FILM REVIEW OF "THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG" (1934)

The 1935 Monogram Pictures' release "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," starring Bela Lugosi and Wallace Ford, clearly deserved no Oscars.  Similarly, director William Nigh's poverty-row crime thriller doesn’t qualify as ghastly. This low-budget, black & white, whodunit about a series of murders occurring in the Chinatown section of an anonymous metropolitan American city is incorrigibly xenophobic. Remember, when "The Mysterious Mr. Wong” (**1/2 OUT OF ****) came out, Americans harbored paranoid fears about the so-called 'Yellow Peril' that Chinese immigrants represented as they poured into the West coast. Any multi-culturally minded liberals who partake of "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" are going to be not only appalled but also offended the conspicuous, racially charged invective in this crime thriller. Clocking in at a meager 68 minutes, this melodrama never wears out its welcome. Prolific director William Nigh, who helmed 120 movies in a career spanning thirty-four years, and his writers keep things clicking. “Dangerous Crossroads” scribe Lew Levenson adapted author Harry Stephen Keeler's story "The Twelve Coins of Confucius," and Nina Howatt penned the screenplay, with James Herbuveaux contributing additional dialogue. Neither Howatt nor Herbuveaux wrote anything after "The Mysterious Mr. Wong," but the dialogue sounds pretty snappy, slang-riddled, but eminently quotable. The action itself resembles a twelve chapter serial pared down to the bare essentials. Secret passageways, concealed doors, underground sanctums, exotic coins, and torture chambers pervade this yarn.

"The Mysterious Mr. Wong" opens with expository information from an encyclopedia about the fabled twelve coins of Confucius and how the person who possesses them will rule a province called Keelat. Afterwards, newspaper story about a murder appears. Indeed, newspaper accounts of homicides in Chinatown recur throughout the narrative. Three slayings occur in rapid succession during the first few minutes. The police believe that the Tongs are on the warpath. The first victim staggers out into a street and collapses. A man searches his body, finds a perforated coin, and plants a note with a Chinese letter on the corpse. The second victim has been hanged, and hands rifle his pockets to acquire a coin. The third man is strangled as he sleeps—yes, he is strangled perhaps too quickly, but the Production Code censors might have forced Nigh to accelerate this lurid death scene—and hands plunder his warm corpse, extract the coin from a shoe, and leave the usual note on his body. Meanwhile, agents of the Keelat province show up in town to thwart Mr. Wong. Phillip Tsang (E. Alyn Warren of "Chinatown Squad") heads up the operation. Eventually, Tsang crosses paths with Mr. Wong, and Wong takes him hostage.

A cynical newspaper reporter, Jason Barton (Wallace Ford of "Freaks"), investigates these murders. The authorities are convinced that the Tongs are responsible. Barton disagrees in a news story, and his editor Steve Brandon (Lee Shumway of "The Lone Star Ranger"), packs him off to find a Chinaman named Wong. "Did you ever run into a Chinaman by the name of Wong?" Brandon inquires. "Have I ever run into any that ain't named Wong?" Barton retorts. Our journalistic hero ventures into Sam Toy's Laundry where he encounters an Irish cop, Officer 'Mac' McGillicuddy (Robert Emmett 0'Conner of "Picture Snatcher"), who seems to be the only policeman walking a beat in the district. He shares Barton's racism and refers to the Chinese as "monkeys." None of the other reporters are interested in the murder. Barton checks over the body and learns that Toy died with a pencil in his hand. A breeze blows through the laundry when Mac opens the door and Barton finds a message written in Chinese. He visits the herb shop of Mr. Lysee (Bela Lugosi), but Lysee plays dumb when Barton quizzes him. Barton visits a nearby university where Professor Chan Fu (Luke Chan) works as a translator. Lysee sends one of his minions to steal the note from Barton, but Barton eludes him.

Later, Barton ransacks Toy's laundry and finds the last coin, but an assailant gets the drop on Barton and steals the last coin. When Barton recovers, he learns another Chinaman has died. "Say, this is getting monotonous," Barton complains, "I'm supposed to bring in real live news, the best I can do is run down dead Chinamen." Later, Barton and the newspaper switchboard operator, Peg (Arlene Judge of "Flying Devils"), have dinner in a restaurant and Barton discovers that the man who stole the coin from him is trying to return it. This man dies in the booth next to Barton and Peg. Afterward, Mr. Wong's murderous minions capture Barton and Peg. Eventually, Wong takes them to his underground torture chamber where he plans to stick bamboo shafts up Peg's finger nails unless the reticent Barton surrenders the last coin.

