Bergorks
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Michael_Elliott
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.
secondtake
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.htmlThis 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!
Michael O'Keefe
Hugh Wiley's Chinese detective Mr. Wong(Boris Karloff)finds a pretty Chinese Princess Lin Hwa(Lotus Long)dead on his study floor. Why did someone shoot the poison dart that killed her? An enterprising and attractive female newspaper reporter, Bobbie Logan(Marjorie Reynolds), seems to keep getting in the way of Wong and Police Captain Street's(Grant Withers)investigation. It is discovered that Princess Lin Hwa came to San Francisco's Chinatown to purchase airplanes to help defend her homeland. And embezzlers find it hard to outsmart Mr. Wong. This low budget movie from Monogram runs 71 minutes with Mr. Wong as a poor man's Charlie Chan. Also in the cast: Huntley Gordon, James Flavin and Bessie Loo.
MartinHafer
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.
