Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There was a documentary on public television some time ago about the Chinese in the movies. It was short because they were mostly background in early films. God forbid a Chinese person was ever cast as a Chinese person in a movie.Boris Karloff, who was a wonderful actor, is Mr. Wong. I'm not sure where this comes in the series but I'll give you two words to describe it - Monogram Studios.A woman visits Mr. Wong, but before she can speak to him, she is killed with a poison dart. She has time to write a partial note with the words "Captain J." Naturally there are two Captain Js here.The film has to do with airplanes she was buying for her brother, an important person with the Chinese air command, and the apparent smuggling of them. Don't ask me how one does that. Aren't they kind of large? It also has to do with stealing money.It's just okay but it's nice to see Karloff as someone other than Frankenstein.

Reviewer Planktonrules nails the key problem. The movie is indeed "low-energy". Karloff walks through the Wong role with only eye makeup to suggest he's not Philo Vance, Crime Doctor, or any one of the other myriad sleuths of the 30's. Then too, count up his lines that are surprisingly few, suggesting his part was shot in a couple of days, probably all low-budget Monogram could afford for a headliner like Karloff. Instead, Withers and Reynolds carry much of the dialogue. But since their chemistry never gels, mainly because Withers is not very good at tongue-in-cheek, their supposed byplay falls pretty flat. Nonetheless, Reynolds shows both spunk and motivation, providing the movie's only real spark. Too bad the glamorous Lotus Long was killed off early. She could have remained a real object of interest as a mysterious dragon lady. Then too, what happened to sinister dwarf Angelo Rossito. He suddenly disappears for no apparent reason after making a colorful first impression. Instead, we get several badly choreographed fistfights among basically uninteresting characters. Add to these human elements a thoroughly muddled "mystery" that fails to generate either whodunit suspense or much interest, and you've got an inferior entry in the Moto-Chan-Wong series.

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.

It certainly doesn't waste any time getting started: the murder occurs in the first three minutes, and in Mr.Wong's house, no less! And with the always dependable and dignified Boris Karloff in the title role again, you'd think this could develop in a pretty interesting mystery. Wrong! This film is tremendously boring. Mr.Wong has boring conversations with boring suspects who have boring motives. I had stated once that every whodunit is inherently interesting if it is at least executed with a minimum level of competence...this film proves the importance of the "competence" part. 1 star out of 4, strictly for Karloff.