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Such a frustrating disappointment

Powerful

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

To understand why the Mr. Wong series exists, you have to remember that the Charlie Chan series predated this one. Both are detective series but the Chan series had to change when Warner Oland died and Sidney Toler took over. Monogram studios which was always a small studio in Hollywood was the production studio for both Chan and now Mr. Wong. The best thing about this series was the casting of Boris Karloff as Wong and it is eerie how close to Chan he appears in the films.This one and some of the others the cast includes Marjorie Reynolds, a pretty fair actress as the woman reporter. The real treat here is the casting of Jason Robards Sr. Now mostly forgotten, it was his son, Jason Robards Jr. that became more famous, but this was his dad. Both father and son are gone now, but they did provide a lot of entertainment. Robards Sr. was in a Warner Oland Chan film, and actually had more picture roles than Jr. but the majority of them were up much earlier than his son. Robards Jr. has another son Robards The third, who is more active behind the camera than in front of it.This film pretty much fits Mr. Wong into a mystery he solves very much in the style of Charlie Chan. One thing that is a shame is the last film of the Wong series replaced Karloff with Keye Luke who is Chan's son in that series. That one was a historic first as Luke was the only Wong who was ethnically right for the series. This did not go over and the Wong series was canceled after that film.This film benefits from all the prior work Monogram had with this type of film, and the presence of Boris and other experienced hands.

This was a pretty fun Mr. Wong detective story. It has a few comical moments in it and the story was good. Mr. Wong is after a smuggling ring & unmasks a murderer.The Mr. Wong series is quite fun. If you like any of the Sherlock Holmes movies then it's possible you will like the Mr. Wong series starring Boris Karloff.What is interesting in this particular film, it features a wireless remote controlled radio. This radio was reality - it was not made up for the film. There is an article about the radio on CNet called "Back to the future: 1939 wireless remote control!" The article's subtitle reads: "Philco's Mystery Control (1939) was a battery-operated radio transmitter, so it didn't have to be in the same room as the radio it was controlling." Also, you can read more about this cool invention on Philco's website. That is a neat trivia fact I just learned about today.Yes this film is worth watching if you are a fan of detective stories or Boris Karloff.6/10

didn't know what to make of this one,, Boris Karloff seems way out of place in this one, one thing i didn't get at all was the name of the movie, why is it called the fatal hour,, there are no references in the movie to any particular hour, i found this movie to be rather boring, didn't really have any excitement at all, don't know why it's classified as a horror pic,, it should be under crime drama or something,, i think that Boris Karloff should stick to monster movies,, that's what's he is the best at,, other than that i'm running out of things to say about this movie, other than it was boring, had no action whatsoever.

What will you find in and around an oceanside watering hole called The Neptune Club? A little jewel smuggling, a little multiple murder and a whole lot of red herrings. San Francisco policeman Bill Street (Grant Withers) teams up with Chinese super sleuth James Lee Wong (Boris Karloff) to get to the bottom of things. This involves weeding through an almost never-ending parade of suspects to find out which one is going around murdering those who threaten to expose a back room crime operation. And there may, or may not, be more to it than meets the eye. And you may, or may not, even be interested in even viewing this creaky old chestnut. The first ten/fifteen minutes don't exactly do an adequate job of reeling the viewer in, but the film does pick up speed and becomes more interesting (and entertaining) after awhile.Though listed as a horror-mystery, this is more of a mystery with a slightly higher body count than usual, a few shadowy horror movie-like touches (particularly a hand brandishing a pistol emerging from a dark corner of the bar) and, of course, the presence of horror legend Karloff. It's entirely set bound; I don't recall a single scene taking place outdoors, though there is frequent mention of a harbor, shipping docks and a secret passageway we never get to see. It's also incredibly talky, with very little on-screen action. There's no style, no visual flourishes and the camera-work itself is strictly of the point-and-shoot variety. However, the dialogue isn't too bad and neither are the characters. The film also has a sense of humor; namely Marjorie Reynolds as a plucky reporter who annoys the heck out of the fuzz by showing up at every crime scene unannounced but still manages to uncover many of the important clues.Withers' aggressive, reactionary, often-screaming policeman is almost perfectly balanced out by Karloff's smooth, observant and very patient oriental detective. The supporting cast is mostly decent; particularly Frank Puglia as the shady owner of the Neptune Club. Still, I wouldn't go out of my way to see this unless you're a Karloff completist or enjoy creaky lightweight rainy day murder mysteries. There are worse ways to pass an hour or your time. This was either the fourth or fifth entry in the Wong series; Karloff played the same character in MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938), MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN (1939), THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG (1939) and DOOMED TO DIE (1940).