The Mystery of Mr. Wong

NR 6.1
1939 1 hr 8 min Thriller , Crime , Mystery

Detective James Lee Wong must find the "Eye of the Daughter of the Moon," a priceless but cursed sapphire stolen in China and smuggled to America. His search takes him into the heart of Chinatown and to the dreaded "House of Hate" to find the deadly gem before it can kill again.

  • Cast:
    Boris Karloff , Grant Withers , Dorothy Tree , Craig Reynolds , Ivan Lebedeff , Holmes Herbert , Morgan Wallace

Similar titles

The Big Sleep
The Big Sleep
Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is hired by wealthy General Sternwood regarding a matter involving his youngest daughter Carmen. Before the complex case is over, Marlowe sees murder, blackmail, deception, and what might be love.
The Big Sleep 1946
The Maltese Falcon
The Maltese Falcon
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a beautiful liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
The Maltese Falcon 1941
Chinatown
Chinatown
Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.
Chinatown 1974
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
'Toon star Roger is worried that his wife Jessica is playing pattycake with someone else, so the studio hires detective Eddie Valiant to snoop on her. But the stakes are quickly raised when Marvin Acme is found dead and Roger is the prime suspect.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1988
Strange Days
Strange Days
Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.
Strange Days 1995
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid 1982
Blood Simple
Blood Simple
The owner of a seedy small-town Texas bar discovers that one of his employees is having an affair with his wife. A chaotic chain of misunderstandings, lies and mischief ensues after he devises a plot to have them murdered.
Blood Simple 1985
Devil in a Blue Dress
Devil in a Blue Dress
In late 1940s Los Angeles, Easy Rawlins is an unemployed black World War II veteran with few job prospects. At a bar, Easy meets DeWitt Albright, a mysterious white man looking for someone to investigate the disappearance of a missing white woman named Daphne Monet, who he suspects is hiding out in one of the city's black jazz clubs. Strapped for money and facing house payments, Easy takes the job, but soon finds himself in over his head.
Devil in a Blue Dress 1995
Armed and Dangerous
Armed and Dangerous
After policeman Frank Dooley is framed for theft and loses his job on the force, he joins a security guard agency and teams up with inept former defense lawyer Norman Kane. When the two botch a job guarding a local warehouse, they begin to uncover corruption within the company and their union.
Armed and Dangerous 1986
Dancing with Danger
Dancing with Danger
A Portland taxi dancer is a suspect in a series of murders involving her former customers.
Dancing with Danger 1994

Reviews

FeistyUpper
1939/03/08

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

... more
Console
1939/03/09

best movie i've ever seen.

... more
Hayden Kane
1939/03/10

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

... more
Marva
1939/03/11

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

... more
TheLittleSongbird
1939/03/12

That is not to knock Mr Wong, Detective, it wasn't a great film but it was an entertaining one. But The Mystery of Mr Wong seemed visually more refined and just better executed in general. It does suffer from a surprising but rather underdeveloped final solution(much more could have been done to explain the reason behind the crimes) and Dorothy Tree's- a very elegant woman- at times over-emotive acting. However, where The Mystery of Mr Wong most improves on from Mr Wong, Detective is the look of the film and the pacing. The production values are not big-budget, but they are noticeably more refined in editing and photography than in its predecessor. The pacing also is much crisper and maintains interest throughout instead of having the odd lull. The music is jaunty and haunting that suits the atmosphere evoked really well, the dialogue is witty and thoughtful and the story has a good mystery and does it with a diverting atmosphere, good amounts of suspense and use of clues and a sense of fun. The film is solidly directed and the acting is mostly very competent, though only Boris Karloff is very good standard(what to expect from a great actor who made the most always of what he had?). All in all, not perfect but good fun and its improves over Mr Wong, Detective. 8/10 Bethany Cox

... more
Paularoc
1939/03/13

For me, the Mr. Wong series was a poor man's Charlie Chan. The series was still somewhat enjoyable thanks to Boris Karloff's performance as the soft spoken, intellectual, and Oxford and Heidleberg educated James Lee Wong. Brendan Edwards, a wealthy and odious antiques collector invites Wong to a party in order to show him a recent acquisition - a sapphire called the Eye of the Daughter of the Moon. The gem was stolen from a Chinese museum but that doesn't bother Edwards. What does bother him is that he has received a death threat because he now has the gem. When Edwards is murdered during a charades game, there are suspects a plenty including Edwards' mistreated wife, the secretary who loves the wife, Edwards' lawyer and two shady characters who want to get the gem back from Edwards. The resolution to the mystery relies on Wong having information that wasn't previously shared with the viewer. This is somewhat unusual for having a very sympathetic character as the murderer. For a Monogram, the production values were pretty good and with a couple of exceptions, so was the cast. But it's Karloff that makes this worth a watch.

... more
MartinHafer
1939/03/14

The Mr. Wong series by Monogram Studios was an attempt by this tiny poverty row studio to cash in on the success of Twentieth-Century Fox's Charlie Chan. In many ways, the two series were very similar, though Wong (played by Boris Karloff) was played less like a stereotypical Asian and the scripts, unfortunately, were generally not as good as the Chan scripts.Here, in a completely average film, Wong is investigating the death of a rich jerk who is proud that he owns a stolen treasure from China. Considering how arrogant and unlikable he is, it isn't at all surprising that he's soon murdered--and in a rather clever way. The actual mystery is only moderately suspenseful by B-mystery film standards, but the film's lack of comic relief may appeal to those who dislike this aspect of the Chan films.As for the acting, this film is unusual in that all the actors were good except for one whose performance really stood out from the rest--it was THAT bad. Dorothy Tree, who played the wife of the murdered man, was simply horrible. Every time she opened her mouth, she over-emoted and enunciated like she was in a diction class. When I checked her biography on IMDb I discovered two things--that she was a reasonably prolific actress AND that she was a singing and diction coach. That really helps to explain her performance as did a quote from Ms. Tree concerning the role of proper diction in advancing feminism--"more resonance, clear speech and a better vocabulary." Well, sometimes more isn't better! A decent time-passer--provided you don't mind wading through Ms. Tree's impassioned acting.By the way, the copy I watched clocked in at 70 minutes--2 minutes longer than the time listed on IMDb.

... more
Hitchcoc
1939/03/15

Having seen a number of these Mr. Wong movies, I was expecting to see a much more minimal production. They must have had a little more money for this one. As usual, the plot is a little obtuse. The jewel that is at the center of all the activity apparently has a curse on it. The "bad guy" who aren't really the bad guys want to return it to its proper setting, in a museum in China. The master collector whose house looks like a museum, with lots of Oriental artifacts, doesn't listen when warned. A young man, who has a thing for the collector's wife, is implicated in his murder (the death occurs at the time he fires a stunt gun during a game of charades). Mr. Wong realizes that there are some extenuating circumstances and that a silencer was brought into play. There is nice action and some good suspects. It keeps us guessing to the very conclusion. Even the murderer isn't without sympathy. Not a bad little whodunnit.

... more

Watch Free Now