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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Doomed To Die (1940)

Starring Boris Karloff, Marjorie Reynolds, Grant Withers, William Stelling, Catherine Craig
Directed by William Nigh
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

When her friend's fiancee is accused of the murder of a shipping magnate, reporter Bobbie Logan calls in Mr. Wong to try and clear the young man. 

This was Boris Karloff's last go-round as Hugh Wiley's Oriental detective, and I found the script of the mystery, with a wealth of suspects and a few clever ideas, somewhat engaging before a hasty conclusion wraps things up without really spelling out the murderer's motive.  Static camerawork and too-dark scenery doesn't help matters, but there are some notable character actors in the cast, including Angelo Rossitto of Freaks in a brief appearance as a midget newsboy.  I found the film to fare no better or worse than Karloff's other Wong films, although the actor doesn't have much to do here, so overall I would rank this near the bottom of his filmography.  

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