Just before the torture commences, Wong and company leave our hero and heroine alone long enough for Barton to find a convenient telephone and call his boss. "I'm somewhere back of old Lysee's herb shop. It's a matter of life and death. There's a secret panel on the back of the counter. You better come well heeled. These babies don't play with marbles." Nigh was no stranger to directing movies about Asians with white actors impersonated Orientals. He directed all five Boris Karloff mysteries in the "Mr. Wong" franchise: "Mr. Wong, Detective," "The Mystery of Mr. Wong," "Mr. Wong in Chinatown," "The Fatal Hour," and "Doomed to Die." Later, Nigh directed Lugosi again in "Black Dragons" during 1942.

Of course, "Dracula" star Bela Lugosi was atrociously miscast as Mr. Wong with his obvious Hungarian accent. More than likely, Monogram cast Lugosi because Universal had cast Bela's biggest rival Boris Karloff in their 1932 epic "The Mask of Fu Manchu." Nevertheless, Bela delivers his lines with reasonable credibility and doesn't bump into the furniture. He looks pretty sinister as an Asian villain and he is up to his ears in intrigue and murder. "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" wallows in racial prejudice that was part and parcel of its time. Nevertheless, it still ranks as an entertaining B-movie.

FILM REVIEW OF ''POSTAL INSPECTOR'' (1936)

Bela Lugosi made many unusual movies during his career.  Clocking in at a mere 58 minutes, Otto Brower's "Postal Inspector" (**1/2 OUT OF ****) is a contrived but entertaining cinematic tribute to the U.S. Postal Service.  Indeed, “Postal Inspector” could serve as a prototype for anything “Dragnet” creator Jack Webb created.  For the record, Lugosi doesn’t take top billing.  Suave Ricardo Cortez has that distinction.  He played the original Samuel Spade in the 1931 version of "The Maltese Falcon" before Humphrey Bogart recreated Spade in his own image.  Lugosi took fourth billing after Patricia Ellis and Michael Loring.  Brower and “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” scenarist Horace McCoy have forged themselves a genuine hybrid with an array of characters. "Postal Inspector" consists of one third crime thriller, one third musical, and one third disaster epic.  At every opportunity, our hero reminds us that the best insurance in the world is a postage stamp.  Moreover, the message that citizens must be protected from fraudulent practices drives the Postal Service.  The comic relief consists of several vignettes about fraudulent gadgets sold via the mail to naïve citizens.  Cortez looks like he would be the wrong man with which to tangle.  Sadly, Lugosi languished in a lackluster role as a shifty nightclub owner in trouble with the mob. During the first scene, our hero and his fellow postal inspectors receive praise from none other than President Franklin D. Roosevelt over a speaker phone for their "fine work" moving the gold reserves of the United States to the inland cities.  Clearly, the producers must have approved of FDR’s policies.  You should have no trouble spotting African-American actress Hattie McDaniel in a supporting role as the heroine’s maid.

Not only does Inspector Bill Davis (Richard Cortez) take everything seriously, but he also is a paragon of efficiency.  The unflappable Davis always has reassuring words for anybody who has a problem with the postal service.  Davis sorts out all the problems that citizens have without blowing his cool.  Popular singer Connie Larrimore (Patrick Ellis) meets Davis aboard a flight from Washington, D.C. to Milltown, during stormy weather. The pilots are struggling to land, but a storm blinds them.  Ground Control talks the pilots safely down.  During the story, our heroine sings to soothe some frightened passengers, with a youngster providing accompaniment on his harmonica. The press plasters Connie's commendable singing exploits across the front page story.  . Bela Lugosi makes his first appearance as Gregory Benez at the airport. The natty nightclub owner has Connie under contract to sing in his nightclub The Golden Eagle.  Eventually, we learn Benez has shady dealings with the mob.  He owes Alfred Carter, ‘known to have financed many nightclubs,’ $50-thousand.  Worse, Benez is two weeks tardy on his payment.  At the airport, Connie reacquaints herself with an old friend from high school in Milltown.  The friend turns out to be Bill’s younger brother Charlie (Michael Loring), and Charlie wants to rekindle the flame.  Seven years have elapsed since they went their separate ways.  Our hero’s introduction to Connie has a memorable moment.  Charlie points out his brother works for the post office.  Slyly, Connie reminds Charlie that it has been a long time since they played post office.  Brower and McCoy milk this moment again later in the action for dramatic emphasis.  Connie learns Charlie works for the Federal Reserve Bank.  Charlie is in charge of all the money that the Federal Reserve wants to remove from circulation. He tells Connie about a shipment of used bills, approximately $3-million worth of bills.

