Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
When a chemical manufacturer is poisoned by cyanide gas inside a locked office, Chinese-American detective James Lee Wong is called in over the objections of a skeptical police captain, and finds the household's list of suspects only growing as the killer strikes again.
The first of six Monogram programmers built around James Lee Wong, Mr. Wong, Detective cast Boris Karloff against type as a mild, cerebral criminologist rather than a monster — a role he’d play through four sequels before Keye Luke took over for the last entry, Phantom of Chinatown.
Background
Mr. Wong, Detective is the first of six Monogram Pictures programmers built around James Lee Wong, a Chinese-American detective. Boris Karloff plays the title role as a mild, cerebral criminologist rather than the monsters he was known for, and William Nigh directed. Karloff appeared in five of the six Wong films before Keye Luke took over the role for Phantom of Chinatown. The series was made on a low budget for poverty-row distribution, which shaped its tight, single-location mystery format.
What to watch for
The film opens with a chemical manufacturer poisoned by cyanide gas inside a locked office, which gives the mystery its central puzzle. Wong is brought in over the objections of a skeptical police captain, played by Grant Withers, and the audience follows his methodical questioning of a household full of suspects. Watch how Karloff plays Wong quietly and deliberately, with dry patience and little of the menace from his earlier horror roles. The locked office and the household interiors are reused and lit to make the closed-room puzzle work on a modest budget, and the solution depends on careful attention to the suspects’ movements.
