Doomed to Die (1940)

I've just recently watched, in chronological order of release, all five of the Boris Karloff episodes of the Mr. Wong series. The fifth entry in the series, *Doomed to Die*, is definitely the worst of the bunch, by a big margin.The film starts out reasonably well, with a good character conflict between two business rivals setting up an apparent murder in which no one is sure quite how the killing was accomplished, but the obvious suspect is the son of the murdered man. But within a short time the film spirals into mediocrity, and at points approaches the abominable. First of all, the journalist girlfriend of Captain Street, "Bobbie" Logan, though supposedly played again by Marjorie Reynolds, whose combination of perkiness, sweetness, and feistiness did so much to lift the two previous entries in the series, doesn't sound at all like the same actress. Her voice is different -- lower and harsher in tone, and less delicate and more lower-class in speaking style. It's almost as if another actress's voice has been dubbed in; one wonders if Reynolds had laryngitis or something, necessitating a substitute. But it's not just her voice. In many scenes, especially as the film progresses, she even *looks* different from the way she looked in the earlier two films. Her hair is darker; her hairdo is different; her facial expressions are very much unlike those in the earlier films. Again, one suspects that in some scenes the actress had to be replaced due to illness or for some other reason. Even the expected humorous banter between the girl reporter and the detective doesn't seem as good. Sometime it is not bad, but other times it seems harsher, less witty than in the previous two outings. It's as if the writing staff changed, or the regular writer dashed off the screenplay in a hurry.The direction of the film is poor. It is almost as if the nominal director William Nigh passed off the job to some uncredited assistant director on his first assignment. The scene where Wong goes to his Tong friends for advice is particularly badly done. The head Tong man at the table is at first the same guy who spoke for the group in an earlier Wong film; but then, when it goes into close-up, one can see that they have switched actors! The guy Wong speaks to has a much longer moustache, and his cap is differently shaped. It's as if they used stock footage for the opening, and then shot a new scene with a different actor. More generally, the Tong consultation is lamer and weaker than in the previous film.The print I watched (and I have the six-film set put out by VCI) is extremely dark. I don't know if the film was shot that way deliberately, or whether it is just a defective print. The darkness works out not too badly in the scenes in the old warehouse district, but other times it is irritating. However, the music in the film is atmospheric, and in many scenes fits in with the dark film atmosphere. But it's pretty sad when in order to find something good to say about a detective mystery one has to cite the music rather than the plot, script, or acting.From the perspective of the viewer, the exposition is flawed. Whereas in the previous Wong movies, the information released is sufficient that the viewer has at least a reasonable chance of guessing who the culprits are, in this one important information (including the existence of an important household member) seems to be deliberately withheld until late in the film, and even in the wrap-up the motivation of some of the folks involved is never tidily explained.Mr. Wong also acts out of character at one point, arrogantly bypassing Capt. Street by withholding information from him -- something never before seen in the series. Further, whereas in earlier films Wong tried to maintain a neutral, bemused stance toward the bickering between Bobbie Logan and Street, in this one he seems to lower himself in dignity by abandoning neutrality and deliberately teaming up with Bobbie against Street. When you combine this new partisan and superior attitude of Wong with the generally less pleasant execution of the female reporter's role, the overall effect is negative. Indeed, this is the first Wong movie where I was actually more sympathetic with the bellicose Street than with either Wong or "Bobbie"!Most of the earlier Wong films had several good supporting actors beyond the three leads. (E.g., *The Fatal Hour* had Charles Trowbridge and Frank Puglia.) The supporting actors in this one are mostly weak and unimpressive.The IMDb voters have given this one an average of 5.6. Normally I find IMDb voters stingy, but in this case they may be too generous. I'm giving this one a 5 out of 10. (By comparison, I give most of the Motos and Torchy Blanes 7s, and some of the Charlie Chans 8s.)Clearly the director, the writers, and Karloff were walking through this one on autopilot. I suspect that Karloff was bored with the series by this point, because he left the series after this one and Keye Luke played Wong in the final film. I haven't seen the Keye Luke film yet, but it's hard to imagine that it could be worse than this one.If you want to sample the Mr. Wong series, do yourself a favour and don't watch this one first. It will turn you off the whole series. Any of the first four films would be a better introduction.

