I've just recently watched, in chronological order of release, all five of the Boris Karloff episodes of the Mr. Wong series. The fifth entry in the series, *Doomed to Die*, is definitely the worst of the bunch, by a big margin.The film starts out reasonably well, with a good character conflict between two business rivals setting up an apparent murder in which no one is sure quite how the killing was accomplished, but the obvious suspect is the son of the murdered man. But within a short time the film spirals into mediocrity, and at points approaches the abominable. First of all, the journalist girlfriend of Captain Street, "Bobbie" Logan, though supposedly played again by Marjorie Reynolds, whose combination of perkiness, sweetness, and feistiness did so much to lift the two previous entries in the series, doesn't sound at all like the same actress. Her voice is different -- lower and harsher in tone, and less delicate and more lower-class in speaking style. It's almost as if another actress's voice has been dubbed in; one wonders if Reynolds had laryngitis or something, necessitating a substitute. But it's not just her voice. In many scenes, especially as the film progresses, she even *looks* different from the way she looked in the earlier two films. Her hair is darker; her hairdo is different; her facial expressions are very much unlike those in the earlier films. Again, one suspects that in some scenes the actress had to be replaced due to illness or for some other reason. Even the expected humorous banter between the girl reporter and the detective doesn't seem as good. Sometime it is not bad, but other times it seems harsher, less witty than in the previous two outings. It's as if the writing staff changed, or the regular writer dashed off the screenplay in a hurry.The direction of the film is poor. It is almost as if the nominal director William Nigh passed off the job to some uncredited assistant director on his first assignment. The scene where Wong goes to his Tong friends for advice is particularly badly done. The head Tong man at the table is at first the same guy who spoke for the group in an earlier Wong film; but then, when it goes into close-up, one can see that they have switched actors! The guy Wong speaks to has a much longer moustache, and his cap is differently shaped. It's as if they used stock footage for the opening, and then shot a new scene with a different actor. More generally, the Tong consultation is lamer and weaker than in the previous film.The print I watched (and I have the six-film set put out by VCI) is extremely dark. I don't know if the film was shot that way deliberately, or whether it is just a defective print. The darkness works out not too badly in the scenes in the old warehouse district, but other times it is irritating. However, the music in the film is atmospheric, and in many scenes fits in with the dark film atmosphere. But it's pretty sad when in order to find something good to say about a detective mystery one has to cite the music rather than the plot, script, or acting.From the perspective of the viewer, the exposition is flawed. Whereas in the previous Wong movies, the information released is sufficient that the viewer has at least a reasonable chance of guessing who the culprits are, in this one important information (including the existence of an important household member) seems to be deliberately withheld until late in the film, and even in the wrap-up the motivation of some of the folks involved is never tidily explained.Mr. Wong also acts out of character at one point, arrogantly bypassing Capt. Street by withholding information from him -- something never before seen in the series. Further, whereas in earlier films Wong tried to maintain a neutral, bemused stance toward the bickering between Bobbie Logan and Street, in this one he seems to lower himself in dignity by abandoning neutrality and deliberately teaming up with Bobbie against Street. When you combine this new partisan and superior attitude of Wong with the generally less pleasant execution of the female reporter's role, the overall effect is negative. Indeed, this is the first Wong movie where I was actually more sympathetic with the bellicose Street than with either Wong or "Bobbie"!Most of the earlier Wong films had several good supporting actors beyond the three leads. (E.g., *The Fatal Hour* had Charles Trowbridge and Frank Puglia.) The supporting actors in this one are mostly weak and unimpressive.The IMDb voters have given this one an average of 5.6. Normally I find IMDb voters stingy, but in this case they may be too generous. I'm giving this one a 5 out of 10. (By comparison, I give most of the Motos and Torchy Blanes 7s, and some of the Charlie Chans 8s.)Clearly the director, the writers, and Karloff were walking through this one on autopilot. I suspect that Karloff was bored with the series by this point, because he left the series after this one and Keye Luke played Wong in the final film. I haven't seen the Keye Luke film yet, but it's hard to imagine that it could be worse than this one.If you want to sample the Mr. Wong series, do yourself a favour and don't watch this one first. It will turn you off the whole series. Any of the first four films would be a better introduction.

i'm not sure quite where to go on this one folks,, i'm a die hard Karloff fan but watching him as a Chinese detective, well let's just say very painful for me to watch,, I haven't seen any other the other detective Wong movies, and i'm pretty sure I don't want to, i'm sure this is not the worst movie ever made, by far Karloff did have a few good lines, and the plot wasn't so bad, I sat thru it I guess waiting to see the old classic boris Karloff and I guess that's the main reason why I was so disappointed, I wander why he took the roles in the first place , because he was so much better in the classic horror films,, don't know why this one was in the wal mart pack under horror movies,, this is obviously crime drama, and not horror. overall it wasn't that bad if you can distance yourself from Karloff being a Chinese detective, and obviously I couldn't do that, so that's why I was disappointed in the film as a whole.

