The Fatal Hour

1940

Crime / Mystery

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 19% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 19% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.4/10 10 1412 1.4K

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Plot summary

When a police officer is murdered, Captain Street looks to Mr. Wong to catch the killer. Prime Suspect: Frank Belden Jr., whose father is a businessman well known for both his success and dishonesty. Mr. Wong faces increasing danger and is nearly executed himself as the investigation develops in treachery and complexity. As Mr. Wong follows the trail of dead bodies, he uncovers a jewel smuggling ring on the San Francisco waterfront and a case much larger than the death of a police officer.

Director

Top cast

Jason Robards Sr. as Griswold
Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong
Marjorie Reynolds as Bobbie Logan
Craig Reynolds as Frank Belden Jr.
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
618.47 MB
960*720
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 5
1.12 GB
1440*1080
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
1 hr 7 min
Seeds 10

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by classicsoncall 6 / 10

"Things happen to people who know too much."

Reviewed by timothymcclenaghan 5 / 10

Formulaic Fun

The Mr. Wong series borrows somewhat from the Torchy Blane series at Warner Bros., i.e. feisty female reporter annoying the police officer/boyfriend, but also key to solving the crime. A comment was made elsewhere about that character here having a "Lois Lane" moment. Torchy Blane was allegedly the inspiration for the Lois Lane character of Superman comics.A humorous, but probably unintentional, mistake shows up early in the film when Boris Karloff's darkening makeup is forgotten on his neck, giving him a two-tone head.Although one can disparage Karloff for these films, keep in mind that film actors then, as now, need and want work. There are plenty of other well-experienced actors appearing in the Mr. Wong films, whom you can see in better films at better studios in the 1930s, or even in later films.Although Karloff was making "B" films at Monogram and Columbia around this time, at least he had an "up" blip in his career when he played a major role in "Arsenic and Old Lace" on Broadway from 1941 to 1944.This film is no worse than the formulaic TV series we have now, both comedy and drama, TV now being today's equivalent of the "B" movies of yesterday.
Reviewed by Coventry 6 / 10

Mr. Wong is always right!

Although not as legendary or eloquent as his contemporary British colleague Sherlock Holmes, Oriental detective Mr. Wong successfully solved quite a lot of difficult cases as well, with his splendid observation talents and marvelous deduction skills. "The Fatal Hour" is the fourth film in a series of six, all but one starring the unequaled master-actor Boris Karloff in the role James Lee Wong. Police Captain Bill Street always calls him upon for help whenever there's a complex murder case with connections to the oriental community of San Francisco. In "The Fatal Hour", Street's colleague and long time friend Dan O'Grady has been murdered during his investigation of an extended oriental jewelry smuggling network. The owner of the dubious Neptune bar near the harbor – where all the smuggling import and export takes place - is the obvious suspect, but there are a lot more people involved. This isn't a very sensational film in terms of violent bloodshed or wild car chases, but the plot is quite compelling and the dialogues are fluently written. There are a couple of ingenious red herrings and I liked the realistic aspect that Wong isn't a superhero who prevents further murders from happening and thus has to face several more dead bodies during his investigation. Even though pretty much performing on automatic pilot, Karloff is terrific and he receives good feedback from the supportive cast. Particularly Marjorie Reynolds is likable as the obtrusive yet helpful gossip reporter Bobby Logan. Recommended in case you have 70 minutes to spare.
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