Young Wong

PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN-1940-This is the Monogram Pictures 6^th and final entry into their “Mr. Wong” series that started in 1939 with Boris Karloff in the lead. This time out however the detective is Jimmy Wong, a younger, more dashing and modern version than his predecessor and he's portrayed by Keye Luke, an actual Asian actor (born in China)! He helps investigate the poisoning death of an archaeologist. Capt. Street (Grant Withers) returns from the previous films and has a bigger role than usual. Jimmy's kind of love interest is Win Len (Lotus Long) and the plot revolves around the missing “Scroll of China”. 

It's refreshing to see the two leads actually played by Asian actors but unfortunately it's the only one made featuring “Jimmy”. The beginning lecture, photos and flashbacks look like they came from another movie. Director George Waggner (he directed THE WOLFMAN the same year) wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Joseph Lewis. PHANTOM's director Phil Rosen made many “quickies” (like SPOOKS RUN WILD) and several in the Charlie Chan series.

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