The Mysterious Mr. Wong

Bela Lugosi changes genres in 1934's "The Mysterious Mr. Wong"; a detective mystery set in LA's Chinatown. As Li See he is the low profile owner of a herb shop patronized for comic relief by a stereotypical Irish cop. But he is secretly the title character who will stop at nothing to gather all twelve of the Coins of Confucius. Once he has all twelve he will have special powers in Keelat (a Chinese province) from where he apparently can inflict his evil on a wider scale.

All these coins have found there way to 1930's LA for some reason and Wong's minions spend the first part of the movie murdering assorted Chinese characters to gain possession of each coin. You quickly learn which guys are his minions because they are the only ones in the movie who wear "Billy Jack" style flat brim hats.

Newspaper reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford) begins to investigate the murders, both alone and in the company of his paper's cute and plucky switchboard operator Peg (Arline Judge). Judge becomes one of the earliest scream queens as talking pictures had only been around a few years. The chemistry and banter between Ford and Judge is the best thing about "The Mysterious Mr. Wong". It is the equal of Gable and Colbert in "It Happened One Night" but unfortunately their scenes together are not the central focus of the story.

Wong has a beautiful niece (played by Lotus Long) who periodically appears in short scenes of no actual consequence to the plot. She is in a constant state of great distress about her uncle's evil activities and it is implied that Wong kills her after she leads Barton and Peg to him.

The movie never explains why Wong regards this as a bad thing because it appears to be exactly what he wanted her to do. But this is an illustration of many logic problems in the screenplay, which are best ignored. Just enjoy the great dialogue despite the flaws in storyline logic. Some stuff essential to the plot was probably trimmed to reduce the running time. Barton and Peg are given one of the coins by a disembodied hand while they are having dinner in a Chinese restaurant. Viewers have to fill in a lot of missing action to connect this improbable coincidence with earlier events.

The Hollywood racist and ethnic stereotypes abound, my favorite is a Chinese university professor who heads up the Department of Orientology.

Lugosi is sinister in a nice self-parodying way, with an accent that is more vaguely foreign than Chinese. His Mr. Wong is entirely unrelated to Boris Karloff's later detective series of the same name.

If you enjoy early cinema this one is highly recommended. The suspense won't keep you on the edge of your seat but the Ford and Judge interplay is timeless

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

One of the truly great "Cheap" Chinatown movies. From the "so bad that it is good school". The more you watch it, the more it grows on you. Spend a little extra and get the "Roan" version. The quality is much better than the less expensive "Alpha Video" release. A real gem from Monogram pictures.

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.

Modern viewers must be forgiven if they're confused over the genre of this Bela Lugosi film. It's crime pulp, something hardly seen today except in Quentin Tarantino films. The focus is on the villain, in this case Lugosi as a Chinese(!) gangster tracking down the twelve coins of Confucius. The only mystery is how he will be stopped and whether or not he will escape to cause trouble another day.

Wallace Ford is fun as the wry reporter (reminding me a bit of Chevy Chase). And Arline Judge is as cute as a button as the switchboard operator he's trying to romance. It all takes place in Chinatown, for some reason, with plenty of casual bigotry, altho its sometimes turned around on the bigot for comic comeuppance (as when Ford talks pidgin to a Chinese girl only to be answered in fluent English).

If you like the era, this is a fun film and a good example of the genre. It's got the menacing thugs, mysterious murders, and secret passageways you expect and a bit of sassy dialog to boot.

This is one of the strangest I have watched in a good while. Of course an hour is not too long to devote to one of your horror film favorites. Disappointment sets in when you realize this is not horror, just odd. Bela Lugosi plays a ruthless Chinese villain that is not short in ordering murder in order to collect the fabled 'twelve coins of Confucius' for himself. Conveniently the coins are concentrated in New York City's Chinatown. Adding to the mystery and oddity of Lugosi's character...his thick Hungarian accent is not disguised.

Note:Lugosi's arch rival Boris Karloff had a series of Mr. Wong Chinese detective flicks also directed by William Nigh.