GREAT DETECTIVES & PEOPLE OF MYSTERY #34

MR. WONG


Created by Hugh Wiley, James Lee Wong was San Francisco's famous Chinese sleuth.  Tall and lean at 6 foot and 165 pounds, the mandarin detective was a graduate of Yale and dressed in a severe black suit and always carried an umbrella, except when he was in his curio-filled Chinatown study where he wore flowing robes.  Wong was first seen in the pages of Colliers magazine and came to the screen as portrayed by Boris Karloff.  The stories were full of white slavery and opium dens - pulpy tales of police brutality, the sexist treatment of women, and grisly murders.

Hugh Wiley (1884-1968) was an engineer and author born in Zanesville, Ohio.  He left school while still a teenager but went on to build bridges, tunnels, railroads, mines, and power plants as an engineer and contractor.  His best series of stories featured James Lee Wong, and his most noteworthy books were short story collections of Oriental intrigue and mystery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

All of the Mr. Wong tales were short stories, 12 of which were collected in "Murder By the Dozen" (1951), the only hardcover collection of Wong.

"Medium Well Done" (Colliers Mar 10, 1934)/  "In Chinatown" (Colliers June 30, 1934)/  "The Thirty Thousand Dollar Bomb" (Colliers July 28, 1934)/  "Ten Bells" (Colliers Aug 4, 1934)/  "Long Chance" (Colliers Dec 15, 1934)/  "A Ray of Light" (Colliers May 25, 1935)/  "Too Much Ice" (Colliers June 29, 1935)/  "Jaybird's Chance" (Colliers July 20, 1935)/  "Scorned Woman" (Colliers Sept 14, 1935)/  "Three Words" (Colliers Nov 2, 1935)/  "No Witnesses" (Colliers Feb 15, 1936)/  "Seven of Spades" (Colliers Sept 5, 1936)/  "Hangman's Knot" (Colliers Feb 13, 1937)/  "No Smoking" (Colliers Nov 6, 1937)/  "The Eye of Heaven" (Colliers Jan 8, 1938)/  "The Bell from China" (Colliers Mar 26, 1938)/  "The Feast of Kali" (Colliers June 25, 1938)/  "The Heart of Kwan Yin" (Colliers Feb 17, 1940)/  "Footwork" (Colliers Mar 2, 1940)/  "The Room of Death" (Colliers Apr 13, 1940)/  "The Fourth Messenger" (Blue Book May 1940)/  "Cold Blood" (Blue Book June 1940)/  "The Jade Dagger" (Blue Book Sept 1941).

FILMS

Wong (Boris Karloff) is called into several of his cases by tough, irascible Captain Street of Homicide (Grant Withers) who has grudging respect for the old Oriental detective's wisdom.  Toward the middle of the film series Street acquires a girlfriend, a competitive newspaper reporter named Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds).

"Mr. Wong, Detective" Monogram, 1938.  Karloff, Withers, Maxine Jennings, Evelyn Brent, Lucien Prival.  Director: William Nigh.  Three industrialists are killed by poison gas released when a glass receptacle is shattered.  Wong suspects that police sirens broke the glass.

"The Mystery of Mr. Wong" Monogram, 1939.  Karloff, Withers, Dorothy Tree, Craig Reynolds, Lotus Long, Morgan Wallace.  Director: Nigh.  While in China, a rich art collector stole the Eye of the Daughter of the Moon, the largest star sapphire in the world.  At a party attended by fellow collector Wong, the man is murdered and the gem vanishes.

"Mr. Wong in Chinatown" Monogram, 1939.  Karloff, Withers, Reynolds, Peter George Lynn, William Royle, Lotus Long.  Director: Nigh.  A Chinese princess, who has been buying airplanes for her homeland, is murdered in Wong's office.  Later a dwarf and a vast sum of money vanish.  (The plot of this film was reused for the 1947 Monogram Charlie Chan film "The Chinese Ring")

"Doomed to Die" Monogram, 1940.  Karloff, Withers, Reynolds, Melvin Lang, Guy Usher.  Director: Nigh.  A millionaire is murdered just after his ship, carrying a vast amount of bonds, is sunk.  Since the bonds are owned by the Chinese, a tong war is in the offing.

"The Fatal Hour" Monogram, 1940.  Karloff, Withers, Reynolds, Charles Trowbridge, John Hamilton, Craig Reynolds.  Director: Nigh.  Captain Street's best friend, a detective working on a jewel smuggling case, is killed.  The trail leads Wong to murders committed by remote control.

"Phantom of Chinatown" Monogram, 1940.  Keye Luke (replacing Karloff as a younger version of the detective, now called Jimmy Wong), Withers, Lotus Long, Paul McVey.  Director: Phil Rosen.  While a famous explorer is presenting a slide lecture about his expedition to the Mongolian Desert, he drinks some water and dies.  His last words are about a scroll that may show the location of a huge oil deposit.

COMICS

Dell's Popular Comics did adaptations of the first two Wong movies in consecutive issues.  "Mr. Wong, Detective" ran in issue #38, April 1939, through #42, August 1939.  This was followed by "The Mystery of Mr. Wong" #43, September 1939 to #46, December 1939.

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