JohnHowardReid 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.

zardoz-13 The 1935 Monogram Pictures' release "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," with Bela Lugosi, clearly didn't deserve any Oscars, but neither does director William Nigh's poverty-row crime thriller qualify as ghastly. This low-budget, black & white whodunit about a series of murders occurring in the Chinatown section of an anonymous metropolitan American city is incorrigibly xenophobic. Remember, when this movie came out, Americans harbored paranoid fears about the so-called 'Yellow Peril' that Chinese immigrants represented as they poured into the west coast. Any multi-culturally minded liberals who partake of "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" are going to be not only appalled but also offended this movie's conspicuous, racially charged invective.Clocking in at a meager 63 minutes, this melodrama never wears out its welcome. Prolific director William Nigh, who helmed 120 movies in a career spanning thirty-four years, and his writers keep things clicking. Lew Levenson adapted author Harry Stephen Keeler's story "The Twelve Coins of Confucius," and Nina Howatt penned the screenplay with James Herbuveaux contributing additional dialogue. Neither Howatt nor Herbuveaux wrote anything after "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," but the dialogue sounds pretty snappy, slang-riddled, but quotable. The action itself resembles a twelve chapter serial pared down to the bare essentials. Secret passageways, concealed doors, underground sanctums, exotic coins, and torture chambers permeate this yarn."The Mysterious Mr. Wong" opens with expository information from an encyclopedia about the fabled twelve coins of Confucius and how the person who possesses them will rule a province called Keelat. A newspaper story about a murder appears next. Indeed, newspaper accounts of homicides in Chinatown recur throughout the film. Three slayings occur in rapid succession in the first few minutes. The police believe that the Tongs are on the warpath. The first victim staggers out into a street and collapses. A man searches his body, finds a perforated coin, and plants a note with a Chinese letter on the corpse. The second victim has been hanged and hands rifle his pockets to acquire a coin. The third man is strangled as he sleeps—yes, he is strangled perhaps too quickly, but the Production Code censors might have forced Nigh to accelerate this lurid death scene—and hands plunder his body, extract the coin from a shoe and leave the usual note on his body. Meanwhile, agents of the Keelat province show up in town to thwart Mr. Wong. Phillip Tsang (E. Alyn Warren of "Chinatown Squad") heads up the operation. Eventually, Tsang crosses paths with Mr. Wong and Wong takes him hostage.A cynical newspaper reporter, Jason Barton (Wallace Ford of "Freaks"), investigates these murders. The authorities are convinced that the Tongs are responsible. Barton disagrees in a news story, and his editor Steve Brandon (Lee Shumway of "The Lone Star Ranger"), packs him off to find a Chinaman named Wong. "Did you ever run into a Chinaman by the name of Wong?" Brandon inquires. "Have I ever run into any that ain't named Wong?" Barton retorts. Our journalistic hero ventures into Sam Toy's Laundry where he encounters an Irish cop, Officer 'Mac' McGillicuddy (Robert Emmett 0'Conner of "Picture Snatcher"), who seems to be the only policeman walking a beat in the district. He shares Barton's racism and refers to the Chinese as "monkeys." None of the other reporters are interested in the murder. Barton checks over the body and learns that Toy died with a pencil in his hand. A breeze blows through the laundry when Mac opens the door and Barton finds a message written in Chinese. He visits the herb shop of Mr. Lysee (Bela Lugosi), but Lysee plays dumb when Barton quizzes him. Barton visits a nearby university where Professor Chan Fu (Luke Chan) works as a translator. Lysee sends one of his minions to steal the note from Barton, but Barton eludes him. Later, Barton ransacks Toy's laundry and finds the last coin, but an assailant gets the drop on Barton and steals the last coin. When Barton recovers, he learns another Chinaman has died. "Say, this is getting monotonous," Barton complains, "I'm supposed to bring in real live news, the best I can do is run down dead Chinamen." Later, Barton and the newspaper switchboard operator, Peg (Arlene Judge of "Flying Devils"), have dinner in a restaurant and Barton discovers that the man who stole the coin from him is trying to return it. This man dies in the booth next to Barton and Peg. Afterward, Mr. Wong's murderous minions capture Barton and Peg. Eventually, Wong takes them to his underground torture chamber where he plans to stick bamboo shafts up Peg's finger nails unless the reticent Barton surrenders the last coin. Just before the torture commences, Wong and company leave our hero and heroine alone long enough for Barton to find a convenient telephone and call his boss. "I'm somewhere back of old Lysee's herb shop. It's a matter of life and death. There's a secret panel on the back of the counter. You better come well heeled. These babies don't play with marbles." Nigh was no stranger to directing movies about Asians with white actors impersonated Orientals. He directed all five Boris Karloff mysteries in the "Mr. Wong" franchise: "Mr. Wong, Detective," "The Mystery of Mr. Wong," "Mr. Wong in Chinatown," "The Fatal Hour," and "Doomed to Die." Later, Nigh directed Lugosi again in "Black Dragons" during 1942.Of course, "Dracula" star Bela Lugosi was atrociously miscast as Mr. Wong with his obvious Hungarian accent. More than likely, Monogram cast Lugosi because Universal had cast Bela's biggest rival Boris Karloff in their 1932 epic "The Mask of Fu Manchu." Nevertheless, Bela delivers his lines with reasonable credibility and doesn't bump into the furniture. He looks pretty sinister as an Asian villain and he is up to his ears in intrigue and murder. "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" wallows in racial prejudice that was part and parcel of its time. Nevertheless, it still ranks as an entertaining B-movie.

