When a police officer is murdered, Captain Street looks to Mr. Wong to catch the killer. Prime Suspect: Frank Belden Jr., whose father is a businessman well known for both his success and dishonesty. Mr. Wong faces increasing danger and is nearly executed himself as the investigation develops in treachery and complexity. As Mr. Wong follows the trail of dead bodies, he uncovers a jewel smuggling ring on the San Francisco waterfront and a case much larger than the death of a police officer.
Similar titles
Reviews
Waste of time
Purely Joyful Movie!
A waste of 90 minutes of my life
Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
This one is more of a "murder melancholy" than a murder noir. Beautiful opening shot of San Francisco. Bobbie Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) is a reporter from the Herald, and is nosing around for a good story... she storms her way into the police station, and while she is there, the (its 1940, so he must be Irish) cop yells out "They've just taken Dan Grady downtown to the morgue... murdered. " Of course, Boris Karloff is our star of the day as James Wong, a role he would play many times. Wong starts visiting Grady's hangouts, and makes enemies along the way. Keep an eye out for Lita Chevret in the fancy mink...she did TONS of stuff, but most of her roles were uncredited. Family squabbles. More dead bodies. Mr. Wong finds more clues....Story and character of James Wong taken from Collier's Magazine, originally written by Hugh Wiley. Directed by William Nigh, who directed a whole slew of the James Wong films. Nigh had been an actor in the silents for years before jumping to director. Pretty average entertainment. It's on netflix, so it doesn't really cost anything to watch it. Typical who-dunnit fare, but nothing special.
When a friend and fellow police officer is murdered, Captain Bill Street (Grant Withers) turns to Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) for help. Wong's investigation leads him to uncover a smuggling ring. Because the story here is personal for his character, Grant Withers gets a chance to flex his acting muscles for the first time in the series. He wasn't nominated for an Academy Award, which surely must have been an oversight on the part of the Academy. Surely. But don't think the dramatic storyline means Street doesn't find time to yell at his girlfriend, Torchy Blane rip-off Bobbie Logan (pretty Marjorie Reynolds). Another watchable entry in the Mr. Wong series, which was never anything exceptional. Any movie with Boris Karloff is always worth watching once.
When Captain Street's best friend Dan O'Grady is murdered, Street enlists the help of Chinese detective James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff). Wong uncovers a smuggling ring on the waterfront of San Francisco and unmasks the killer, though not until several more murders occur. This film was including in a horror box set, and the Internet Movie Database considers it to be in the genre of horror, but I will tell you right now: there is no horror in this. None. It is a straight detective story. Yes, Boris Karloff is in it, but that does not make it horror.I was confused by the casting of Karloff as the Chinese Mr. Wong. He plays Wong in six films, but as far as I can tell Karloff is not Chinese and does not look or sound even vaguely Chinese. So why would they not cast someone else or change the nationality of Karloff's character? I really enjoyed Marjorie Reynolds as the pushy reporter, who was possibly Grant Withers' girlfriend (it is never made clear). She seems to show up at all the critical moments, adding a humorous element to the otherwise straight film. The other great character is Frank Puglia as "Hardway", the career criminal who hangs out around the police station. He was the most interesting character, providing a great red herring (actually this film is full of red herrings).If you like mysteries and old films, this is one you will want to give a fair chance to. If old movies bore you, never mind... you will fall asleep. But I liked it.
Although not as legendary or eloquent as his contemporary British colleague Sherlock Holmes, Oriental detective Mr. Wong successfully solved quite a lot of difficult cases as well, with his splendid observation talents and marvelous deduction skills. "The Fatal Hour" is the fourth film in a series of six, all but one starring the unequaled master-actor Boris Karloff in the role James Lee Wong. Police Captain Bill Street always calls him upon for help whenever there's a complex murder case with connections to the oriental community of San Francisco. In "The Fatal Hour", Street's colleague and long time friend Dan O'Grady has been murdered during his investigation of an extended oriental jewelry smuggling network. The owner of the dubious Neptune bar near the harbor where all the smuggling import and export takes place - is the obvious suspect, but there are a lot more people involved. This isn't a very sensational film in terms of violent bloodshed or wild car chases, but the plot is quite compelling and the dialogues are fluently written. There are a couple of ingenious red herrings and I liked the realistic aspect that Wong isn't a superhero who prevents further murders from happening and thus has to face several more dead bodies during his investigation. Even though pretty much performing on automatic pilot, Karloff is terrific and he receives good feedback from the supportive cast. Particularly Marjorie Reynolds is likable as the obtrusive yet helpful gossip reporter Bobby Logan. Recommended in case you have 70 minutes to spare.
Top Streaming Movies
