Horror Classic 30 of 50: DOOMED TO DIE
Several movies ago, I watched The Fatal Hour, a detective movie starring Boris Karloff as the Chinese detective Mr. Wong. Doomed to Die is the second Wong movie in this DVD set, which doesn't mean much because as you know, two Wongs don't make a right.
According to IMDb, Doomed was made just after Fatal Hour, in the same year (1940). It also features the return of spunky girl detective Bobbi Logan and cranky cop Captain Street, and like its predecessor, it's not a horror film at all, but rather a murder mystery. Yep, it sure has a lot in common with The Fatal Hour, which is a movie I have seen.
So it was interesting to me that when I went back and read my entry on Fatal Hour just now, I remembered almost nothing from it. When I saw Bobbi Logan and Captain Street in this week's movie, I had no idea I had seen them before. As I've gone through these "horror classic" movies, I've often wondered how much will stick with me... and now I have my answer. But maybe Doomed to Die will be more memorable. Let's find out.
Synopsis
Okay, so there's this giant ocean liner, and it's called the Wentworth Castle, even though it's not a castle. It's a boat. It catches fire while out on the sea, and lots of people die. Cyrus Wentworth is the owner of the ship company, and as you might expect, he's not too happy about it. When he calls lawyer, Mr. Martin, and makes a change to his will, Martin can't help but wonder: Has the Castle disaster driven him to thoughts of suicide?
Wentworth insists that he's fine, even when his arch-nemesis shows up. That would be Paul Flemming, the owner of a rival ship company who offers to buy out Wentworth. Wentworth tells Flemming to go suck an egg (That's not an exact quote).
Oh, and there's another complication of a kind that always happens in stories like this: Mr. Flemming's son Dick is madly in love with Mr. Wentworth's daughter Cynthia. He tells Wentworth they want to get married, but Wentworth is all like, "No way, José." Moments later, BANG! A shot is fired, and Wentworth is dead. Dick is the obvious suspect, and Capt. Street has him arrested, but when Mr. Wong is brought in to investigate, he's not so quick to accuse the young lovebird. In fact, he suspects Dick didn't do the deadly deed.
Soon, Cynthia finds out her dear old dad is dead dead dead, and so does Cynthia's pal, spunky gal reporter Bobbi Logan. From here on, Bobbi is present for every step of the investigation, much to Capt. Street's annoyance. They did some verbal sparring in The Fatal Hour, but here they're hurling snappy insults at each other in every scene, and honestly, it makes this plodding murder mystery more bearable.
So, Wong obtains a list of the passengers on the Wentworth Castle and determines during a trip to Chinatown that one of the passengers was a Chinese guy who was illegally transporting gold from Havana on the ship. He managed to survive the fire, but disappeared soon after. Having gathered this information, Wong prepares to leave Chinatown... but he gets shot!
Don't worry, Wong's okay. There are still a couple movies left in his franchise. Meanwhile, Mr. Wentworth's chauffer hides out on the fire escape at the Wentworth company, where Paul Flemming has just taken over. Wentworth's chauffer spies Paul in the act of disposing of the gun found at the scene of Wentworth's death. Later that night, the chauffer sneaks into Wentworth's former office, opens the safe, removes a piece of paper, and burns it.
Mr. Wong, arriving at the scene moments later, gathers the ashes as evidence, which seems kind of silly. But then it turns out that he knows a guy who can take a photograph of the ashes in such a way that they can read what was printed on the paper. WOW! I had no idea that kind of technology existed, especially in 1940! But this is a Mr. Wong movie, so I will assume it's for real.
As it turns out, the name "Kai Lin" is on the piece of paper. That's the same guy who was on the ship with the gold! Captain Street and Bobbi go to Lin's house, where they find him stabbed in the back. Also dead. But here's the thing: When Bobbi sees Kai Lin's body, she recognizes him as Lim How, an associate of Cyrus Wentworth! How can two different people be the same person?!
Well, in the end Mr. Wong figures it all out, and I knew he would, although in all honesty I've already forgotten how he deduces it. But here's a spoiler regarding who, exactly, dunnit: It was the chauffer! Just as Dick was leaving Mr. Wentworth's office, the chauffer shot him from down a hallway, then tossed the gun into the room. Isn't that clever? In the final moments, Bobbi reminds Capt. Street that he had promised to eat his hat if Dick was not the killer. Street obediently takes off his hat, looks at it, then yells another insult at Bobbi, and everyone laughs and has a good time and that's the end.
Is It Scary?
No. Like The Fatal Hour before it, Doomed to Die is a murder mystery, not a horror movie.
Lessons I Learned:
- Don't mess with the chauffer.
- If you close your eyes, it's impossible to tell whether gunshots are coming from behind you or in front of you.
- Bobbi Logan, paying for Cynthia's drinks: "What's the damage?"
Bartender: "That'll be... four dollars."
Bobbi: "What'd she do -- buy the place?!" - The doctor, after patching up Wong's gunshot wound: "Thank you. Come again."
Wong: "I hope not!" - Capt. Street: "What are you doing on the fire escape?"
Chauffer: "Parking the car." - Capt. Street: "He stabbed himself in the back, did he?"
Bobbi: "Well, an Oriental would, wouldn't he, Wong? Commit hairy-hairy or whatever they call it?"
Two. Unless you count Kai Lin and Lim How as two separate people. Which they weren't! That's the twist! AHHHH!
Comments:
• If this movie were made today, the mutual bitterness between Bobbi and Street would be an indication of sexual tension. And they would totally be doin' it by 2/3 of the way through the movie. Or at least makin' out.
• Overall, this was a bit more lighthearted than The Fatal Hour, and thus a bit easier to get through. And it's interesting that both movies involved the murder of an important businessman and two young lovers with disapproving parents. I wonder if they wrote all the Mr. Wong movie scripts using the Mad Libs method. Also, I'm not sure, but I think Karloff's Wong makeup may have been a little more prominent in this one.
• Bill Withers continues to be under the impression that shouting = acting. Man, I was really hoping he would actually eat his hat at the end.
• I'm not going to seek out the other Wong films, but I am curious to see how they compare, especially the final film in the series, in which Keye Luke (an actual Chinese guy!) replaced Karloff.
Letter grade for Doomed to Die: B-
Next film in the 50-movie set: The Phantom of the Opera. It's the silent classic starring Lon Chaney, Sr.! Or... Jr. I'm not sure which is which. Anyway, the only version of Phantom I've ever experienced is the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, so it'll be interesting to see how it compares. I'll assume that because it's a silent film, there won't be any actual singing.
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