NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Kino Blu-ray (June 2023): Kino have transferred five Boris Karloff 'Mr. Wong' films to Blu-ray. The films are Mr. Wong, Detective (1938), The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939), Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939), The Fatal Hour (1940) and Doomed to Die a.k.a. Mystery of the Wentworth Castle (1940) They are cited as being from a "Brand New HD Masters - From 2K Scan of the Fine Grains". Aside from surface scratches there is very limited damage and the overall 1080P image is very pleasing with rich black levels and heavy textures that are, obviously, disparate in comparison to more modern films. Generally the image is consistent with stock footage sequences looking weak but the main visuals are relatively strong - the younger the films are in the set the superior they tend to look. Overall - surprisingly good.

NOTE: We have added 116 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Kino use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. There are aggressive moments that come through with modest depth. The score on all five films was by Edward J. Kay (Highway Dragnet, The Ape), sounding dramatic and rambunctious in supporting the stories - with the lossless transfers producing reasonably consistent audio. Kino offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

The Kino Blu-ray offers a new commentary for Mr. Wong, Detective by film historian Tom Weaver and writer/director/actor Larry Blamire. They discuss comparisons to 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto series', a lot on Karloff as well as identifying many of the supporting players. Tom has read some of the novels and talks about them. It's a very good commentary discussing the entire "Mr. Wong" series of films. There are no other extras.

Kino's two Blu-rays of the first five Boris Karloff 'Mr. Wong' films is "B" movie detective-yarn pleasure. They are all directed by William Nigh and involve poison gas, largest star sapphire in the world, a murdered Chinese Princess via a poisoned dart, gemstone smuggling on the San Francisco waterfront, and a romance between the killer and the murdered man's daughter... who are engaged to be married. All without a Fu Manchu type criminal mastermind of Chinatown - previously played by Karloff in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932.) They can be formulaic and a definite response to the success of 20th Century Fox's pot-boiler Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) film series but enjoyable when in the mood for vintage film fans. Karloff does a great job as the the fictional Chinese-American detective created by Hugh Wiley - later replaced in the sixth, and last film, by actor Keye Luke (the first Asian lead in Hollywood.) Recommended to the right crowd - you can throw these on at any time.  

Gary Tooze