The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1935)

Simply A Masterpiece

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Have Tong wars gone out of style? Not according to the House of Wong, here with a Hungarian accent. "The Wrong Mr. Wong" an old friend of mine used to refer to this as, and indeed in comparison to good guy Boris Karloff's heroic Chinese detective (complete with British accent and lisp), Bela Lugosi's evil villain is closer to Karloff's Fu Manchu, or perhaps several of Lugosi's serial villains. This doesn't have the opulence of MGM's "The Mask of Fun Manchu", but is equally as tacky.Searching for the twelve coins of Confucius, Lugosi is as mad as the long nailed Fun Manchu, whether it be Karloff's or predecessor Warner Oland who by now had moved to the right side of the law as Charlie Chan. But when non-Asian actors play Asian characters, there's bound to be stereotyping and offense characteristics no matter if they are good or bad. Lugosi is fortunately mussing the broken Asian version that Oland, Karloff and much later both Christopher Lee and Peter Sellers would utilize, but the fact that he is so obviously Eastern European rather than Asian makes his performance all the worse.Adding comedy into the mix is Wallace Ford as a really idiotic reporter who seems to find more trouble than information for an article. A scene where he keeps walking into near death situations is played for laughs like a a Scooby Doo cartoon. The typical pompous but equally idiotic Irish cop adds more eye rolling, if innocent laughs. And try not to hear yourself say Mr. Wong's Tong Gong over and over when Ford's rather obnoxious female companion (Arline Judge) overhears the sound on the darkened middle of the night streets. Lugosi fans will have fun here as it is the epitome of everything that Lugosi could do to bring even the cheapest of his programmers to the lowest of the low is a pretty sorry state of affairs. Creaky pacing, wretched dialog, ridiculously dumb law enforcers and a one dimensional leading character makes this watchable nonsense and a definite lesson as to why old style Hollywood racism is just the worst example of prejudice at its most absurd. If you play a drinking game with this one and take a shot every time Lugosi's mustache dances, you'll be drunk within the first reel.

The movie does have some plot-holes, not everything is fully explained, but if you can overlook that then you might like this film. It's a cute little mystery-horror film that is intriguing in spite of it's flaws. The script writers seemed to write this one fairly quickly but somehow that is part of the charm of the film.Lugosi tends to pour his heart into playing his character roles - Mr. Wong is no exception. Mr. Wong is seemly a really nice guy but he does have a bad side... a very bad side. The character is likable in a wicked sorta way. You don't won't to get on his wrong side.I have to say the costumes are beautiful... so are some of the sets!! Overall I liked the film. I found it fun to watch.6.5/10

I've always been intrigued with Bela Lugosi. It's been an ambition of mine to see all the films he made. This effort must have been done to capitalize on his star power. For whatever reason, he (as Mr. Wong), is collecting Confucian coins. Men who possess them are being murdered and Wong's henchmen bring the coins to him. A silly reporter and his girlfriend get wrapped up in the case and find their way to Wong's lair. Leading up to a somewhat interesting conclusion, are a series of lame, tiresome interactions within the evil man's lair. Lugosi looks ridiculous and speaks with that heavy European accent, and, of course, Hollywood's version of an Asian. There is a lot of political incorrectness and Chinese stereotyping. It's interesting that so many movies have a criminal genius who does stupid things and gets himself caught. Even though a murderer, Mr. Wong doesn't kill the person who is the most danger to him. Then, again, it's all based on the cliffhanger and killing off the hero wouldn't be much fun.

It has some good sequences, but overall "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" doesn't really live up to its promise. With Bela Lugosi starring as a shadowy villain, a decent plot idea that involves artifacts from ancient history, and a couple of interesting-looking settings, it had the makings of a good B-feature, at least as long as you are willing to overlook some stereotypes and the like for the sake of entertainment.Lugosi's character is interesting, as is his hideout, and Lugosi also gets the chance to play two different sides of his character. The script seems to miss a lot of opportunities, though, because the character really never comes to life as well as it could have. Wallace Ford actually gets the best opportunities, as the reporter who, along with Arline Judge, tries to contend with Wong's plots. Ford does pretty well in the role, and he has plenty of energy.The story likewise holds some possibilities that are never realized. There are some fairly good sequences with the characters inside Wong's secret lair, but at other times the story doesn't always make a lot of sense, and the interesting ideas involved in Wong's quest for the coins are mostly mentioned only in passing. It's all right as light entertainment, but it could have been more.