The Mysterious Mr. Wong (Monogram Pictures, 1935)

One Sheet Poster

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Based on The Twelve Coins of Confucius by Harry Stephen Keeler, the story features Bela Lugosi as the evil Mr. Wong who uses a laundry as cover while searching for the twelve coins, which legend says bestow great power upon the owner.

Production Company: Monogram Pictures

Director: William Nigh

Supervisor: George Yohalem

Original Story: The Twelve Coins of Confucius by Harry Stephen Keeler

Adaptaion: Nina Howatt

Continuity: Lew Levison

Additional Dialogue: James Herbuveaux

Cinematography: Harry Neumann

Cast:

Bela Lugosi: Mr. Fu Wong aka Li See

Wallace Ford: Jason H. ‘Jay’ Barton

Arline Judge: Peg

Fred Warren: Tsi Tung

Lotus Long: Moonflower

Robert Emmett O’Connor: Officer ‘Mac’ McGillicuddy

Edward Piel, Sr.: Jen Yu Wong

Luke Chan: Professor Chan Fu

Lee Shumway: Steve Brandon

Etta Lee: Lusan

Ernest F. Young: Chuck Roberts

Theodore Lorch: Wong’s henchman

James B. Leong: Wong’s henchman

Chester Gan: Tung’s secret service agent

Richard Loo: Bystander outside store

Forrest Taylor: Wong’s henchman

Beal Wong: Killing bystander

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The Milwaukee Journal, October 14, 1934

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The New York Times, March 7, 1935

At the Criterion

F.S.N.

Fortified with a few bars of chocolate and a ham sandwich in the coat pocket, this corner entered the Criterion yesterday determined to do or die in the attempt to sit through both parts of the double bill. There were, so the marquee blazoned, two first-run pictures to be seen, “The Mysterious Mr. Wong,” with Bela Lugosi, and “The Crimson Trail,” a Western, with Buck Jones.

The bars of chocolate were consumed and the last morsel of the ham sandwich disappeared just as Mr. Wong faded from the screen. In time, Mr. Jones and his horse would have come along, but not in time enough. The Code of Fair Practice for Film Reviewers contains no provision for double bills. “The Crimson Trail” will have to wait. “Mr. Wong” is the bloody biography of a power-mad Chinese. It seems that Confucius distributed twelve golden coins before his death and a legend developed that great power would come to the man who succeeded in obtaining all twelve for himself. Mr. Wong turns his hatchet men loose in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Soon there are eleven dead Chinese in the streets and eleven golden coins on Mr. Wong’s table. A brash young newspaper man (one of the screen’s usual brash young newspaper men) becomes involved in Mr. Wong’s mad hunt for the twelfth coin. Single-handed, if one excepts his telephone girl inamorata, he dares pursue Mr. Wong through the murky secret passages behind old Li See’s herb shop. He is captured, and when it seems that nothing can save him, something does. It is very, very juvenile and not particularly exciting, unless, of course, one happens to have a low boiling point. Still, it is only half of the bill and there’s always the chance that “The Crimson Trail” . . . At least, it’s something to speculate about. THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG, adapted by Nina Howatt from “The Twelve Coins of Confucius,” by Harry Stephen Keeler; directed by William Nigh; a Monogram production; at the Criterion.  Mr. Wong . . . . . Bela Lugosi  Jason Barton . . . . . Wallace Ford  Peg . . . . . Arline Judge  Tsung . . . . . Fred Warren  Moonflower . . . . . Lotus Long  McGillicuddy . . . . . Robert Emmet O’Connor  Jen Yu . . . . . Edward Peil  Chan Fu . . . . . Luke Chan  Brandon . . . . . Lee Shumway

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The Spokesman Review, March 28, 1935

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The Spokane Daily Chronicle, March 29, 1935

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The Spokane Daily Chronicle, April 1, 1935

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Spokane Daily Chronicle, July 31, 1936

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The Spokesman Review, August 1. 1935

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The Spokesman Review, December 1, 1936

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Trade Advertisement

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Posters

Half Sheet

Insert

Norwegian Poster

1940s Re-Release One Sheet

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Lobby Cards

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Swedish Herald

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Stills

Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi