Film legend Boris Karloff (Frankenstein, The Raven, Black Sabbath) commands the role of James Lee Wong, the eminent gentleman-sleuth of the printed page, in five taut tales of mystery and murder for Monogram Pictures and director William Nigh (The Ape). Grant Withers (Goin’ to Town) co-stars as Wong’s fellow case-cracker, the irascible Police Captain Street.

MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938) — Upon the discovery of a strange glass globe, Mr. Wong delves into the death of a chemical company bigwig. With Maxine Jennings.

THE MYSTERY OF MR. WONG (1939) — Mr. Wong works to crack the killer riddle of an exquisite gemstone known as the Eye of the Daughter of the Moon. With Dorothy Tree.

MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN (1939) — There’s murder in the house of Mr. Wong when death by dart comes to Princess Lin Hwa (Lotus Long). With Marjorie Reynolds.

THE FATAL HOUR (1940) — Mr. Wong tracks the treacherous trail of a corpse to a jewel-smuggling ring on the San Francisco waterfront. With Marjorie Reynolds.

DOOMED TO DIE a.k.a. Mystery of the Wentworth Castle (1940) — When a shipping magnate is mysteriously shot, Mr. Wong springs into action. With Marjorie Reynolds.

For thoughts on Mr. Wong Collection, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/l1PXBES-HHw?t=2928]

Video Quality

The five films in the Mr. Wong Collection make their Blu-Ray debut thanks to Kino Classics with brand new 1080p presentations from a 2K scan of the Fine Grains. These five films are spread across two discs, but given the relative brevity of these features there are no major issues with compression artifacts. While not without some expected issues, these presentations are quite pleasing for films that are over 80 years old. The lovely black-and-white photography shot by Harry Neumann sparkles in high definition with natural grain intact. There is still a pretty fine sheen of minor nicks and scratches, but it is obvious that these have been cleaned up quite a bit.

The new transfers show off a welcome amount of depth within the film’s composition. There is a pleasing amount of detail present with subtle textures on the clothing and within the production design. Black levels are fairly deep with no overwhelming occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The contrast is likewise defined well enough, and the films only experience a small amount of flicker and density fluctuation in the print. Kino Classics has done some admirable work here.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a decently stable DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that serves the movies well considering their vintage. Despite their age, these tracks only present a minor amount of age-related wear and tear and some underlying hissing and crackles. Dialogue and background noises are balanced with all competing elements, but dialogue does sound a bit weak due to the source.

Music never gets a chance to overshadow any important information throughout the duration. The track admittedly sounds a bit thin when it comes to the music, which is not uncommon for a film of this vintage and almost assuredly dates back to the source elements. Kino Classics has done some good work to make this collection sound as pleasant as the material will allow. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film.

Special Features

Mr. Wong, Detective Audio Commentary: Film Historian Tom Weaver provides a deeply informative commentary track with assistance from Larry Blamire in which he discusses the history of the Mr. Wong character, the history of the performers involved in the film, the roots in the theatrical stage experience, the art direction of the film and more. This provides a great deal of context that is very valuable.

Final Thoughts

The Mr. Wong Collection includes an array of early Hollywood mysteries that entertain as narratives yet are problematic due to star Boris Karloff playing a character outside of his race. Each of these films offer a similar intrigue, so it is not recommended to watch them in rapid succession if you want to keep things fresh. Kino Classics has delivered a Blu-Ray collection release that sports a good A/V presentation and a fine commentary track. If you can get past the unfortunate casting, these films are decent mysteries from old Hollywood.

Mr. Wong Collection is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Classics has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.