About 31 minutes into the action, our handsome hero catches a plane to Yarborough where heavy rains have washed out a bridge and cut off the town.  Meantime, Davis relocates the Yarborough Post Office to higher ground.  Later, Benez and his accomplices knock over the armored car, kill a postal employee, and steal the millions.  Benez is nowhere around when his henchmen hit the Postal truck.  Of course, Davis is not happy.  Brower doesn’t depict the attack on the driver of the postal vehicle.  Everything occurs off-screen.  Afterward, we see the postal vehicle tipped onto its side.  Benez’s henchmen careen away from the scene with a bundle of money.  Later, a man named Ritter (Harry Beresford) apprises Davis about the money bags.  They use a boat to reach the robbery vehicle and find $20-thousand.  Davis assures Ritter that he will figure in any reward.  Meantime, Davis learns that only three people knew about the $3-million, and one of them was Charlie.  Initially, Charlie assures his brother Bill that he had nothing to do with the robbery.  It looks like Charlie and Connie are to be implicated until Connie agrees to flush out Benez. When Bill investigates the robbery vehicle, he discovers the car belonged to Charlie.  Bill puts Charlie on the hot seat about the robbery, and his brother comes back to him two hours later with the explanation.  Charlie let Connie borrow his car and somebody stole the car from Connie.

Altogether, "Postal Inspector" qualifies as a routine potboiler about Postal Inspectors.  The stock footage of the flood scenes is impressive.  One desperate African-American scrambles to seize a chicken.  Lugosi plays Benez with considerable restraint.  The joke about the elderly woman who solicits proposals of marriage through the mail with a photograph of a young, beautiful woman is hilarious.  The villains use a boat to elude the authorities, but Charlie and Connie disrupt their getaway. Newspaper headline state that the mail robbers are scheduled to serve 20 years to life.  The mail robbery prompts the Federal Reserve to stop transferring old bills.  Instead, they decide to mutilate the bills in the future.  Charlie and Connie serenade Bill over the phone and apprise him of their impending marriage.

FILM REVIEW OF "RETURN OF THE APE MAN" (1944)

 Far-fetched but fast-moving, “Return of the Ape Man” qualifies as hilarious hokum.  Of course, the horror here is similar to “Frankenstein.”  Mere mortals struggle to appropriate powers that belong to the gods.  Predictably, our mad scientist heroes take themselves very seriously in “Spooks Run Wild” director Phil Rosen’s black & white epic about suspended animation and brain transplants.  Not even the suspension of your disbelief will make this low-budget, Monogram Pictures melodrama appear less dreadful.  Indeed, “Return of the Ape Man” fits the description of a “so-bad-it’s-good” movie.  “Voodoo Man” scenarist Robert Charles gives a better account of himself with “Return of the Ape Man.”  At least, this Lugosi opus boasts some scope and spectacle, part of the narrative transpires overseas as our protagonists travel aboard with serviceable B-roll and adequate back projection.  Comparatively, “Return of the Ape Man” surpasses “Voodoo Man.”  

“Return of the Ape Man” casts Lugosi again as an insane scientist.  He is a scientist who sacrifices everything on the altar of research, including his closest colleague.  Mind you, the teaming of Bela Lugosi with John Carradine makes this almost essential viewing for anybody who craves bad horror thrillers from the 1940s.   Previously, Lugosi and Carradine appeared in “Voodoo Man,” with Carradine in a supporting role as one of his goons.  After the two scientists restore a homeless man to life who they have had in suspended animation for four months, they grow very ambitious, obtain funding for an Arctic expedition, and ten long months later excavate a caveman preserved perfectly in ice.  Of course, media attention is confined to newspaper stories while our protagonists toil in secret.  Professor Dexter (Bela Lugosi) and Professor John Gilmore (John Carradine) thaw the caveman out.  The sight of Lugosi wielding a blow torch to melt the block of ice encasing the prehistoric man is amusing.  “A perfect specimen of pithecanthropus,” quips Gilmore to Dexter after they inspect the body, adding, “Neither man nor ape.”  They restore the Ice Age man to life.  “It’s alive,” breathes Dexter in awe.  No sooner has the cave man regained life than he threatens both Dexter and Gilmore.  Like the Frankenstein monster, the “Ape Man” fears fire.  Dexter brandishes the blow torch to control him.  Dexter backs the brute into a cell and locks him up for safe-keeping. 

