karloff. Instead, Withers and Reynolds carry much of the dialogue. But since their chemistry never gels, mainly because Withers is not very good at tongue-in-cheek, their supposed byplay falls pretty flat. Nonetheless, Reynolds shows both spunk and motivation, providing the movie's only real spark. Too bad the glamorous Lotus Long was killed off early. She could have remained a real object of interest as a mysterious dragon lady. Then too, what happened to sinister dwarf Angelo Rossito. He suddenly disappears for no apparent reason after making a colorful first impression. Instead, we get several badly choreographed fistfights among basically uninteresting characters. Add to these human elements a thoroughly muddled "mystery" that fails to generate either whodunit suspense or much interest, and you've got an inferior entry in the Moto-Chan-Wong series.