With Twentieth Century Fox successfully mounting an A-mystery series featuring Charlie Chan and a B-mystery series with Mr. Moto in the 1930s, it seemed as if Fox had a lock on Oriental movie detectives. Not to be outdone, however, poverty row studio Monogram decided in 1938 to initiate its own detective series with Mr. Wong, Detective based on the magazine mystery series “James Lee Wong” by Hugh Wiley. The Mr. Wong films were small scale and definitely programmers (barely running over an hour), but in their own inconspicuous way, they told fairly good mysteries and featured a true star at the head of the films: Boris Karloff. Doomed to Die is the fifth film in the series and the last to star Boris Karloff. As with the others in the series, it’s very typical of all of the films: an unfussy mystery with a small number of suspects who do their best to deflect the investigation until one is unmasked as the instigator. It’s a mystery formula that’s been working for over a century in one kind of media or another.
Doomed to Die (MGM MOD)
Directed by William Nigh
Studio: MGM (Monogram)
Year: 1940
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 68 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono English
Subtitles: none
MSRP: $19.99
Release Date: available now
Review Date: September 27, 2011
The Film
2/5
Cyrus Wentworth (Melvin Lang), shipping magnate, is still reeling over the suspicious sinking of his prized vessel the Wentworth Castle. He’s also upset that his beloved daughter Cynthia (Catherine Craig) is engaged to the son (William Stelling) of his bitterest business rival Paul Fleming (Guy Usher). When Paul offers to buy Wentworth’s shipping line and son Dick insists he’s going through with his plans to marry Wentworth’s daughter no matter what, a terrific row results. Just after they’re ejected from Wentworth’s office, a shot rings out from the hall into the office, and Wentworth falls dead. Naturally Dick is suspected, and it’s up to Chinese detective Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) with the help of police homicide detective William Street (Grant Withers) and plucky reporter Bobbie Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) to ferret out the truth.
The title card for the film reads Mystery of the Wentworth Castle rather than Doomed to Die, obviously representing a foreign print which was used for this transfer. No matter the name, the mystery penned by Ralph Bettinson isn’t substantial enough to present enough viable suspects for the murder. There are really only three, and the film is too brief to establish much of a motive for any of them apart from the arrested Dick Fleming. (Truthfully, time could have been better spent giving some substantial fleshing out to the suspects rather than a silly sequence snooping around a dark warehouse that’s played more for comedy with Bobbie and Street as playful antagonists.) There’s also some muddled business about contraband gold bonds that the Chinese are after which Bettinson’s screenplay also leaves unresolved in the film’s too-quick denouement. Perhaps this is the reason Karloff didn’t want to go any farther with the series after this weak entry.
Boris Karloff does putter around the investigation professionally though he appears to have more powers than a psychic when he discovers the hiding place of a gun with no reason offered why he should have known its whereabouts. Grant Withers and Marjorie Reynolds spar predictably in their love-hate relationship already established in the prior films. (She, though, emerges as one of filmdom’s dumbest reporters not seeming to know the simplest facts and expressions of the case she’s so hot to investigate). As the three primary suspects, William Stelling is the ardent boy friend eager to clear his name, Henry Brandon is earnest and helpful as Wentworth’s attorney, and Kenneth Harlan is properly shifty and sneering as the fired chauffeur who’s anxious to put as many road blocks in the way of the investigation as he can.
Video Quality
2/5
The film is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Due to a great deal of processed sharpening, the first reels of the movie are alive with heavy digital noise. That along with the smattering of dust specks, digs in the film, and occasional white scratches make the early reels rather trying to watch. Later on, the processing seems to lessen a bit and the film’s grayscale looks pretty good. Contrast is dialed in nicely, and white levels are very good. Blacks, though, are never better than mediocre. Reel change markers are also evident throughout. The film has been divided into chapters every ten minutes so there are 7 chapters present in the transfer.
Audio Quality
2/5
The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack is decoded by Dolby Prologic into the center channel. The sound at the beginning is quite hollow and echoy though later on that becomes less of a problem. There is constant hiss, however, and there are also occasional pops and some crackle, too. Dialogue is still easy to understand despite the aural artifacts present.
Special Features
0/5
There are no bonus features on the disc.
In Conclusion
2/5 (not an average)
Doomed to Die was not a very auspicious swan song for Boris Karloff’s interpretation of Mr. Wong. The mystery is rather shallow and weak, and the whodunit’s denouement seems more intended to surprise through any means possible rather than to be a logical result from the information provided in the film. This one’s a disappointment in all areas.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
