Mr. Wong, Detective

Simon Dayton (Hamilton) believes his life is in danger and asks detective James Wong (Karloff) to investigate.  Just before they are scheduled to meet, Dayton is found dead in his locked office.  The police, led by Captain Sam Street (Withers), were already on site to deal with a disgruntled employee: Carl Roemer (St. Polis), who threatened Dayton with a gun.

Captain Street's main suspect is Roemer, but he agrees to work with Mr. Wong to investigate every possible suspect.  Dayton and his business partners, Theodore Meisel (Gould) and Christian Wilk (Atchley), are in the middle of a big deal and just signed an agreement regarding their shares of the company.  Mr. Wong finds glass shards of glass in the room and suspects that it has something to do with Dayton's death.  Can Mr. Wong find the murderer before anyone else is hurt?


The film is based on the Hugh Wiley's "James Lee Wong" Series in Collier's Magazine.  Wiley wrote 12 short stories for Collier's Magazine from 1934 to 1938.  Monogram Pictures produced 6 films about Mr. Wong: Mr. Wong, Detective in 1938, The Mystery of Mr. Wong in 1939, Mr. Wong in Chinatown in 1939, The Fatal Hour in 1940, Doomed to Die in 1940, and Phantom of Chinatown in 1940.  William Nigh directed the first five films, with Boris Karloff as the title role.

The film is entertaining and Karloff is good in the role.  The rest of the cast is ok, but none are as good as Karloff.  Mr. Wong is a good character, and I am intrigued to see where the series takes the character next.

Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) 69 minutes
Director: William Nigh
Starring: Boris Karloff as Mr. James Lee Wong
Grant Withers as Captain Sam Street
Maxine Jennings as Myra Ross
Evelyn Brent as Olga Petroff / Countess Dubois
George Lloyd as Detective Lt. Devlin
Lucien Prival as Baron Von Krantz
John St. Polis as Carl Roemer
William Gould as Theodore Meisel
Hooper Atchley as Christian Wilk
John Hamilton as Simon Dayton