The Fatal Hour (1940 film)

1940 film by William Nigh

January 15, 1940 (1940-01-15)

Running time

68 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

The Fatal Hour is a 1940 American thriller crime drama film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff (as James Lee Wong), Grant Withers, and Marjorie Reynolds.^[1]

Fourth installation of the series, the film is also known as Mr. Wong at Headquarters in the United Kingdom. The picture was followed by the sequel Doomed to Die, which also stars Karloff, Reynolds and Withers.

Plot

The body of policeman Dan Grady is rescued in the San Francisco Bay lifeless and with clear indications of an execution. His good friend Captain Street, very touched by the tragedy, asks for the help of Mr. Wong and the journalist Bobbie Logan to solve the mystery. Dan was carrying out an investigation into gemstone smuggling, and the investigation leads to suspicion of jeweler Frank Belden's shop. A witness appears who saw Dan at 8.30 pm the night before at the Neptune club, a disreputable place run by Harry Lockett, a well-known cheater, con man and smuggler. The investigations will lead to the discovery of a ring of precious stone trafficking that revolved around the Neptune, in which both the owner and Frank Belden himself, and the vamp Tanya Serova were involved. Slowly, however, all the members of the gang end up killed, and the blame seems to fall on the young Frank Belden jr. son of the jeweler and boyfriend of Serova. It will be Wong himself who will discover the cunning ploy devised by the real culprit to frame the young man, so the head of the gang, the lawyer John T. Forbes, is arrested by Captain Street thanks to the decisive collaboration of Miss Logan.

Cast

Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong
Grant Withers as Capt. Bill Street
Marjorie Reynolds as Roberta 'Bobbie' Logan
Charles Trowbridge as John T. Forbes
Frank Puglia as Harry 'Hardway' Lockett
Craig Reynolds as Frank Belden, Jr.
Lita Chevret as Tanya Serova
Harry Strang as Det. Ballard
Hooper Atchley as Frank Belden Sr.
Jason Robards Sr. as Griswold (billed as Jason Robards)
Richard Loo as Jeweler
Jack Kennedy as Mike, Police Sergeant

References

^ Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomahawk Press 2011 p 254

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Fatal Hour (1940 film).

The Fatal Hour at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
The Fatal Hour at IMDb
The Fatal hour at the TCM Movie Database
The Fatal Hour is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
The Fatal Hour at AllMovie

Films directed by William Nigh

Salomy Jane (1914)
A Royal Family (1915)
Emmy of Stork's Nest (1915)
Mignon (1915)
A Yellow Streak (1915)
Her Debt of Honor (1916)
The Kiss of Hate (1916)
Life's Shadows (1916)
The Child of Destiny (1916)
Notorious Gallagher (1916)
The Slave (1917)
Thou Shalt Not Steal (1917)
Wife Number Two (1917)
The Blue Streak (1917)
My Four Years in Germany (1918)
The Fighting Roosevelts (1919)
Beware! (1919)
School Days (1921)
Your Best Friend (1922)
Notoriety (1922)
Marriage Morals (1923)
Born Rich (1924)
Fear-Bound (1925)
Casey of the Coast Guard (1926)
The Fire Brigade (1926)
The Little Giant (1926)
The Nest (1927)
Mr. Wu (1927)
The Law of the Range (1928)
Across to Singapore (1928)
Four Walls (1928)
Desert Nights (1929)
Thunder (1929)
Lord Byron of Broadway (1930)
Today (1930)
Fighting Thru (1930)
The Single Sin (1931)
The Lightning Flyer (1931)
The Sea Ghost (1931)
Border Devils (1932)
Men Are Such Fools (1932)
Without Honor (1932)
The Night Rider (1932)
He Couldn't Take It (1933)
City Limits (1934)
Mystery Liner (1934)
School for Girls (1934)
The House of Mystery (1934)
Monte Carlo Nights (1934)
Once to Every Bachelor (1934)
Two Heads on a Pillow (1934)
The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934)
Dizzy Dames (1935)
Sweepstake Annie (1935)
The Headline Woman (1935)
His Night Out (1935)
Without Children (1935)
She Gets Her Man (1935)
The Old Homestead (1935)
Don't Get Personal (1936)
Crash Donovan (1936)
North of Nome (1936)
The Law Commands (1937)
Bill Cracks Down (1937)
Hoosier Schoolboy (1937)
The 13th Man (1937)
Boy of the Streets (1937)
A Bride for Henry (1937)
Atlantic Flight (1937)
Rose of the Rio Grande (1938)
Female Fugitive (1938)
Romance of the Limberlost (1938)
Mr. Wong, Detective (1938)
Gangster's Boy (1938)
I Am a Criminal (1938)
The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939)
Streets of New York (1939)
Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)
Mutiny in the Big House (1939)
The Fatal Hour (1940)
Doomed to Die (1940)
The Ape (1940)
Son of the Navy (1940)
The Kid from Kansas (1941)
Secret Evidence (1941)
No Greater Sin (1941)
Mob Town (1941)
Zis Boom Bah (1941)
Mr. Wise Guy (1942)
Escape from Hong Kong (1942)
Black Dragons (1942)
Tough as They Come (1942)
City of Silent Men (1942)
Lady from Chungking (1942)
The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942)
The Ghost and the Guest (1943)
Corregidor (1943)
The Underdog (1943)
Where Are Your Children? (1943)
Trocadero (1944)
Are These Our Parents? (1944)
Allotment Wives (1945)
Divorce (1945)
Forever Yours (1945)
Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
Partners in Time (1946)
South of Monterey (1946)
The Gay Cavalier (1946)
Riding the California Trail (1947)
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948)
Stage Struck (1948)

v t e Mr. Wong films
The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934) Mr. Wong, Detective (1938) The Mystery of Mr. Wong (1939) Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) The Fatal Hour (1940) Doomed to Die (1940) Phantom of Chinatown (1940)