Simply Perfect

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Bela Lugosi (Wong), Wallace Ford (Jason H. Barton), Arline Judge (Peg), Robert Emmett O'Connor (McGillicuddy), Fred Warren (Tsang), Lotus Long (Wong's niece, Moonflower), Edward Peil (Jen Wu, a Wong henchman), Luke Chan (Professor Fu), Lee Shumway (Brandon, the editor), Ernest F. Young (Chuck Roberts), Chester Gan (Tsang's agent), Theodore Lorch (incompetent Wong henchman), James B. Leong (Wong henchman), Richard Loo (bystander).Director: WILLIAM NIGH. Screenplay: Nina Howatt. Additional dialogue: James Herbeveaux. Adapted by Lew Levinson from the story "The Twelve Coins of Confucius" by Harry Stephen Keeler. Photography: Harry Neumann. Film editor: Jack Ogilvie. Art director: E.R. Hickson. Music director: Abe Meyer. Sound recording: J.A. Stransky. Producer: George Yohalem. Executive producer: Trem Carr.Copyright 12 January 1935 by Monogram Pictures Corporation. Filmed at RKO-Pathé studios in Culver City. New York opening at the Criterion: 6 March 1935. U.S. release: 25 January 1935. 7 reels. 63 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Under the guise of a tong war in Chinatown, the ambitious Wong attempts to gain possession of the twelve coins of Confucius which promise unlimited power to their owner. NOTES: One of only two movies made from the oddball mystery/crime writings of the highly idiosyncratic American novelist, Harry Stephen Keeler. The other, also released by Monogram Pictures Corporation in 1935: "Sing Sing Nights".Dorothy Lee was originally cast as the heroine, now played by Arline Judge.COMMENT: Some smart, wisecracking dialogue for brash reporter Wallace Ford and a nicely timed comic performance by Irish cop-on- the-beat Robert Emmett O'Connor, helps out a rather corny plot in which Bela Lugosi attempts (not too convincingly) to impersonate a typical Fu Manchu character. He seems hampered rather than helped by his make- up and costumes. The sprightly heroine is also forced to do battle with an unappealing outfit (the one with a ridiculously wide collar). Director Nigh (aided by Neumann's glossy black-and-white cinematography) does his best to keep the action moving along. Production values are comparatively lavish by Monogram standards, and include some unexpectedly large sets, doubtless courtesy of RKO.Sample dialogue:BRASH REPORTER: The paper sent me over to do the murder.IRISH COP: You're too late. It's already been done.

The movie does have some plot-holes, not everything is fully explained, but if you can overlook that then you might like this film. It's a cute little mystery-horror film that is intriguing in spite of it's flaws. The script writers seemed to write this one fairly quickly but somehow that is part of the charm of the film.Lugosi tends to pour his heart into playing his character roles - Mr. Wong is no exception. Mr. Wong is seemly a really nice guy but he does have a bad side... a very bad side. The character is likable in a wicked sorta way. You don't won't to get on his wrong side.I have to say the costumes are beautiful... so are some of the sets!! Overall I liked the film. I found it fun to watch.6.5/10

If you like only big budget 'A' movies that provide the director, set designers, technicians and actors all the advantages that money can buy to make a decent flick, you shouldn't watch B programmers. And the Mysterious Mr. Wong is a B pic without apologies from Monogram. The small Poverty Row studios whose budgets permitted then to make only B movies, rented everything from actors to sound stages so they had to make their movies cheaply and quickly. Anyone can made a $60 million dollar film--even a 30 million dollar flick in today's dollars, and if it turns out to be anything less than a good film, the people responsible haven't talent. On the other hand, it took solid craftspeople to turn out an entertaining 6-reel B movie in a week or two for chump change. (If you ever need a hint to distinguish between A budget and B budget movies, look for ceilings in the settings. Eliminating ceilings saved construction money and made lighting easier.) If I compare The Mysterious Mr. Wong with the better A movies, I give it a 6. If I compare it to the best of the B flicks, such as the Thin Man series (which earns a 9 from me), I'd award Mysterious Mr Wong an 8. Nina Howett banged out a script peppered with amusing dialogue, and the seemingly spontaneous Wallace Ford and Arline Judge do it up proud. Robert Emmett O'Connor always scores as the pudding-faced Irish cop with little in his noggin. Bela Lugosi, regardless of how ineptly he handled his career, remains one of the most striking and interesting performers ever on the screen---able to excel in operatic horror, comedy and drama roles. Versatile as he was, however, his acting talent didn't include a facility with accents. His Hungarian accent could only adapt to Central or Eastern Europeans characters. Still, his exotic quality triumphed over that sole limitation. William Nigh, one of the most competent B directors, keeps the pace crackling for all of the film's 65 minutes. Even the camera work is smart. Yes, the script is racist: the film's Chinese are inscrutable, untrustworthy and murderous (except the roles of Lotus Lee and her mother (?)) and Irish are thick-headed. But, as another reviewer noted, two young Chinese women turn their own back from Wallace Ford's character by replying in cultivated English to his condescending pidgin talk. The picture quality of the Alpha release is fine, but the sound is muddy.

I'm not sure whom of five people to hate: the director? one or more of the people given the writing credits? In any event, this is one of those movies that fairly actively insults the viewer by having the ostensible hero repeatedly be implausibly foolish -- as if drunk through-out the entire story. On top of this, the movie is awash with offensive ethnic stereotypes, and with obviously Caucasian actors pretending to be Chinese by looking filthy and acting sub-human. The Chinatown is made to seem as if it were literally over-run with villains, so that Wong's henchmen are to be found on every balcony and in most doorways. The banter between the hero and his love interest is not so much a volley of witticisms as it is an inept logomachy.I paused the movie repeatedly, wanting to recover from sequences of stupidity before slogging onward.