Very well executed

Overrated

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

I can't believe the relatively good ratings this one is getting - I find it unwatchable. I'm a big Charlie Chan fan, and i'll defend the series against all charges of racism, but this stinker is beyond defending. The only redeeming factor is that it insults the Irish cop as much as the Chinese characters. This is a film that consists entirely of stereotypes - the wisecracking reporter, the pretty love interest who puts off the 'hero,' the half-wit Irish cop, the nefarious orientals - all that's missing is the cowboy in the white hat.Don't confuse this with the Boris Karloff Wong series - the difference is like night and day.

William Nigh's "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" of 1934 starring the great Bela Lugosi is certainly no highlight in Lugosi's career, but it definitely is an entertaining and occasionally very funny flick, and fans of pulp movies from the old days as well as my fellow Bela-fans should give it a try. This is actually not really a horror flick, it is more of a murder mystery with quite a bunch of comedy elements. Lugosi was, as always, a terrific choice to play the villainous Mr. Wong, although his Eastern European accent sounds pretty strange for a Chinese character.Several residents of LA's Chinatown are mysteriously murdered, and the police are convinced that these murders have occurred due to gang warfare between Chinese crime triads. When reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford) starts to investigate himself, however, several clues give the impression that the murders might also be somehow connected with twelve gold coins descending from Confucius himself...The suspense in "The Mysterious Mr Wong" is not very intense, but the film is still worth watching and made in an interesting style. Bela Lugosi, without doubt one of the greatest Horror icons of all-time, is always great to watch, and the film has some very funny moments. The actual 'hero' character, the reporter Jason Baton played by Wallace Ford, is actually an arrogant and ignorant moron, who constantly makes fun of Chinese people. I'm not sure if it was intentional to make him look like an idiot, or if it was just widely accepted for a hero character to constantly make fun of the members of another ethnic group in these days. I guess that director Nigh intended to depict Barton's character as kind of corny, especially due to certain scenes, in which the reporter talks to Chinese characters in a very stereotypical and twitting Chinese accent just to be answered in fluent and proper English. Furthermore, the White characters constantly refer to Chinese people as 'Chinamen' (which was probably a standard term back then). I am really not sure if this film is either a bit racist, or if it is actually making fun of White people's racism, but I tend to the latter, since there actually are many 'good' Chines characters, and especially because most Chinese characters act a lot smarter than the White characters in the movie. The depiction of the Chinese is certainly stereotypical, but it's not necessarily racist, as the only intelligent characters in this movie are actually Chinese. Leaving these aspects aside, the movie has some real classic moments, and it is of course full of secret passages and dungeons as well as a secret torture chamber. I recommend this movie to all my fellow fans of the great Bela Lugosi, it is really fun to watch although certainly not on of his highlights. In case you don't know Lugosi yet, I recommend to watch his masterpieces, such as Tod Browning's "Dracula" (1931), or Victor Halperlin's "White Zombie" (1932) before watching this, since movies like these really reveal the genius of Bela Lugosi. Lugosi is always worth the time, however, and I warmly recommend "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" to his fans. Definitely fun and worth watching! 5/10

I've always been intrigued with Bela Lugosi. It's been an ambition of mine to see all the films he made. This effort must have been done to capitalize on his star power. For whatever reason, he (as Mr. Wong), is collecting Confucian coins. Men who possess them are being murdered and Wong's henchmen bring the coins to him. A silly reporter and his girlfriend get wrapped up in the case and find their way to Wong's lair. Leading up to a somewhat interesting conclusion, are a series of lame, tiresome interactions within the evil man's lair. Lugosi looks ridiculous and speaks with that heavy European accent, and, of course, Hollywood's version of an Asian. There is a lot of political incorrectness and Chinese stereotyping. It's interesting that so many movies have a criminal genius who does stupid things and gets himself caught. Even though a murderer, Mr. Wong doesn't kill the person who is the most danger to him. Then, again, it's all based on the cliffhanger and killing off the hero wouldn't be much fun.

Ages ago, so the story goes, Confucius gave 12 coins to his disciples and vowed that anyone who came into possession of all 12 would rule the province of Keelat (wherever THAT is!). Many centuries later 10 of the 12 coins have fallen into the possession of Mr. Wong (Bela Lugosi) who will stop at nothing, including murder, to get the other 2. Therein, my dear readers, lies our plot.Local newspaper reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford) hears about the killings in San Francisco's Chinatown and decides to investigate; or rather he is TOLD to investigate by his editor. Barton tracks the killer to the seemingly innocent shop of Ly See the herb dealer (also Bela) who tries to put him on the wrong trail but after several attempts on his life, Barton realises all roads lead back to the humble Ly See. Could he be more than what he seems? Perhaps!It would be easy to dismiss this film as anti-Asian and racist but let us consider when it was made. In 1935 many Americans feared what came to be known as The Yellow Peril. They feared that China would take over the USA by sheer force of numbers since China's population well outnumbered that of the US. Furthermore the movie reflects the attitudes of Americans AT THAT TIME toward the Chinese. You need only watch a few minutes of SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) or THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (also 1932) to be convinced that Hollywood believed all Asians to be inferior. The dialog in this movie is no exception. When first informed of a killing in Chainatown Ford's character remarks "What do I care about a dead laundryman?". Even MacGillicuddy the friendly cop on the beat down in Chinatown (J. Farrell MacDonald) says things like "Them Chinamen is jabberin' like a room full o' monkeys." and when informed of another death says "Better dead ones than live ones." Sadly this was the attitude of many Americans at the time and this movie, like several others, merely reflects that attitude.Meanwhile it is a rather good mystery with lots of plots that would do a 12 chapter cliffhanger good with believable villains, good heroes and a plot which never strays too far from believability. Of course Bela's accent is no more Chinese than it was Mexican, Greek, French, German or any other role he had to play in those days but it does lead a touch of exotic authenticity to his role. Obviously turning down the role in FRANKENSTEIN was already beginning to haunt him since Universal loaned him out for this low budget film.Wallace Ford is quite good as the wisecracking reporter. He fills in the spot left vacant by Lee Tracy after his . . . er . . . "incident" on a Hollywood street and Ford had a niche which he would return to many times in his career.So is MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG bad? No! Is it a fun film? Yes. Is it worth seeing? Yes! It is 65 minutes well invested in your education into film history and you will not regret it.Oh, and does Bela's character ever get all 12 coins of Confucius? Now come on, you don't really think I was going to say, did you? Find out for yourself!