THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG (1934) Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford & Arline Judge | Mystery | B&W

The Mysterious Mr. Wong is a tongue-in-cheek 1934 mystery film starring Bela Lugosi as a powerful Fu Manchu type criminal mastermind of the Chinatown underworld, and Wallace Ford as a wisecracking reporter. The film is based on Harry Stephen Keeler's 1928 short story "The Strange Adventure of the Twelve Coins of Confucius" one of three stories in Keeler's book Sing Sing Nights. Despite the name of the title character and being directed by William Nigh, it has no relation to Monogram Pictures later Mr Wong film series. The character of Mr. Wong does not appear in the original story.

SYNOPSIS
Mr. Wong stops at nothing to gain the possession of 12 coins of Confucius, which will bring him great power.

Bela Lugosi stars as Mr. Wong, a "harmless" Chinatown shopkeeper by day and relentless blood-thirsty pursuer of the Twelve Coins of Confucius by night. With possession of the coins, Mr. Wong will be supreme ruler of the Chinese province of Keelat, and his evil destiny will be fulfilled. A killing spree follows in dark and dangerous Chinatown as Wong gets control of 11 of the 12 coins. Though played up as a Tong war, ace reporter Jason Barton and his girl Peg are hot on his trail as is the Chinese Secret Service. All parties soon find themselves in serious trouble when they stumble onto Wong's headquarters.

CAST & CREW
Bela Lugosi dual role as Mr. Fu Wong and as Li See
Wallace Ford as Jason H. Barton
Arline Judge as Peg
E. Alyn Warren as Philip Tsang
Lotus Long as Moonflower
Robert Emmett O'Connor as Officer McGillicuddy
Chester Gan as Tung aka "Hi Strung"
Edward Peil Sr. as Jen Yu
Luke Chan as Professor Chan Fu
Lee Shumway as Editor Steve Brandon
Etta Lee as Lu San
Ernest F. Young as Reporter Chuck Roberts

Directed by William Nigh
Written by Harry Stephen Keeler (story), Lew Levenson
Produced by George Yohalem
Cinematography Harry Neumann
Edited by Jack Ogilvie
Production company Monogram Pictures
Distributed by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures
Release date December 22, 1934
Running time 63 min
Country United States
Language English

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