Alicia I love this movie so much

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

mark.waltz After the Improvement of the Mr Wong series with the previous entry, "In Chinatown", the series returns to its slow and pondering ways. It starts off intriguing, revealing the death of a pal of Boris Karloff's and Grant Withers found in the San Francisco Bay, having been working alone on a secret case involving a smuggling ring. Marjorie Reynolds returns as the ambitious reporter, and what was cute in the previous film in her rivalry with Withers now seems to be simply obnoxious. Much of the film focuses on interviewing people who claim to have seen the deceased in his last hour alive, or those who possibly could have been involved in his death or know something. That takes away time for action, making this entry boring and stagnant. There are a few interesting supporting characters, most notably Charles Trowbridge and Lita Chevret as the proprietor of a fancy nightclub and his seemingly hard as nails girlfriend. This goes to show the hit or miss quality of these quickly written and even faster made B crime dramas, made to collect a quick buck when released, but thoroughly analyzed decades later. Karloff is beginning to show his boredom with the series, or perhaps that heavily lackered hairstyle was becoming as painful to deal with as his Frankenstein monster's costume.

tlkiefner Fourth in the series of 6 films about "the Chinese Copper" James Lee Wong, the Monogram answer to Charlie Chan is featured in this 67 minute film which also includes the somewhat regular cast of Marjorie Reynolds (3) and Grant Withers (6). The story centers around the death of his long time friend on the police force Dan Grady (never saw him) who was fished out of the water with lead shoes and two bullets in the back of his neck. A perfect story about revenge where the police force sends out every available man to catch the killer. Nope. Captain Street (Withers) is going to handle this alone with "Bobbi" Logan (Reynolds) and the "Chinese Copper" Wong. Wong upon seeing the jade in Grady's desk drawer, immediately seeks the assistance of the Chinese jeweler (Richard Loo) in San Francisco's Chinatown. His advice was "A wise man could become more wise by visiting Belden's a jewelry store. It appears a dead end but leads to the clue of the smuggling ring. The Neptune Club run by Cookie (Stanford Jolley uncredited) and owned by Harry "Hardway" Lockett (Frank Puglia) are behind the smuggling and two more deaths occur, Tanya Serova (Lita Chevret), girlfriend of Belden Jr. and Hardway, and Frank Belden Sr.(Hooper Atchley. Both knew too much.John T. Forbes (Charles Towbridge) , lawyer for the creditors not to his surprise finds that $50 jade is actually $3000 pieces and when he finds that Belden Sr. is ready to confess he is murdered. Tanya is murdered because Forbes, who is in love with her, is thrown aside for Belden Jr. and he murders her. Another murder, Griswold (Jason Robards) a radio programmer, and a remote control radio all play part in the plot.Scott Darling, a prolific writer of nearly 200 screenplays, along with adaption by George Waggner best known for his directing of "The Wolfman" (1941) offered a clever story with enough twists and turns to make it interesting. William Nigh, who did over 120 films, directed an adequate job with no frills, exactly what Monogram wanted, quick, on time and on budget. The theme, written by Edward Kay nicely depicts the character Wong as a slow prodding but always moving forward character. The music is spotted rather sparsely something that Monogram does but this film is better than others in the series.As long as one keeps in mind that this is a 'B' picture and was designed to fill an hour of time, the function of Monogram. It provided second billing to the 'A' feature and did a nice job.The good news is that this film is in public domain which means you can watch it for free. I t is 1 hour and seven minutes so make sure you are getting the full version as there are some that are only one hour. If you wish an entire 6 DVD set it be purchased for a very reasonable price, under $20.00 from Oldies.com http://www.oldies.com/product-view/9571D.html. It is also available used on the net. The Roan Group seems to have the best quality.

ksf-2 This one is more of a "murder melancholy" than a murder noir. Beautiful opening shot of San Francisco. Bobbie Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) is a reporter from the Herald, and is nosing around for a good story... she storms her way into the police station, and while she is there, the (its 1940, so he must be Irish) cop yells out "They've just taken Dan Grady downtown to the morgue... murdered. " Of course, Boris Karloff is our star of the day as James Wong, a role he would play many times. Wong starts visiting Grady's hangouts, and makes enemies along the way. Keep an eye out for Lita Chevret in the fancy mink...she did TONS of stuff, but most of her roles were uncredited. Family squabbles. More dead bodies. Mr. Wong finds more clues....Story and character of James Wong taken from Collier's Magazine, originally written by Hugh Wiley. Directed by William Nigh, who directed a whole slew of the James Wong films. Nigh had been an actor in the silents for years before jumping to director. Pretty average entertainment. It's on netflix, so it doesn't really cost anything to watch it. Typical who-dunnit fare, but nothing special.

Coventry Although not as legendary or eloquent as his contemporary British colleague Sherlock Holmes, Oriental detective Mr. Wong successfully solved quite a lot of difficult cases as well, with his splendid observation talents and marvelous deduction skills. "The Fatal Hour" is the fourth film in a series of six, all but one starring the unequaled master-actor Boris Karloff in the role James Lee Wong. Police Captain Bill Street always calls him upon for help whenever there's a complex murder case with connections to the oriental community of San Francisco. In "The Fatal Hour", Street's colleague and long time friend Dan O'Grady has been murdered during his investigation of an extended oriental jewelry smuggling network. The owner of the dubious Neptune bar near the harbor – where all the smuggling import and export takes place - is the obvious suspect, but there are a lot more people involved. This isn't a very sensational film in terms of violent bloodshed or wild car chases, but the plot is quite compelling and the dialogues are fluently written. There are a couple of ingenious red herrings and I liked the realistic aspect that Wong isn't a superhero who prevents further murders from happening and thus has to face several more dead bodies during his investigation. Even though pretty much performing on automatic pilot, Karloff is terrific and he receives good feedback from the supportive cast. Particularly Marjorie Reynolds is likable as the obtrusive yet helpful gossip reporter Bobby Logan. Recommended in case you have 70 minutes to spare.