Vendetta

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.

When compared to the typical genre mystery of it's time, this movie is quite good. Karloff raises the level with his measured acting, and the film is mercifully free of the comic relief clowning that was so common at the time.

This is one of those 'house' mysteries. Most of the action occurs in one house - the house of a wealthy man, as always. And, as is so often true in the genre, the detective just happens to be on the scene when the murder occurs. Another plus for this film is that the policeman - Detective Street - is not a buffoon. Street is less a foil than an aid to Mr Wong, allowing us to take the story seriously - although we can't be too serious. There are obvious red herrings, and sudden reveals of facts we didn't have. For all that, the Wong series came after the clunkiness of the early talkies had been worked out, and the acting is much closer to what we would come to expect from classic studio products.

Although I always struggle with Karloff as a Chinese - unlike the Chan series, for some reason - I have to say the role he played got the job done. This film is out of copyright, and is available online for free, and on at least one low-priced mystery collection. I found it at the library in a 5 CD Mystery and Murder set.

That is not to knock Mr Wong, Detective, it wasn't a great film but it was an entertaining one. But The Mystery of Mr Wong seemed visually more refined and just better executed in general. It does suffer from a surprising but rather underdeveloped final solution(much more could have been done to explain the reason behind the crimes) and Dorothy Tree's- a very elegant woman- at times over-emotive acting. However, where The Mystery of Mr Wong most improves on from Mr Wong, Detective is the look of the film and the pacing. The production values are not big-budget, but they are noticeably more refined in editing and photography than in its predecessor. The pacing also is much crisper and maintains interest throughout instead of having the odd lull. The music is jaunty and haunting that suits the atmosphere evoked really well, the dialogue is witty and thoughtful and the story has a good mystery and does it with a diverting atmosphere, good amounts of suspense and use of clues and a sense of fun. The film is solidly directed and the acting is mostly very competent, though only Boris Karloff is very good standard(what to expect from a great actor who made the most always of what he had?). All in all, not perfect but good fun and its improves over Mr Wong, Detective. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.

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.