As 12 Moedas de Confúcio

The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford) begins to investigate a murder, which leads him to a set of twelve coins, which legend has can help a person control the world if they posses all of them. This investigation leads to Mr. Wong (Bela Lugosi) who appears to be willing to stop at nothing to get the final coin that he needs.

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG is exactly the type of "B" film you'd expect Monogram to release during this era. Obviously Fox was doing outstanding business with their Charlie Chan series so smaller studios were taking Asian characters and doing their own thing. This low- budget movie is pretty typical for the era but with Lugosi in the lead that adds a lot more fun to it.

I said typical of the era because if you watch enough movies from this period then you'll realize that all sorts of them dealt with a reporter doing some sort of investigation. A lot of times these reporters were wise-cracking joksters who like to flirt with the ladies while throwing their nose at the real police. That form pretty much holds true here but thankfully Ford is a likable actor so he too helps keep the entertainment level high.

As far as Lugosi goes, that accent certainly doesn't help his Asian character but it's Monogram so who cares, right? He's fun in the lead role and certainly helps keep the film moving at a nice pace even though the story is nothing special. William Nigh does a nice job with the movie and keeps it running at a good pace through its 62- minutes.