Mr Wong returns in another murder mystery! This time, a wealthy shipping magnate is trying to cope with the burning of one of his ships which has caused the deaths of hundreds of people, when he's shot and killed in his office. Mr Wong's got his work cut out for him this time, as Detective Street thinks he's already got the culprit – the son of the businessman's rival who was in the office about ten seconds before the guy got shot. We all know that's too easy, right? You've got all manner of suspects here, from the shady business partner, the lawyer, the rival or even the weird guy who keeps handing around on the fire escape. With plucky female journalist on hand, Wong sets out to get his man.While not as good as the other Wong film I've seen (The Fatal Hour), Doomed to Die still holds its own. It takes a while to get going, but once Wong starts doing his investigations, things pick up a bit. He visits the local Tong, gets shot at, discover secret passageways and a corpse, and generally runs rings around everyone else in the film. I wouldn't like to say too much without giving away the plot, mind you. It's just what it is, a solid mystery film that won't take up too much of your time. I quite like the way that Karloff, although playing a Chinese guy, doesn't overdo it and carries Wong with a certain quiet dignity.

If you've seen even one "Mr. Wong" film before, you pretty much know what to expect. Unfortunately, "Doomed To Die" gives you the talky, often dull parts, WITHOUT the ingenious final twist that would make it all worth sitting through. There is nothing particularly clever about the way the murder is executed, and although the identity of the killer may (or may not) be a surprise, it doesn't seem to matter much because the motive is murky at best (and I've seen the film twice). Even Boris Karloff seems rather disinterested in the whole project. Of all the "Mr. Wong" films I remember seeing, this one is probably the worst. At least there is a funny closing gag. ** out of 4.

Doomed to Die (1940)Oh boy, poor Boris Karloff. He's the star, and the one great presence, in this cobbled together movie, the last of Karloff's Mr. Wong movies. Someone edited the heck out of this one, and the complex plot gets hard to follow (and hard to believe!) in the hour it takes from start to finish. That's not to say it's a bad movie. It's kind of fun, actually, and because so much is going on, you really have to pay attention, as the scenes keep changing and changing, and more and more characters appear and reappear. The plot itself is forced on things, with red herrings that are absurd and a huge disaster in the opening scenes that ultimately means little to the rest of it, or so it seems to me. There is deliberate comedy which is sometimes funny, and gives the movie an airiness that works pretty well. Karloff, amazingly, plays a Chinese detective, and they do something to his eyes to make him more Asian, but otherwise he's very Karloff, which is good. There are some brief scenes in a so-called Chinatown, but nothing so colorful as, say, the end of "Lady from Shanghai." No, this is from a thoroughly B-movie series of six Mr. Wong films, all but one, with Karloff as Wong. There are at least two other series of films with Asian detectives, an interesting sub-genre, for sure. There are eight Mr. Moto films (with Peter Lorre) around the same time (late 1930s), and there are the almost countless Charlie Chan films (first in the earlier 30s with Warner Oland, and then the late 30s into the 40s starring Sidney Toler). All of these stars were not Asian, but that's the way Hollywood compromised its bigotry with its sense of what the mainstream American audiences wanted.The thing that makes these Karloff films still watchable is their gritty urban settings, and the whodunnit quality that can hold even a mediocre movie together on a Sunday afternoon. "Doomed to Die" has some very dark night scenes (a third of the movie) and if they did that to save money on set design, that's fine with me because it makes them moody and inky. Nice.Check out this rather nice Mr. Wong site:cheddarbay.com/0000celebrityfiles/films/wong/wong.htmlTake them for what they are and you might end up watching all of them!