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Rating:  -
For those of you who didn't know that Boris Karloff did "campy" roles, as well as groaning monsters, here you go. With his British accent, he plays a Chinese sleuth in San Francisco, supported by a menagerie of Felliniesque characters.
See it. Believe it.
TONY HOROWITZ
Rating:  -
Poverty Row's answer to Charlie Chan's entire output is assembled on this cheap DVD. The picture's themselves are a mixed bag, but given their brevity they're never actually boring. (The second in the series is easily the best and is a serviceable whodunit. Like the Chan series Mr. Wong is less interesting when the stories are set in the underworld.) What's best about the series is Karloff's performance which forgoes racial caricature. He speaks in his regular voice and it's cultured, unbroken English. I'd like to think his famed courtly manner wouldn't allow for anything else. (Or maybe this is an apology for his earlier Fu Manchu.)
The bargain basement cast and sets are re-used from picture to picture. Some of the actors are so unstudied that in some scenes they project something approaching naturalism. Similarly, there are fights that are so under-rehearsed that they come across as unusually realistic and violent for the period.
The really curious entry is the last in the series which stars Keye Luke. Here we have the novelty of an Asian actor playing an Asian detective -- there's even a hint of romance with an Asian actress! (And there's a biting and subversive little throw-away line he delivers about raiding the tombs of Chinese antiquity.) Of course, elsewhere this entry also includes the worst stereotypes of the series. But there are some location scenes that take the series away from their dreary backlot.
Rating:  -
ITS HARD TO CONCEIVE BORIS KARLOFF AS AN ASIAN, WITH HIS SPEECH AND HEIGHT.
BUT HE PULLS IT OFF WITH SOME GOOD MOVIES.
SOME OF THE SCRIPTS WERE USED IN OTHER MOVIES OF THE ERA, BUT ITS STILL GOOD VIEWING.
Rating: -
If your a fan of Boris Karloff, then this is a must have. Great plots that will keep you watching.
Rating: -
I don't remember seeing this when I was young. I am 61 and don't know how I miss Mr. Wong, but it was great to see this for the first time. It had some good "who done it" and kept you to the end. It is not perfect, but I really enjoyed it. Worth the buy
John Ga, Usa
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