The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939)

Luckily, I've never been a great fan of charades - which is just as well because in this short and sweet little murder mystery, it (called "Indications" here) proves to have quite lethal consequences! It falls to "Capt. Street" (Grant Withers) assisted by criminologists "Wong" (Boris Karloff) and his pal "Janney" (Holmes Herbert) to try to establish why "Edwards" was shot during the role-playing game. As ever, there are no shortage of suspects ranging from his soon-to-be disinherited wife "Val" (Dorothy Tree) to his secretary "Harrison" (Craig Reynolds) as well as some rather mysterious oriental folks who seem very nimble in the frequently darkly lit (if at all) scenarios.. Oh, and we mustn't forget that the legendary sapphire "Eye of the Daughter of the Moon" (trips of the tongue that one, eh?) has gone awol too - along with a letter from the lately deceased naming the person he suspected might try to bump him off. It is a quickly paced and reasonably well written adventure, this. Karloff is on good form and hell, even the usually wooden as a plank Ivan Lebedeff ("Strogonoff") adds some value too. One of the better "Wong" stories and well worth an hour.