Mr. Wong, Detetive

This obscure little movie is a delightful surprise for film buffs. The surprise is Boris Karloff in the role of the well mannered oriental detective. Yes, this is the same Boris Karloff who was Frankenstein the monster! He manages the role as if it were a well worn and comfortable pair of houseshoes, and it becomes unimportant, quickly forgotten and insignificant that a nonoriental is Mr. Wong.

A business man gets involved with a deal involving poison gas. When he is inexplicably found dead in his office under suspicious circumstances, Detective Street (Grant Withers) is called in on the case. The sharp tongued detective Street looks for the blatant and obvious clues, while he often misses what is going on beneath the surface in this mysterious case. Mr. Wong, a well known detective who was acquainted with the victim, begins to notice clues that Detective Street overlooks. The body count begins to mount as the partners of the dead business man also begin to die under strange circumstances. Mr. Wong must keep his mind open in this thriller when the obvious suspect first seems guilty, then innocent as other suspects turn up including a sinister Baron and a Countess. Maxine Jennings is great as Detective Streets lady friend, Myra. Snappy dialogue and good actors move the story along at a good clip. There are a couple of scenes that are shot in poor lighting, but they don't hinder this very good entry in the 1930's detective genre of movies.

This will be an entertaining movie for film buffs. I give it an 8/10.

Throughout the 1930s, Fox Studios made a ton of very successful Charlie Chan films. It isn't surprising that this led to knock-off characters like Mr. Moto (also from Fox) and Mr. Wong (from poverty row giant, Monogram Studios). Frankly, while the Moto and Wong films are pleasant enough B-movies, they are too similar to the Chan films but lack their charm and wit. In the case of Wong and Chan the similarity was even greater as both were of Chinese descent, traveled the world and were "do-gooders" who often helped the helpless when conventional police work failed.

In the early 1940s after Monogram completed six not particularly distinguished films AND Fox decided to discontinue the Chan series, an opportunity arose for Monogram to bring Sidney Toler to the studio and make their own Chan films. As a result, Wong was expendable and since four years had passed since the last film in this series, the studio heads decided they wanted no more Wongs. Besides, if they had Chan AND Wong, the resulting films would be like having two Wongs--and that's just not right.

MR. WONG, DETECTIVE is the first Wong film and there's nothing particularly wong, I mean WRONG about the film. It was entertaining and had a nice mystery. However, it's also an awful lot like several other Monogram films--and is most like their next Wong film, THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG. It's also a lot like the Chan films, MURDER OVER NEW YORK, THE JADE MASK and DOCKS OF NEW ORLEANS. In other words, many plot elements were repeated and after a while the films started to be indistinguishable from each other--something that was NOT a problem with the Fox films.

Overall, it's worth seeing and is possibly the best film of the series--though this isn't saying a lot.

I have the Mr. Wong series on DVD and find it quite enjoyable. You must immerse yourself in the ambience of sitting in a darkened movie theater circa 1939 watching a double bill of "B" movies to enjoy. By modern detective story standards it is creaky, but you don't watch it for the plot. I agree the sheer political incorrectness of the very British Boris Karloff playing a Chinese detective takes some getting used to, but he lends the role an air of dignity that a less talented actor would not be capable of expressing. Grant Withers is most famous for eloping with a seventeen year old Loretta Young before her rise to stardom. The later films in the series feature a cheeky Marjorie Reynolds and gives her ample room to display her comedic talents. All in all, suspend your modern frame of reference and enjoy!

Although most of the production is pretty plain, the basic mystery story in "Mr. Wong, Detective" is rather interesting, and Boris Karloff's good performance as the detective also makes it worth seeing. Karloff brought a human touch to every role that he played, and even though this is an atypical part for him, he is a believable Mr. Wong. Most of the other characters are somewhat nondescript, except for Grant Withers's abrasive police officer, and aside from Karloff the cast is nothing special, but the story itself is enough to hold your interest.

In the story, the detective must patiently solve a mystery from the slightest of clues. Some of the developments strain credibility, but if you can accept the premise, it's an interesting idea and it makes decent use of the details. There are several places where it could have been written better or edited more effectively, but the pacing is pretty good, and as it proceeds, it often gives you what you need to know in order to try to anticipate what happens next.

The climactic sequence is one of the better ones that you'll see in this kind of B-movie. The production values are lower than a Karloff feature deserves, but with a solid story and Karloff in the lead, it's definitely worth seeing.

Having been a fan of Charlie Chan I was not familiar with Mr Wong but to my surprise the story itself was worthy of a Charlie Chan. Over look Boris Karloff as an oriental will allow you to enjoy this film. Film opens fast with a frighten man seeking help from Mr Wong. His murder is a mind bender in the tradition of Chan films as no one can figure out how a man in a locked room is killed with the police right outside of the door. Many suspects and more of the mysterious murders makes this a film "most enjoyable" for the "detective" in each of us.