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Doomed to Die
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Wikipedia article
seated. Standing L-R, Marjorie Reynolds, Gibson Gowland, Grant Withers
'Doomed to Die' is a 1940 American mystery film directed by William Nigh and starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong with Marjorie Reynolds and Grant Withers. It is a sequel to the 1940 film, 'The Fatal Hour',Stephen Jacobs, 'Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster', Tomahawk Press 2011 p 259-260 which also featured Withers and Reynolds.
Plot
When the head of a shipping company is murdered in his office the identity of the killer seems obvious. The killer is the son of the owner of a rival shipping company; the reason is the Romeo and Juliet romance between the killer and the murdered man's daughter. They wanted to get married. The murdered man refused to give them his permission.
The murdered man's daughter asks Mr. Wong to investigate. She hopes that Wong will be able to prove that her fianc didn't kill her father.
The killing took place a few days after the 'Wentworth Castle', one of the company's liners, caught fire and sank with the loss of more than 400 lives. Once again, Wong is given important information by the leader of a powerful tong (Chinese secret society) that leads him to other suspects. The tong leader tells Wong that a member of the tong was smuggling a great amount of tong money into the United States aboard the Wentworth Castle. The smuggler is known to have survived the sinking but disappeared with the tong's money.
Wong uses modern (for 1940) technology to recover seemingly "lost" evidence. He uncovers multiple conspiracies within the shipping company and succeeds in proving that the fianc is not the murderer.
Cast
* Boris Karloff as James Lee Wong
* Marjorie Reynolds as Roberta "Bobbie" Logan
* Grant Withers as Capt. William "Bill" Street
* William Stelling as Dick Fleming
* Catherine Craig as Cynthia Wentworth
* Guy Usher Paul Fleming
* Henry Brandon as Victor "Vic" Martin
* Melvin Lang as Cyrus P. Wentworth
* Wilbur Mack as Matthews
* Kenneth Harlan as Ludlow
* Richard Loo as Tong leader
Production
Filming began in mid June. The film uses actual news footage from the burning of the liner , which caught fire on September 8, 1934 during a trip from Havana to New York City.Internet Movie Database Trivia
References
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