Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

blanche-2 Boris Karloff is "Mr. Wong, Detective" in this 1938 film.A man (John Hamilton) comes to see Mr. Wong because he has the impression that he's being followed and that his life is in danger. He and his two partners have just signed papers leaving each other their share of the business in the event of their deaths.Mr. Wong agrees to meet the gentleman in his office the next day. He can be seen looking out the window at one point, but when his office is entered, he's dead. And the only clue is a thin piece of glass. Another death follows.This is a retreaded script but still entertaining. Karloff is good as the detective, though one doesn't think of him as Oriental. Grant Withers is over the top as the police inspector, but the other actors are okay.Entertaining B movie.

winner55 Karloff's Wong compares quite favorably to the various screen interpretations of Charlie Chan. He doesn't play a stereotypical Chinese according to Hollywood formula (and neither does Keye Luke in a later film in the series). Karloff brings a wit and a quiet air of command to the character, he is always moving steadily toward a solution to the crime at hand. He presents Wong as quite the most intelligent character in every film. The mysteries themselves are about average for the period. In most of the Wong films the clues are there for the audience if they care to look for them. Also, one must remark the important part Grant Withers plays, as the earnest, tough, but slightly dimwitted police Captain Bill Street, and the occasional appearance by Marjorie Reynolds as the sassy reporter Bobbie Logan who dates Street off-hours, only to interfere when at work. They bring a pleasing air of continuing romantic interest as well as comic relief to the series.

Hitchcoc Having seen the others of the Wong canon earlier, and this being the first, I believe it to be superior to those. Karloff appeared to take the role seriously. The plot to use the poison gas is clever. The potential for a terrorist act is always there. There are also lots of dynamics at work. Wong is so under control. He bides his time and lets the young police detective make a fool of himself, using heavy handed tactics on those he is interrogating. What's interesting is that Wong seems to have respect for this guy who knows nothing and acts so irrationally. Wong eventually moves in and gets the information he needs in a gentle manner. While much of this strains the limits of believability, it shows Karloff to be a pretty good actor. These series things are really throwaways and yet he seems to care how his character comes across. Whenever there is a closeup, it's hard to imagine him being Asian, but there was a lot of that going around in those days.

classicsoncall As a fan of, and having seen all of the available Charlie Chan films, I was curious to sample another take on the genre, with "Mr. Wong, Detective" as my first sampling of the Wong series. I found the movie to have both similarities and differences to the Chan mysteries.As far as similarities go, the first and most obvious is the casting of a non Oriental in the lead role; Boris Karloff does a credible job as Detective James Lee Wong, even though one must stretch belief to accept the characterization.The story itself involves the inventor of a poison gas formula seeking revenge on three partners of the Dayton Chemical Company who conspire to cut him out of the profits from his invention. As with the Chan films, red herrings galore are introduced to cast suspicion in different directions. Only the exacting patience and precision of the title detective it seems, will uncover the real killer. Patience indeed is needed, as Police Captain Sam Street (Grant Withers) constantly jumps to conclusions based on clues that unfold with the investigation. His portrayal is almost over the top as he belts out commands and virtually harasses everyone he questions, including girlfriend Myra Ross (Maxine Jennings), who's secretary to Simon Dayton, President of the Dayton Chemical Company and the film's first victim.Probably the major difference to the Charlie Chan films is the lack of comic relief, as provided by Number #1,2 and 3 Sons, and in the case of the Monogram Chan films beginning in 1944, that of chauffeur Birmingham Brown as portrayed by Mantan Moreland. This being a Monogram, the film does move more slowly than the better Chan's, and the Monogram Chan films in turn are considered inferior to the Twentieth Century Fox series.Monogram would eventually go on to retread the secret gas formula plot in two subsequent Charlie Chan movies, 1945's "The Jade Mask" starring Sidney Toler, and 1948's "Docks of New Orleans" with Roland Winters, both films rated in the lower third of the Chan canon. Both "Mr. Wong, Detective" and "Docks of New Orleans" at least come up with clever ways that the murderer finds to administer the poison gas that claims its' victims.Which brings me to the most glaring plot hole in "Mr. Wong, Detective". Early in the film, inventor Carl Roemer (John St. Polis) barges into Simon Dayton's office brandishing a handgun and demanding that Dayton return to him the poison gas formula, as if he would not have kept notes on such an important invention. Yet Roemer uses the very same poison gas to exact his revenge - someone wasn't paying attention!