Doomed to Die (1940)Oh boy, poor Boris Karloff. He's the star, and the one great presence, in this cobbled together movie, the last of Karloff's Mr. Wong movies. Someone edited the heck out of this one, and the complex plot gets hard to follow (and hard to believe!) in the hour it takes from start to finish. That's not to say it's a bad movie. It's kind of fun, actually, and because so much is going on, you really have to pay attention, as the scenes keep changing and changing, and more and more characters appear and reappear. The plot itself is forced on things, with red herrings that are absurd and a huge disaster in the opening scenes that ultimately means little to the rest of it, or so it seems to me. There is deliberate comedy which is sometimes funny, and gives the movie an airiness that works pretty well. Karloff, amazingly, plays a Chinese detective, and they do something to his eyes to make him more Asian, but otherwise he's very Karloff, which is good. There are some brief scenes in a so-called Chinatown, but nothing so colorful as, say, the end of "Lady from Shanghai." No, this is from a thoroughly B-movie series of six Mr. Wong films, all but one, with Karloff as Wong. There are at least two other series of films with Asian detectives, an interesting sub-genre, for sure. There are eight Mr. Moto films (with Peter Lorre) around the same time (late 1930s), and there are the almost countless Charlie Chan films (first in the earlier 30s with Warner Oland, and then the late 30s into the 40s starring Sidney Toler). All of these stars were not Asian, but that's the way Hollywood compromised its bigotry with its sense of what the mainstream American audiences wanted.The thing that makes these Karloff films still watchable is their gritty urban settings, and the whodunnit quality that can hold even a mediocre movie together on a Sunday afternoon. "Doomed to Die" has some very dark night scenes (a third of the movie) and if they did that to save money on set design, that's fine with me because it makes them moody and inky. Nice.Check out this rather nice Mr. Wong site:cheddarbay.com/0000celebrityfiles/films/wong/wong.htmlTake them for what they are and you might end up watching all of them!

Monogram murder mystery with Boris Karloff starring as Oriental investigator Mr. Wong, called on by a newspaper reporter, Bobbie Logan(the unflappable Marjorie Reynolds, representative of the wisecracking dame known to populate these kinds of films at this time) to solve the case of the killing of her best friend's father, a shipping magnate, Cyrus Wentworth(Melvin Lang). Cynthia Wentworth(Catherine Craig)is in love with her father's business rival's son, Dick Fleming(William Stelling). Paul Fleming(Guy Usher), also a shipping magnate, wanted to consolidate companies with Cyrus, who would have none of it. Wentworth's shipping enterprise was under water in the stock market due to, among other things, a disaster on the high seas in regards to a fire on board an illustrious ocean liner which killed 400 people. Cyrus had just finished his will and was embroiled in a smuggling operation involving Chinese bonds from a group called the Tongs. When Dick went to Cyrus to ask his permission to marry Cynthia, the result was a heated argument. Someone shoots Cyrus not long after his discussion with Dick and Mr. Wong must determine who is responsible. Captain William Street(Grant Withers)believes it's an open and shut case and that Dick is the man behind the murder because he was in the room not long before Cyrus' demise. Other suspects emerge such as a fired chauffeur, Ludlow(Kenneth Harlan), caught a couple times on the fire escape snooping(not to mention he sneaks into Cyrus' office to burn a letter found in the safe for which Wong must use an infrared technique in an attempt to read the contents from its ashes), a Chinese servant, and Matthews(Wilbur Mack), an associate of Wentworth's. Attorney Victor Martin(Henry Brandon)also knew the contents of Cyrus' will, had prior knowledge of the smuggling operation, and the combination to the safe so he can not be ruled out as a suspect either, no matter how kind and innocent he seems.Boris Karloff incorporates Wong with a sophistication, manners, confidence(in his abilities to get innocents off the hook for a murder they didn't commit), and dependability, you just know that he will catch the criminal(s) and see that justice is served. DOOMED TO DIE is actually my first in the Karloff-Wong Monogram series and I certainly plan to see the previous entries. If you enjoy 60+ minute murder mysteries where you get plenty of red herrings with multiple suspects then you could do a lot worse than DOOMED TO DIE. Reynolds and Withers bounce insults off each other as cop and reporter respectively..Bobbie loves to rub it in that Street's certainty of Dick's guilt is wrong, utilizing Mr. Wong's detective skills to get the better of him. Meanwhile Street tries to keep Bobbie in the dark so she will not report the news before the case is completely solved. There's an attempted murder of Wong, a car chase resulting in a crash, blackmail, and ulterior motives behind Wentworth's murder pointing towards greed. The key to it all is the letter Ludlow almost gets rid of..this evidence could hold the answer which rescues Dick from jail or the death penalty. Decent Asian make-up for Karloff; a direct polar opposite to his Fu-Manchu character, Mr. Wong is polite, trustworthy, and of substantial importance thanks in part to his astute talents at uncovering what the police can not.