bsmith5552 "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" is a mystery to me. Star Bela Lugosi made some questionable career choices following his success in "Dracula" (1931). This was certainly one of them. He accepted many parts from so-called poverty row studios probably because he needed the money. At this time he was about to embark on a trilogy of films with Boris Karloff (The Black Cat, The Raven , The Invisible Ray) that should have solidified his career. Unfortunately it did not.This mess of a movie casts Lugosi as a Chinese (Chinese?) lord, Fu Wong, who is seeking the 12 coins of Chinese Philosopher, Confuscious. The coins it seems were given by Confuscious on his death bed to 12 of his closest friends. They have been passed down to their descendants. The 12 coins when gathered together are supposed to confer untold power to their owner.The story opens promisingly with three murders by unseen assassins. Each of the victims has one of the fabled coins in his possession. It's all downhill from here. The murderers report back to their boss, Fu Wong (Lugosi, complete with drooping mustache and thick Hungarian accent). He now has 11 of the twelve coins in his possession. He sends his men out in search of the twelfth. Now how in heaven's name did these rare coins all wind up in the same city in the USA?The murders of the Chinese are assigned to fast talking reporter Jay Barton (Wallace Ford) who with bumbling Police Officer McGillicuddy (Robert Emmett O' Connor) investigate the deaths. In between Barton manages to romance the comely young Peg (Arline Judge). A note left by one of the victims leads Barton to Wong. He seeks the aid of good Chinese philosopher Philip Tsang (E. Alyn Warren) to translate the note. The note leads to the 12th coin and.............................Lugosi is laughable as the "Hungarian Chinese" villain. He may have seen Karloff have success with "The Mask of Fu Manchu" and wanted to emulate him, who knows? Wallace Ford was about to escape "B" movies with a memorable role in John Ford's "The Informer" (1935).A dreadful movie.Remember, Confuscious say:Actor with thick Hungarian accent Cast in part of Chinese villain Wind up in "wong" role

Chris Gaskin The Mysterous Mr Wong is nothing to do with the Mr Wong detective movies starring Boris Karloff. I found this quite good.A reporter is sent to investigate a series of murders in Chinatown and these turn out to have something to do with Mr Wong, a mad man who wants to be ruler of a large province in China once he has a full set of 12 coins of Confucius. The investigation takes the reporter and his lover into Mr Wong's residence where they are captured and nearly become victims themselves. Luckily, there is a telephone there and he calls for the police and at the end, Mr Wong is shot dead.The Mysterious Mr Wong has everything you would expect in this kind of movie: hidden doorways, secret passages, mysterious rooms and a torture chamber where Wong kills his victims.As well as Bela Lugosi as Mr Wong, the movie also stars Wallace Ford (The Ape Man) as the reporter and Fred Warren.This is worth a look at, especially for Bela Lugosi fans. Enjoyable.Rating: 3 stars out of 3.