The Fatal Hour (1940) ** (out of 4)Captain Street (Grant Withers) gets word that his best friend's body has been pulled from a river. Soon Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) offers to help with the case and the two uncover a smuggling ring that the friend was trying to bust. The fourth film in Monogram's Mr. Wong series is a bit different than the previous three but it never rises above its "B" movie production. What makes this fourth film so different is the fact that it's Captain Street and his girlfriend/reporter who gets the spotlight while Wong is basically made to be a supporting character.I actually thought this aspect of the film made it worth a bit better than the previous film, MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN. I actually thought Withers was quite good in the lead and his character was written well enough to where you could be entertained by him and I also thought Marjorie Reynolds was good as the girlfriend. Some of their back-and-forth fighting got a bit old but I thought both actors were good. Karloff was also good in his role but once again he made no attempt to even appear Asian.The biggest problem with this film is that the story itself just isn't all that interesting. It's decent enough for a "B" movie but it's just not good enough to where you could build any real interest in it. There's certainly no tension and the mystery aspect just isn't as strong as it needed to be to make the film more successful.

Now here's a good mystery film starring Boris Karloff as Inspector Wong, 'the Chinese Copper' as one non-PC character calls him. Here, he's helping out the San Francisco police track down the killer of an undercover cop, who's been killed while working for a smuggling racket. Wong teams up with Detective Street and a journalist named Logan (well, she always snooping around at least) and heads off to the place the copper was last seen – The Neptune Bar.The owner of the bar, Hard Way Harry, is a wise guy who looks like he did for the copper, but there are other spanners in the works – A piece of jade Wong finds leads him to a jeweller who's in debt, and who's son is hanging around the Neptune Bar with a piece of skirt Hard Way Harry knows. At first I was scratching my head trying to understand what was going on (and spending a lot of time wondering what age Jason Robards would be when he appeared – turned out it was his dad…I'm so stupid), but then things start to gel as the killer started taking out some witnesses and what not.So Wong's got a race against time to find out who the killer actually is (the killer even kills a guy at the police station) - eventually he figures it out, but even then he might be too late as the killer has figured him out too! This quick moving thriller was a lot of fun to watch, as there's plenty of red herrings, twists, and suspenseful noir-ish set pieces to enjoy. A nice surprise, this one, as I expected to be a bit bored (it's another non-horror included in Mill Creek's 50 Horror Classics - essential for folks curious about old films).There's your plug, Mill Creek - send money to Bezenby, 12 Biscuit Island, Button Moon.

Not only is THE FATAL HOUR a clumsy and mediocre film from the low-budget Monogram studio but it seems much longer than it is despite a brief running time. It's a strictly by-the-numbers sort of thing with very little actually happening until halfway through the story. Boris Karloff dons oriental make-up as the "Chinese copper" aiding Grant Withers and Marjorie Reynolds in solving the case of a murdered policeman on the San Francisco waterfront.With its drab sets and lack of any close-ups during long scenes, the story isn't interesting enough to hold the attention span of anyone but those determined to sit through this potboiler.Craig Reynolds, as a chief suspect, is the only player to inject any over-the-top histrionics to his role. All the others play their parts in an almost indifferent manner with the exception of Marjorie Reynolds as the newspaper lady with a perky sense of humor.Summing up: Hardly worth a peek--and certainly one of Karloff's dullest roles.

Assigned to a smuggling detail, a cop is found in the bay of San Francisco, bullets in him, ankles bound with rope. San Francisco Police Captain Bill Street was close to Dan so in his melancholy he's bound and determined to find the person (or persons) responsible. Oriental investigator, Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff, in Oriental make-up, speaking with a smooth British voice, reprising the role for the fourth time for Monogram Pictures), also friendly with the murder victim, offers his services to Bill. In seaman's clothes, Wong realizes that Dan was under cover at the Waterfront—perhaps this will uncover who might want to silence the undercover cop before he spilled the beans on a secret smuggling operation maybe taking place there.A Chinese jade stone, a Club Neptune, a jewelry store, a forbidden marriage, a radio program, a remote control radio, a trick to fool a switchboard operator and more murders to those who "knew too much" and were threatening to squeal, all add up to a fun little Monogram mystery, helped considerably by Karloff's star power.The cast includes Marjorie Reynolds in the familiar role of spunky, nosy newsreporter, Roberta Logan (looking for the "big scoop" for the afternoon addition of the Herald, annoying Grant Withers' cantankerous Captain Street who wishes she would butt out of police business), Charles Trowbridge as the refined jewelry store "receiver", John T. Forbes (who might know more than he is willing to reveal), Frank Puglia as the crooked owner of Club Neptune, Harry "Hardway" Lockett (behind the smuggling from the Waterfront into his place), Craig Reynolds in the "wrong man" role, Frank Belden Jr ( interrogated harshly by Street because he was in the apartment around the time his fiancé, Tanya Serova (Lita Chevret), was found murdered as she was a part of Harry Lockett's smuggling operation), and Hooper Atchley as Frank Belden Sr, the second murder victim (who, against his better judgment, in order to save his jewelry business from failure, went in cahoots with Lockett, dead set against his son marrying Tanya who he considered no good). Jason Robards Sr. has a very small role as a radio actor who becomes another victim (actually murdered in the police station; the killer is bold!) because he might can report evidence against the time of murder. I actually kind of enjoy these Mr. Wong films I have watched, a series which allowed Karloff a chance to play against type as a heroic sleuth instead of a "boogeyman".