Doomed to Die (1940)

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A great opening sets up Boris Karloff's last appearance as the Chinese detective who isn't a thorn in the side of police investigator Grant Withers. That would be reporter Marjorie Reynolds who continues to taunt Withers for her abilities (and his apparent disabilities) in crime solving. In this case, it's the murder of a wealthy businessmen with the main suspect being young Guy Usher who wanted to marry the man's daughter (Catherine Craig) which her father violently opposed. Of course, there's other suspects, of the business rival variety, and those aren't as interesting as the family aspect of the case. This is the one time in the series where Wong gets a bit too close for someone's comfort, resulting in a few close calls for him, the only real notable element in this film. The Reynolds/Withers antagonism here goes a bit too far, with Reynolds becoming so obnoxiously annoying at one point that it wouldn't be beyond reason for Withers to stuff something in her mouth and lock her in a closet, or dispatch her himself and gladly turn himself in for the crime. Karloff ends his participation in the series seemingly relieved, and never worked at Monogram studios again.

Wong was dependable, soft-spoken but reasonably strong, one time he is saved by 'Logan', another time he gets shot, these are stories in which the wrongdoers strike back on the detective, and there is a trio of searchers (Wong, the girl, the cop, who treats rudely the girl), there is plot and atmosphere, suspense, offered more by actions, by the steps taken, by the storyline, than by the settings; very unlike Chan. The plots are trite, but somehow realistic, convoluted like in the later noir movies, businesspeople and smuggling, and (this like in a Chan movie …) scheming young villains. These Wong movies are quiet and had quite complex plots about businesspeople, sometimes there's also a ship, as in this movie or in 'Mr. Wong in Chinatown', Karloff gives them an enjoyable, subtle eerie semitone, and there's a cool car chase, 'Logan' isn't as much fun as Birmingham Brown from the Chan movies (she is treated harshly by the policeman, it might have seemed funny, but as a matter of fact it's rude), but the Wong outings' plots are closer to what was the genre to become in the next decade, there's a feel also that these story lines, such as they are, were meant to look crafty and perhaps intriguing, the chauffeur gives a powerhouse style performance, the wrongdoers in this movie are relatively easy to guess. Some moments are atmospheric, or suspenseful. We are shown the chauffeur, yet never Kai Ling. The young guy, innocent though accused of the murder, was intensely annoying.If compared to the Chan or Moto movies, the Wong are the more realist, with a lower body count, usually two murders; they are also less funny.

Mr Wong returns in another murder mystery! This time, a wealthy shipping magnate is trying to cope with the burning of one of his ships which has caused the deaths of hundreds of people, when he's shot and killed in his office. Mr Wong's got his work cut out for him this time, as Detective Street thinks he's already got the culprit – the son of the businessman's rival who was in the office about ten seconds before the guy got shot. We all know that's too easy, right? You've got all manner of suspects here, from the shady business partner, the lawyer, the rival or even the weird guy who keeps handing around on the fire escape. With plucky female journalist on hand, Wong sets out to get his man.While not as good as the other Wong film I've seen (The Fatal Hour), Doomed to Die still holds its own. It takes a while to get going, but once Wong starts doing his investigations, things pick up a bit. He visits the local Tong, gets shot at, discover secret passageways and a corpse, and generally runs rings around everyone else in the film. I wouldn't like to say too much without giving away the plot, mind you. It's just what it is, a solid mystery film that won't take up too much of your time. I quite like the way that Karloff, although playing a Chinese guy, doesn't overdo it and carries Wong with a certain quiet dignity.

**SPOILERS** Last of Monograms James Lee Wong detective series with the great Boris Karloff playing the witty and preceptive Chinese sleuth. Wong gets involved in the mass murder of some 400 passengers of a cruise ship to cover up an illegal bond smuggling operation. Nowhere as good as the much better Charlie Chan detectives movies that James Lee Wong was an obvious spin off from but Karloff, as James Lee Wong, gives the series that class that it needs to make it at least watchable.As the president of the shipping company that owns the cruise ship Wentworth Castle Paul Wentworth realizes that he's been unknowingly involved in illegal bond smuggling and that his flagship, the Wentworth Castle, was sabotaged in order to cover that fact up, from the Maritime Commission and FBI. Wentworth is suddenly confronted by his rival in the shipping business Paul Fleming, who came over to Wentworth's office to offer his sympathies. This leads to a violent argument over Wenthworths son Dick's involvement with Fleming's daughter Cynthia.It turns out that Dick Fleming is in love with Wentworth's daughter Cynthia and wants her hand in marriage which the mad as hell Paul Wentworth, who feels that Fleming is trying to take over his shipping company, is totally against. In no time at all with young Dick showing, as his father left, up to talk some sense into the crazy old Wentworth's head there's a shot heard, off camera, and before you know it Wentworth is dead as a door nail! Dick is seen fleeing from his office and suspected by the police for Wentworth's murder.Seeing enough of these kind of films you just know that Dick is innocent but the cop on the scene, a captain no less, Bill Street in convinced that Dick is the killer For the rest of the movie Street makes a complete jerk of himself trying to prove it with all the evidence to Paul Wentworth's murder showing that it was someone else. Capt. Street is also hampered by this nosy and pesky reporter Bobbie Logan who, unlike him, feels that Dick didn't do it and in the end has the by them embarrassed cop, after being shown how completely wrong he was, forced to eat his hat with a little salt and pepper sprinkled on it to give it some taste.Wong who comes on the scene late in the film is convinced that, like everyone in the audience, Dick is innocent which leads the real killer to take aim on him wounding Wong when he's out on the street looking for evidence in the case. It turns out that a passenger on the cruise ship, Kia Ling who survived, which the unlucky 400 others didn't, was involved in this smuggling operating of illegal bonds. Kia after being discovered by Wong and Capt. Street in his dockside home murdered it's also discovered that he isn't Kia Ling who we and Det. Wong were lead to believe but Mr. Wentworth's Chinese houseboy and all around handyman Lem Hou!Hou had been working with someone very close to the late Mr. Wentworth in the smuggling operation and was himself knocked off when the real Mr. Big got a bit paranoid and wanted no one to be around to be able to finger him for one of the largest mass murder in US crime history. He didn't at all expect that Chinese/American super-sleuth James Lee Wong was to be put on the case by the Flemings. When Wong finally went to work to get Paul Fleming's son Dick off it was just a matter of time before the real killer of Paul Wentworth was apprehended. That is if the killer didn't get, or murder, James Lee Wong first.