Mr Wong series

Boris Karloff plays James Wong, an Oxford educated (explaining his British accent), San Francisco dwelling Asian-American. The aim was, of course, for Monogram to compete with 20th Century Fox’s Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto films. It didn’t work, but seven years after the close of “Mr. Wong,” Monogram acquired the Chan series for itself. Keye Luke, who starred in the brief re-boot as Jimmy Wong, the next generation, was, of all the actors who floated through the Chan, Moto, and Wong movies, the only person of Asian heritage to play an Asian lead. The Wongs were shot of the cheapest of cheap budgets entirely on what seemed to be very cramped sound-stage sets. The first, “Mr. Wong, Detective” though is pretty good with an excellent murder method and a least-likely-person solution. The scripts then begin a downhill climb. For me, watching Boris Karloff work was enough reward for seeing them.

“Fatal Hour,” the next to last Karloff Wong, gave Det. Street a love interest in a Torchy Blaine-ish fact-talking gal-reporter played by Marjorie Reynolds, another memory trip for people who grew up with ‘50s TV. After hearing the name “Marjorie Reynolds,” anyone in this category should have automatically started reciting the opening credits to “Life Of Riley” (“With Marjorie Reynolds as Peg, Tom D’Andrea as Gillis, Lugene Sanders as Babs, Wes Morgan as Junior and William Bendix as Riley”). P.S. “Final Hour” is a pretty bad mystery. It didn’t need Mr. Wong; they could have called me. I saw that the murderer was obvious from about half-way through.