 

Dexter confides in Gilmore that he wants to remove half of a contemporary man’s brain and implant it into the Ape Man.  Dexter wants to “endow him with just enough understanding” so he can communicate with him.  He refuses to remove the cave man’s entire brain.  Dexter says “that would remove his entire connection with his former life.”  Dexter wants his patient to retain his memories.  “I must leave in him enough of his old brain to stimulate his memory.” At this point, Dexter goes off the deep end.  Gilmore assures him he will never find a willing subject who will donate half of his brain. Nevertheless, this setback doesn’t deter Dexter from recruiting reluctant subjects. He goes after the fiancé of Gilmore's niece Anne, Steve Rogers (Michael Ames), and tampers wit his drink so Steve will be more amenable to his designs.  During this episode, Dr. Gilmore plays the “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano for Anne.  Presumably, this display of musical virtuosity makes Gilmore more sympathetic.  When he notices that Steve has left, Gilmore rushes to their laboratory.  Gilmore catches Dexter before he can mangle Steve.  Gilmore calls Dexter “despicable” to harm somebody dear to him.  He refuses to continue with their research and says he should have heeded his wife’s advice.  After Gilmore leaves, Dexter has trouble with the Ape Man.  The hairy brute pulls the bars of his cell far enough apart to slip through, eludes Dexter, and hits the streets.  Not only does the Ape Man mug a woman, but he also struggles briefly with a uniformed cop before killing him.  Later, Dexter lies to the gullible Gilmore about disposing of the Ape Man, and he convinces Gilmore to help him.  Instead, he paralyzes Gilmore and implants part of Gilmore’s brain into the Ape Man.  When Dexter awakens Gilmore after surgery, he speaks to the Ape Man, and the latter responds to his words.  “I have advanced his brain 20-thousand years in a few hours,” Dexter marvels at his own success.  When Dexter suggests a second operation may help matters even more, the Ape Man bursts from the house.

 Naturally, after Dexter has implanted half of another brain, the Ape Man really goes on a rampage with predictable “Frankenstein” results.  He flees to Gilmore’s house, plays “Moonlight Sonata,” and then in response to his wife’s summons, he strangles her to death.  Steve sees him leave the bedroom and pursues him, but he doesn’t get far before the Ape Man slugs him.  Anne alerts the cops, and they arrive to find Hilda dead in her bedroom.  The Ape Man returns to Dr. Dexter, and Steve leads the police to Dexter’s house.  The authorities search the premises.  Initially, they find nothing until the Ape Man smashes through the wall concealing his cell.  He breaks out and takes about five shots from a cop before he seizes Dexter.  The Ape Man escapes again, and Dexter admits to Steve and the cops that he transplanted Gilmore’s brain into it.  “In the interest of science you must destroy that thing,” says the dying Dexter.  Predictably, the Ape Man retraces its steps to the Gilmore residence.  The Ape Man abducts Anne after it tells her that she is beautiful.  The police issue an alarm for a maniac on the lam with a woman.  “Return of the Ape Man” turns into “King Kong” with the Ape Man using high power wires to elude the authorities.  He carries an unconscious Anne on his shoulder the entire time during his flight. He takes Anne to a theater and then to Dexter’s home where he ignites a fire by accident.  Michael runs into the lab and rescues Anne.  The Ape Man dies in the blaze.

FILM REVIEW OF ''WHITE ZOMBIE" (1932)

Director Victor Halperin’s “White Zombie” (***1/2 OUT OF ****) boasts the distinction of being the first official Hollywood zombie epic.  Mind you, the undead here are not as pugnacious as  those in the cinema of George Romeo and his imitators.  Indeed, these zombies are similar because they are undead.  Nevertheless, they don’t crave the flesh of the living like insatiable cannibals.  Like Romeo’s zombies, Halperin’s undead are mindless hulks with neither a soul nor a trace of animation.  They walk slowly without alacrity, and they never utter so much as a syllable.  They stare without blinking.  Although their presence is eerie, they are not as scary as the individual who commands them.  

Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi) controls them as if they were puppets. The inspired casting of Lugosi as the insidious zombie master earmarks Halperin’s film  as a vintage horror chiller. Lugosi’s make-up augments another of his more evocative performances.  Some have argued with validity that “White Zombie” overshadows “Dracula,” and Lugosi emerges as more diabolical than he was as Stoker’s legendary vampire.  You won’t forget those intimidating close-ups of Lugosi’s eyes, especially when Halperin superimposes them over other images.   The moments when Murder is show carving statutes out of wax candles is as genuinely creepy as his intensely sinister stare.  Lugosi resembles Satan himself with his hair protruding in a widow’s peak on his forehead and his peculiar looking goatee.  Murder Legendre appears in formal attire and looks like a Catholic priest with his broad-brimmed hat when we see him for the first time in the night at the side of a road.  Appropriately enough, Halperin and scenarist Garnett Weston furnish Murder with a pet Vulture that emphasizes his villainy.   An actual vulture itself, this foul bird emits an eldritch cry that is pretty unnerving. The best moments in "White Zombie" feature Murder.

Despite the overall creepy atmosphere that Halperin forges with the zombies, the West Indies setting, and Lugosi, “White Zombie”  amounts to little more than a simple but formulaic tale of boy wins girl, boy loses girl, and boy wins girl back.  The film is reportedly based on William B. Seabrook’s novel “The Magic Island.” Essentially, a young Caucasian couple travels to the remote plantation of Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) in Haiti where they are to be married.  The first time that we see the couple they are riding in a carriage through the night.  They interrupt a ceremony in the middle of the road and learn to their surprise that it is none other than a funeral.  Their coachman explains that the natives bury corpses in the road to prevent anybody from digging them up and turning them into zombies.  Anyhow, since Beaumont met Madeline during the voyage from New York City to Port-au-Prince, he has yearned secretly for her hand, even though she plans to marry one of his employees.  Desperate to possess the girl, Beaumont manages to persuade Neil Parker (John Harron) and Madeline (Madge Bellamy) to delay their marriage until they reach his estate deep in the jungle.  

Despite his severe misgivings, Beaumont  strikes a Faustian deal with the villainous zombie master to seduce her.  The wealthy plantation owner visits Murder at his sugar mill where the villain employs zombies to harvest his crop.  One of the most spine-chilling scenes in “White Zombie” occurs in the sugar mill where Halperin shows the zombies delivering baskets of sugar cane.  The zombies tote the baskets atop their heads. They enter by means of a catwalk above a huge grinding mill that other zombies operate which grinds up the sugar.  One of the zombies loses his balance and falls into the grinder.  Of course, the zombie doesn’t scream in agony because it doesn’t experience any pain.  Halperin compounds the horror by not showing the poor fellow being ground up.  Similarly, the zombie doesn’t cry out in agony because it doesn’t experience any pain.  The scene is one of the strangest in “White Zombie.”  Initially, Beaumont is convinced that if he can separate Madeline from Neil for at least a month that he can win her over, but Murder argues otherwise.  Murder contends that Beaumont couldn’t woo Madeline away from Neil in a lifetime. Instead, Lugosi provides the jealous  Beaumont with a vial of medicine that will induce a state of death and send Madeline to her grave.  He instructs Beaumont to use only a “pin-point” in either a flower or a glass of wine.  As they descend the stairs together, the hopeless Beaumont realizes that he cannot dissuade Madeline from marrying Neil so he hands her a rose and she sniffs it fragrant aroma.  Not long afterward, Madeline collapses.

A missionary, Dr. Bruner (Joseph Cawthorn), has been summoned to perform the marriage.  Bruner has spent 30 years in the West Indies and is thoroughly familiar with the superstitions that guide the natives.  Cawthorn is suspicious of Beaumont’s motives.  The equivalent of a Professor Van Helsing, he comforts the disconsolate Neil during his separation from Madeline and acts as an intermediary between Neil and the Haitians.  At one point, in Murder’s house, he knocks out an assailant bent on killing Neil who had collapsed on a couch not far from where Madeline and Murder were sitting.

Of course, Neil, the grief-stricken suitor, cannot get his beloved bride out of his mind.  Halperin captures Neil’s desperation during a scene in a bar where only Neil is seen drinking while the shadows of other patrons dance across the walls.  This scene acquires a surreal quality because at one point Neil sees Madeline as one of the shadows.  He strikes up a friendship with Dr. Bruner.  Eventually, Neil wins Madeline back after Bruner and he ride to the far side of the island where they find the house of the undead. Neil enters Murder Legendre’s estate perched as it is on a cliff by the sea.  Ironically enough, in the finale, Charles Beaumont reunites Neil and Madeline when he breaks the spell that Murder has over Madeline by pushing the zombie master off the cliff and taking the plunge to follow him.  “White Zombie” concludes with Dr. Bruner asking Neil for a match as he had done when they first met at Beaumont’s plantation.