People are voting emotionally.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) ** (out of 4)Princess Lin Hwa frantically rushes to Detective Wong (Boris Karloff) but before he can see her she is dead. It turns out that she was shot with a poisonous dart so Wong investigates and finds that the Chinese woman was in America trying to buy warplanes. Pretty soon more bodies are found so Wong and Captain Street (Grant Withers) must try and figure out what's going on.MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN was the third film in the series and it was certainly a step down from the previous two entries. The first two films were obviously cheap "B" pictures but they at least featured decent stories and benefited from having someone like Karloff in the lead. This film has a fairly bland story and there's just not much life to it.The biggest problem with the film is that the screenplay just doesn't offer us anything we haven't seen countless times before. This time out we have a female reporter thrown in who of course is the girlfriend to Captain Streets, which leads to a bunch of arguing between the two. None of the dialogue is overly clever or charming so the fighting just comes across as annoying.Karloff is once again good in his role, although, as with the first two films, he doesn't even bother trying to act or loo Asian. He at least keeps the film mildly amusing and I'd also say that Withers gives the film a little entertainment as well. Marjorie Reynolds does what she can as the reporter and come off mildy charming at times.MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN isn't a horrible movie but at the same time it's just too routine and bland to make much of an impression.

There was a documentary on public television some time ago about the Chinese in the movies. It was short because they were mostly background in early films. God forbid a Chinese person was ever cast as a Chinese person in a movie.Boris Karloff, who was a wonderful actor, is Mr. Wong. I'm not sure where this comes in the series but I'll give you two words to describe it - Monogram Studios.A woman visits Mr. Wong, but before she can speak to him, she is killed with a poison dart. She has time to write a partial note with the words "Captain J." Naturally there are two Captain Js here.The film has to do with airplanes she was buying for her brother, an important person with the Chinese air command, and the apparent smuggling of them. Don't ask me how one does that. Aren't they kind of large? It also has to do with stealing money.It's just okay but it's nice to see Karloff as someone other than Frankenstein.

A Chinese princess coming to Mr. Wong for help is killed in his home by a poisoned dart. This movie introduces a clichéd nosy reporter character, Bobbie Logan, played by the beautiful Marjorie Reynolds. She would appear in the rest of the Wong films. I take it as a sign they knew the Wong series wasn't working quite right and felt it needed some more side characters. Perhaps they just wanted to rip off Torchy Blane. Who knows? Grant Withers returns as Captain Street. He doesn't bark as much as he usually does, except when Bobbie's around. She's his girlfriend and he wants her to stay out of trouble. Another Torchy Blane similarity. Curiously, 1939 was also the year Torchy Blane in Chinatown was released. This is a watchable movie, as all the Wongs are, but nothing special.

It certainly doesn't waste any time getting started: the murder occurs in the first three minutes, and in Mr.Wong's house, no less! And with the always dependable and dignified Boris Karloff in the title role again, you'd think this could develop in a pretty interesting mystery. Wrong! This film is tremendously boring. Mr.Wong has boring conversations with boring suspects who have boring motives. I had stated once that every whodunit is inherently interesting if it is at least executed with a minimum level of competence...this film proves the importance of the "competence" part. 1 star out of 4, strictly for Karloff.