The Mystery of Mr Wong *** (1939, Boris Karloff, Grant Withers, Dorothy Tree, Craig Reynolds) – Classic Movie Review 5598

Despite his odd casting, Boris Karloff is good serious fun as Mr James Lee Wong, the Oriental detective, investigating a stolen gem and murder, in director William Nigh’s most entertaining and satisfying 1937 film version of Hugh Wiley’s mystery story.

It is a good whodunit mystery, with satisfying characters as suspects. During a game of charades, wealthy gem-collector Brandon Edwards (Morgan Wallace) is mysteriously shot dead and the largest star sapphire in the world, the ‘Eye of the Daughter of the Moon’, disappears. Edwards’s maid Drina (Lotus Long) has the gem and she plans to return it to China, whence it was stolen, but she is too murdered, and the gem again disappears.

Monogram Pictures’ always intriguing little movie is the sequel to Mr Wong, Detective, and it is cheap Thirties thriller film-making at its best. It is the second movie in a series of six.

Grant Withers returns from the original as Police Captain Sam Street. Also in the cast are Dorothy Tree as Valerie Edwards, Craig Reynolds, Holmes Herbert, Chester Gan, Hooper Atchley and Ivan Lebedeff.

It runs 68 minutes, is written by W Scott Darling, is shot in black and white by Harry Neumann, is produced by Scott R Dunlap and William T Lackey, and is scored by Edward J Kay.

The Mystery of Mr Wong was released in the US on 8 March 1939. Sequels: Mr Wong in Chinatown (1939) released in the US on 1 August 1939, The Fatal Hour (1940), Doomed to Die (1940), Phantom of Chinatown (1940).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5598

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