Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) ** (out of 4)Princess Lin Hwa frantically rushes to Detective Wong (Boris Karloff) but before he can see her she is dead. It turns out that she was shot with a poisonous dart so Wong investigates and finds that the Chinese woman was in America trying to buy warplanes. Pretty soon more bodies are found so Wong and Captain Street (Grant Withers) must try and figure out what's going on.MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN was the third film in the series and it was certainly a step down from the previous two entries. The first two films were obviously cheap "B" pictures but they at least featured decent stories and benefited from having someone like Karloff in the lead. This film has a fairly bland story and there's just not much life to it.The biggest problem with the film is that the screenplay just doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen countless times before. This time out we have a female reporter thrown in who of course is the girlfriend to Captain Streets, which leads to a bunch of arguing between the two. None of the dialogue is overly clever or charming so the fighting just comes across as annoying.Karloff is once again good in his role, although, as with the first two films, he doesn't even bother trying to act or loo Asian. He at least keeps the film mildly amusing and I'd also say that Withers gives the film a little entertainment as well. Marjorie Reynolds does what she can as the reporter and come off mildy charming at times.MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN isn't a horrible movie but at the same time it's just too routine and bland to make much of an impression.

I get these Oriental gentlemen -- Mr. Wong, Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto -- mixed up because they all look alike. This one has Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong investigating the murder of a Chinese princess fresh off the ship from Hangkow. She's the sister of an important warlord and had intended to buy airplanes so that he could defend his province and wage battle against "the other powers." This is 1939. The war had not yet started for the United States but there was a good deal of rivalry for Pacific territories and a lot of enmity based on "the other power's" invasion of first Manchuria and then China itself in the early 30s. But of course, before Pearl Harbor, no one could use words like "Japan", "Chiang Kai-Sheck", or the Wellesly-educated and charming "Madam Chiang Kai-Sheck." The resemblance between the fictional and real elements of the story may be coincidental, but I doubt it. The Japanese equivalent of Charlie Chan -- Mr. Moto -- made his last film appearance in 1939. The Green Hornet's faithful valet, Kato, lost his Japanese ancestry in the same year, becoming first a Korean, then a Filipino.That's a bit of arcana, I know, but there isn't really much to say about the film itself. Boris Karloff has both his eyelids and his hair pasted back. He doesn't try a Chinese accent, nor is he called on to speak any Chinese, thank the merciful heavens. He's a perfect gentleman throughout. And his fulgurating intuition allows him to solve mysteries with only the slightest of clues. Having overheard one of the characters order a nice headstone for a dog's grave, Wong is able to conclude that a dwarf is actually buried there "because one does not order an expensive headstone for a savage dog." This guy makes Columbo seem dim-witted.There's a relationship between a sassy blond reporter and the police detective who is always insulting her, sometimes pushing her around, shoving an apple into her mouth, telling her to "get lost." It's supposed to be funny.Yes, it's another blockbuster from MONOGRAM STUDIOS. That means "no extras," so the story has a handful of the same characters walking or driving from one location to another. Some of the interiors use the same sets with the furniture rearranged.It's the kind of B feature that you'll either find very entertaining or dull throughout. I don't think there's any third possibility.

Reviewer Planktonrules nails the key problem. The movie is indeed "low-energy". Karloff walks through the Wong role with only eye makeup to suggest he's not Philo Vance, Crime Doctor, or any one of the other myriad sleuths of the 30's. Then too, count up his lines that are surprisingly few, suggesting his part was shot in a couple of days, probably all low-budget Monogram could afford for a headliner like Karloff. Instead, Withers and Reynolds carry much of the dialogue. But since their chemistry never gels, mainly because Withers is not very good at tongue-in-cheek, their supposed byplay falls pretty flat. Nonetheless, Reynolds shows both spunk and motivation, providing the movie's only real spark. Too bad the glamorous Lotus Long was killed off early. She could have remained a real object of interest as a mysterious dragon lady. Then too, what happened to sinister dwarf Angelo Rossito. He suddenly disappears for no apparent reason after making a colorful first impression. Instead, we get several badly choreographed fistfights among basically uninteresting characters. Add to these human elements a thoroughly muddled "mystery" that fails to generate either whodunit suspense or much interest, and you've got an inferior entry in the Moto-Chan-Wong series.

Princess Lin Hwa(Lotus Long) visits Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) at his residence for assistance, however, she is killed by a poisoned arrow. Mr. Wong, with Capt. Street (Grant Withers), seeks the murderer. They are helped by Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), a reporter and Street's girfriend. They arrive at the princess's apartment to investigate and look for clues, at the same time they find her maid has been murdered. The only witness to the murder is a mute dwarf (Angelo Rosita) who mysteriously disappears. Karloff held this picture together and has made this film a true Mr. Wong series classic for all Karloff fans. It is difficult to critize this film, it was made with a very low budget and was considered a "B" film in 1939, which was usually shown with another picture, news and a cartoon. Boris Karloff was between filming of horror movies and this Mr. Wong series gave him a small income.(not like the large salaries of movie stars today. However, Karloff is very calm and unmoved in this film and nothing seems to bother Mr. Wong at all!!