Rating: 
Summary: Fairly Enjoyable
Review: Monogram's 'Mr. Wong' series was apparently done as a rip-off of Fox's Charlie Chan series. Like those films, Mr. Wong featured a wise Oriental detective. Oh...and they also both starred non-Asians. Boris Karloff, I think we can all agree, was just about the least Chinese person in the entire known Universe, but his gentlemanly performance gave the Mr. Wong series a bit of dignity and class. The films on their own are mildly enjoyable potboilers, instantly forgettable but entertaining while playing. This two-disc DVD set gathers the six Mr. Wong films: "Mr. Wong, Detective," "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," "Mr. Wong in Chinatown," "The Fatal Hour," "Doomed to Die," and "The Phantom of Chinatown" (starring Charlie Chan's 'number one son,' Keye Luke, as a young Mr. Wong). "Mr. Wong Detective" is the best. "Phantom of Chinatown" is easily the worst - its jaw dropping political incorectness is hard to take.
The DVD from Roan Group has the films in just about the best condition you'll probably find them in. There are still scratches and plenty of grain, but overall the image is quite sharp and as clear as you could expect. Sound isn't great, but that probably has to do with the sub-par and neglected source materials. The biggest disappointment of the set is that there are no extras whatsoever - some liner notes, production notes, or a photo gallery are all I ask for.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must For All Karloff Fans and 'B' Movie Lovers
Review: One of the most positive things to come out of the VHS/DVD explosion is the unearthing of previously forgotten movies. These films were the entertainment fodder for my generation each Saturday afternoon and night on our local television stations and we accepted them unfailingly for what they were: watchable movies with watchable plots, in the sense that we were sitting around watching them.Now that the infomercial has replaced the B-movie as a dependable, low-cost form of entertainment, many, if not all, of these black and white treasures have disappeared from our cathode tube. The cable takeover has given us more channels, granted, but the chosen fodder for these is the 60s and 70s television series, if only because color beats black and white for a whole new generation raised in color and unwilling to watch anything in black and white. Hence, if a serious movie fan wants to watch an old creaky favorite, we must set the VCR timer to either AMC or Turner classic for the ungodly hour of 4:30 am so that we may once again see a movie that tickled our imagination as children. And we all know how those VCR timers work, especially with cable. The Roan Group has done all movie lovers a service by releasing the complete Mr. Wong set on DVD. The Mr. Wong series was Monogram Studio's answer to the sucessful exploits of Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto for 20th Century Fox. When we see them today, we now notice them warts and all. For instance, why doesn't Karloff even attempt a Chinese accent, instead playing Wong as if he were a British detective? Why does San Francisco police headquarters look like the back office in a warehouse? The plots are negligible (several of the plots were later recycled as Charlie Chan films when Monogram took over the series), the direction by William Nigh is adequate at best, and the photography static. So why does it work and work so well at that? First is the charisma of Karloff, for even without a Chinese accent he fits the bill. His byplay with co-stars Grant Withers as S.F. Police Captain Street and Marjorie Reynolds as the nosy reporter gets us through the bumpy parts in the scripts. Nigh also keeps the action rolling and the films come in at around a tidy 60 minutes each. Most of all we are watching an earnest effort at making a moive; no tongue-in-cheek nonsense or senseless action to take up minutes. Roan does an excellent job with the transfer, giving us a quality product. One note: Karloff quit the series after the fifth film and was replaced in the title role by Keye Luke, the first time an Asian-American actor has played an Asian-American detective. Unfortunately, this last in the series did not even measure up to the previous five and the series was dropped, depriving us of a rare chance in film history - seeing a stereotype shattered. In the final analysis, if a film does not have charm, no amount of acting, direction or writing can save it. The Mr. Wong films have that charm -- in abundance and in spite of themselves as 'B' movies.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent-Should appeal to all Charlie Chan fans.
Review: This is an excellent set of six movies made in the late 30's and early 40's starring Karloff as detective Mr. Wong (except in the last movie which stars Keye Luke as Mr. Wong). The first movie was actually remade as the Charlie Chan film "Docks of New Orleans". The quiality is very good and I would recommend this series to any Charlie Chan or Mr. Moto fan. Very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: OVERPRICED
Review: This set is good, but not worth what Amazon is charging. At the Big O I paid a quarter of this price. In fact, all the Roan titles the Big O carries are at a significant discount from Amazon.
Rating:
Summary: OVERPRICED
Review: This set is good, but not worth what Amazon is charging. At the Big O I paid a quarter of this price. In fact, all the Roan titles the Big O carries are at a significant discount from Amazon.
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