FAQ

Captain Street says of the butler, "I wonder how much that Chinaman really knows."

"For ways that are dark," quotes Mr. Wong in reply, "'and tricks that are vain. . .'"

"You know what I mean, Wong," Street says as an apology.

Mr. Wong is quoting Bret Harte, who wrote "The Heathen Chinee," a poem from 1870 that satirized anti-Chinese sentiment but was embraced by the very bigots who were being mocked. "Which I wish to remark, / And my language is plain, / That for ways that are dark / And for tricks that are vain, / The heathen Chinee is peculiar, / Which the same I would rise to explain."

Read the full poem here.

No. In the almost identically titled The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934) (1934), Bela Lugosi plays the title villain. He's not Mr. Wong, the Chinese detective, played here by Boris Karloff. Monogram Pictures produced both this film and the Karloff series, which adds to the confusion.

The Mr. Wong films are all in the public domain, which means any distributor can legally sell copies without paying royalties. Beware. Some small distributors market copies of public domain films with poor picture and sound. Others are more prestigious and deliver good transfers of the best available prints. Shop around.

You can begin your search here at Amazon.com.