The Mysterious Mr Wong (1934)

Great mystery-adventure stars Bela Lugosi as a malevolent mandarin with an arcane scheme for conquest and Wallace Ford as the hard-nosed reporter who's out to stop him. Mysterious Mr. Wong is a bad-movie buff's delight.

Bela Lugosi stars as the titular villain, who kidnaps a reporter assigned to investigate a series of murders in San Francisco's Chinatown. Investigating a series of murders in Chinatown, wise-guy reporter Jason Barton is captured by the megalomaniacal Mr. Wong, desperately trying to complete his collection of the twelve gold coins of Confucius, with which he will be able to acquire the power to become ruler of a large province in China.

To the world at large, Mr. Wong (Bela Lugosi) is a harmless shopkeeper in the Chinatown district (where no one seems unduly put off by his Hungarian accent) In truth, however, Wong is an eeeeevil Mandarin who'll stop at nothing to get his hands on the Twelve Coins of Confucious, which according to legend will allow him to rule over the Chinese province of Keelat.

In his efforts to obtain these coins, Wong leaves a trail of corpses behind, eventually arousing the suspicions of wisecracking reporter Jason Barton (Wallace Ford). Narrowly escaping assassination in a Chinese restaurant, Barton and his sweetheart Peg (Arline Judge) take refuge in Wong's humble shop, where they stumble into a gathering of the villain's henchmen. Will our hero and heroine escape in time to thwart the sinister, seemingly all-powerful Mr. Wong?

Boasting a full-blooded performance by Bela Lugosi and campy dialogue to spare (much of it astonishingly racist!).

Directed by: William Nigh
Produced by: George Yohalem
Starring: Arline Judge, Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford
Crew: E R Hickson, Harry Neumann, Jack Ogilvie
Copyright: Public Domain
Format: Black + White
Duration: 63 mins
Year: 1934
Tags: Chinatown, Chinese, Editor, Fight, Gunfire, Herbalist, Horror, Impersonation, Kidnapping, Laundry, Marriage Proposal, Mr Wong, Murder, Mystery, Niece, Police, Reporter, Secret Passage, Secret Service, Torture

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