Tonight's Movie: The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Tonight it was time to watch THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG (1939), the second film in Kino Lorber's recently released five-film Mr. Wong Collection.

A couple weeks ago I reviewed the first movie in the set, MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938).

All five films in the set star Boris Karloff as the detective originally created by Hugh Wiley for Collier's Magazine.

Like the first film in the set, THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG was directed by William Nigh and filmed by Harry Neumann. The screenplay was by Scott Darling.

Brendan Edwards (Morgan Wallace) has come into possession of the fabulous Chinese jewel "The Eye of the Daughter of the Moon." Edwards contacts Mr. Wong as he fears for his life; the jewel is cursed -- and he's also recently received a threatening letter.

As in the first film, Mr. Wong's new client promptly expires; in this case Edwards suddenly dies while playing a game at a party he's hosting with his (much younger) wife Valerie (Dorothy Tree).

It's up to Mr. Wong to figure out who's killed Edwards and why before the conclusion of the movie's 68 minutes.

I enjoyed THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG about as well as I did the first film in the set. It's an ultra-low-budget Monogram Pictures movie but it has a fairly well-constructed plot and it's fun to watch Wong at work. He's always calm, even when he's shot at!

Grant Withers returns as Police Captain Sam Street. The supporting cast includes Craig Reynolds, Holmes Herbert, Lotus Long, Lee Tong Foo, Wilbur Mack, and Ivan Lebedeff.

They're all pretty much stock characters, with no particularly noteworthy performances; this is Karloff's film all the way, and he makes it worth watching.

The good-looking print is from a brand-new master from a 2K scan of the fine grain film.

I'm especially looking forward to the next film in the set, MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN (1939), which features Marjorie Reynolds in the cast.

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

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