Le mystère de Mr. Wong

Yes, Mr. Wong is on hand when a murder of a friend takes place. He could not prevent it but works with Capt. Sam Street of the police to solve it. The means of death is not complicated or ingenious - shooting with a silencer. But there are a number of suspects. Ballistics prove that the bullet came from a high angle. Quickly, half of the suspects are off the hook and the film becomes a relatively easy whodunit. Elementary for Mr. Wong, but of course the police are on the wrong track. Good film to see late at night when the "little gray cells" need a rest or if complicated sleuthing is not your "expertise."

Although this is a typical "B" movie from the 1930s, it is way above the average suspense flick from that period. It has a lot of interesting elements such as the presence of a valuable gem sapphire called "The Daughter of the Moon", a gunshot out of nowhere, a creepy old house, and a gathering of sinister characters in which all would have motives to commit murder.

Karloff may seem superficially miscast seeming to look just passably Chinese with the makeup used, but one must consider the premise that Mr. Wong is supposed to be raised in England and educated at Heidelberg, Germany and Oxford, England which would account for his heavy British accent.

The film continues at a fine pace throughout the film with the various characters functioning as red herrings (love triangles, attempts to reclaim the gem, another murder, an attempt on Mr. Wong's life) until the true murderer is revealed at the end of the film (which I won't reveal here).

Worthy to be mentioned along with the best of the "Charlie Chan" and "Mr. Wong" series from the same period.

10/10.

Dan Basinger

This second Mr. Wong film was given a bigger budget than the first, actually has some exterior scenes, and is a much more polished production. Boris Karloff is excellent as usual in his suave and quiet manner as the brilliant amateur Chinese detective of San Francisco. In this film, we learn more about him. We discover that he has degrees from both the University of Heidelberg and Oxford University. There is certainly no doubt about his high intelligence and his profound knowledge of Chinese literature and art. He is a connoisseur who is familiar with most types of precious Chinese objects. And hence it is that he is familiar with the background of the object which is at the centre of this story, a precious imperial gem known as The Eye of the Daughter of the Moon. It turns out that in the recent sack of Nanking (today called Nanjing) by the Japanese, numerous priceless gems, jades, and works of art from an Imperial Collection there have been pillaged and made their way into the hands of private collectors. The most priceless of all of these is the gem just mentioned which has been illegally acquired by a rich collector who is very soon murdered. There are two very annoying performances in this film. One is by Grant Withers as the Detective Inspector, shouting and over-acting as usual. The other is Dorothy Tree, who simply can't act at all. However, one ignores these faults in the interest of following the good story. Otherwise it is an excellent film, and lots of villains are to be found.

Enjoyable if less that competent mystery with Boris Karloff once again playing Hugh Wiley's Oriental detective Mr. Wong of San Francisco. Karloff breathes most of the life this film has which tells of a wealthy man and his less than devoted wife and his burgeoning collection of rare and valuable Oriental artifacts - most recently the rarest gem of all, the Eye of the Moon. A dinner party is thrown with Wong and another famous criminologist in attendance. Prior to party games, Mr. Wong is shown the rare gem and a letter he has written with the name of who he suspects of a possible future crime - his murder. The games begin and the wealthy man is shot and Mr. Wong, Mr. Janney(the other criminologist), and the policeman Street(played by Grant Withers)begin to sift through the evidence and see who is the killer(naturally the letter was taken by someone so the movie could go on). While it is true that some of the clues in finding the killer are NOT presented to us, I had no problem at all figuring out who the killer was. Just listen to the conversation between Mr. Wong and the victim carefully and it will resonate loud and clear for you. That being said, I did enjoy this film as the mystery is paced well, there are plenty of red herrings that MIGHT have shaken my preconceived notions, the acting is uniformly pretty good all around, and production values are high for a Monogram Studio release.

Having seen a number of these Mr. Wong movies, I was expecting to see a much more minimal production. They must have had a little more money for this one. As usual, the plot is a little obtuse. The jewel that is at the center of all the activity apparently has a curse on it. The "bad guy" who aren't really the bad guys want to return it to its proper setting, in a museum in China. The master collector whose house looks like a museum, with lots of Oriental artifacts, doesn't listen when warned. A young man, who has a thing for the collector's wife, is implicated in his murder (the death occurs at the time he fires a stunt gun during a game of charades). Mr. Wong realizes that there are some extenuating circumstances and that a silencer was brought into play. There is nice action and some good suspects. It keeps us guessing to the very conclusion. Even the murderer isn't without sympathy. Not a bad little whodunnit.