THE MYSTERIOUS MR WONG

US, 1934, 63 minutes, Black and white.
Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford, Arline Judge, Robert Emmett O' Connor.
Directed by William Nigh.

Wrong Wong. This Mr Wong is not that Detective played in a series by Boris Karloff (also directed by the director of this film, William Nigh). This is a Bela Lugosi vehicle several years after his performance as Dracula.

An initial introduction is given about 12 coins given by Confucius to his friends. In this story, the coins are in San Francisco, in Chinatown, and there is a series of killings to recover the coins. The power behind the murders is Mr Wong, Bela Lugosi like a Fu Manchu, make up, but with his distinctive Hungarian/Dracula accent.

In retrospect, these dramas of the 30s and 40s, in the Chinatowns of the cities of California, seem more than politically incorrect, and exaggerated presentation of the Chinese, their characteristics, their dangerous presence. Mr Wong is particularly dangerous, is threatening to a young girl in his captivity, operates a shop with a secret entrance and exit, has a series of tough Chinese thugs to do his violent errands. There is also an agent sent to investigate Mr Wong. And there is a translator of documents, especially one found indicating where the last remaining coin is.

Along with this kind of thriller atmosphere, the rest of the film is that of screwball comedy, Wallace Ford as a wisecracking, self-confident newspaper reporter investigating the case. Arline Judge is the phone receptionist at the newspaper, with her eye on Wallace Ford but also on a rival from another paper. She becomes involved in all the journalist’s investigation, dead bodies, torture chamber, Fu Manchu kinds of threats – but the reporter having a lucky break, finding a telephone off the hook even though he is bound, alerting the police, a 1930s quick shootout, and everything resolved.

William Nigh, originally a Keystone cop, directed a great number of these thrillers from the silent era to the 1940s.