It’s all downhill from that juicy poster with Monogram Pictures trying for a Charlie Chan knock-off series with Boris Karloff (speaking a very proper King’s English) as Detective Wong, called in to stop a murder before it happens. By the time the mystery is unraveled, three will have died, an impossible suspect will be found guilty, and everyone watching will have nodded off. It’s one sleepy affair! William Nigh directs without getting much of the simple story across, and the dowdy print quality hardly helps. No doubt, the title & Karloff’s name recognition brought in a reasonable return, he’d go on to make a handful of WONGs, but by the time CHARLIE CHAN ended its 20th/Fox run and started up @ Monogram, it was so long Wong.
DOUBLE-BILL/ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: You do get a chance to see the great late silent star Evelyn Brent, a pre-Dietrich favorite of Josef von Sternberg, keeping up the semblance of a working career. See her at her impassively smoldering best in his great late-silent THE LAST COMMAND/’28.
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