Saturday, September 30, 2023

Tonight's Movie: Doomed to Die (1940) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

I wrapped up watching the Mr. Wong Blu-ray collection from Kino Lorber with the fifth film in the series, DOOMED TO DIE (1940).

DOOMED TO DIE was shown here under the alternate British title MYSTERY OF THE WENTWORTH CASTLE.

The Wentworth Castle is a ship owned by Cyrus Wentworth (Melvin Lang) which tragically sinks, killing hundreds.

Soon thereafter Wentworth also dies suddenly. Dick Fleming (William Stelling), who is engaged to Wentworth's daughter Cynthia (Catherine Craig), is the chief suspect in Wentworth's death and is arrested by San Francisco Police Captain Street (Grant Withers).

Street's friend, eminent private detective James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff), isn't so sure he has the right man; Wong and Street's friendly nemesis, reporter Bobbie Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), set about working other angles of the story.

I targeted the correct suspect early on, but it's a nice little 68-minute mystery which I enjoyed. I've quite liked this set and am sorry the series came to an end here, at least as far as the Karloff Wong films are concerned.

There was one more movie in the series which isn't in this set, PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN (1940), which starred Keye Luke as James Lee Wong. Grant Withers returns as Captain Street. I have a TCM recording of that movie and hope to review it here in the fairly near future.

Catherine Craig, who plays Cynthia, acted throughout the '40s. Offscreen Craig was the wife of Robert Preston, whom she married the same year DOOMED TO DIE was released. The Prestons were married until his death in 1987; she died in Santa Barbara in 2004.

The cast also includes Henry Brandon (THE SEARCHERS), Richard Loo, Guy Usher, Kenneth Harland, Maxine Leslie, and Tristram Coffin.

DOOMED TO DIE was directed by William Nigh and filmed in black and white by Harry Neumann.

The print is a new master from a 2K scan of the fine grain. Like the other films in this set, it looks and sounds quite good, especially considering it's a "Poverty Row" film released by a long-gone company.

Links for the reviews of the other films in this set: MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938), THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG (1939), MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN (1939), and THE FATAL HOUR (1940).

This set is recommended for fans of "B" mysteries and Boris Karloff.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray collection.

posted by Laura @ 11:00 PM 

1 Comments:

Blogger john k said...

Many thanks,Laura for giving so much attention to this excellent MR WONG set from Kino Lorber.I did not realise that MGM/UA owned so much of the Monogram library especially the earlier titles. The Monogram/Allied Artists library are mostly owned by Warners with Paramount owning many titles.
There are,however a whole heap of Monogram titles owned by MGM/UA including many of the earlier Charlie Chan movies (many of the best) and the three "Shadow" movies and two of the three Kay Francis movies that she made for Monogram at the end of her career.
I hope the Wong set has sold well enough to make Kino consider releasing more titles.
There are so many wonderful B Thrillers now owned by MGM/UA as well as many curios.
One such curio is SILVER SKATES (1943) co starring Belita and Patricia Morison.
I'm on a real Belita kick at the moment revisiting those excellent Noirs that she made for Monogram/King Brothers and I've always adored Morison in anything. I guess SILVER SKATES is not strong enough to stand alone as a single release but paired with another of Monogram's "Mini Musicals" would make a fascinating double bill.

4:29 AM  

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