Cinema Revisited: Phantom of Chinatown (1940)
Directed by Phil Rosen. Cast: Keye Luke, Lotus Long, Grant Withers, Charles Miller, Huyntley Gordon, Virginia Carpenter, John Dilson, Paul McVey, John Holland, Richard Terry Robert Kellard, Will Castello, Lee Tung Foo. Running time: 62 minutes. Released November 18, 1940.
When the Charlie Chan series became so popular, other studios began series featuring non-Asian actors playing Asian detectives. Peter Lorre played Mr Moto, and Boris Karloff was cast as Mr. Wong. However, after several films, Karloff's workload got a bit too daunting for him to remain connected to a film series, and he vacated the role. The studio then hired Keye Luke, to replace him with the intention of starting the series over.
Keye Luke played Number One Son Lee Chan in the Charlie Chan series until Chan star Warner Oland died in 1938. His being hired to play Wong was significant in that it was the first time an actual Asian actor played one of the Asian detectives. Unfortunately, without the Karloff name, few theaters were interested in showing the Wong films, and plans for the series were dropped after one film, "Phantom of Chinatown."
It is unfortunate that the Wong series with Keye Luke in the title role didn't click with exhibitors and got so few bookings (often relegated to sparsely-attended midnight shows). The American-born Luke is a compelling actor whose intelligence and erudition makes him to be like a more youthful Charlie Chan. He has the same cunning, the same pragmatism, but with more energy and vitality.
The story for "Phantom of Chinatown" is simple -- after a difficult archeological exhibition in China, during which one member of the unit is lost, the head of said exhibition is narrating some films taken during their quest. But when he drinks some water, he chokes and falls dead. He's been poisoned, so detectives are called, namely Captain Street, played by the always reliable B actor Grant Withers.
Keye Luke is James Lee Wong, a student researcher whose natural instinct for detail is helpful to the detectives, so Captain Street works with him as a veritable partner. The character is developed within the narrative as if future films would be produced.
"Phantom of Chinatown" is directed by Phil Rosen, an expert at B level mysteries. Rosen's effective use of darkness, and ability to keep the pace brisk, causes this 62 minute programmer to fly by.
Keye Luke kept busy, playing Kato in a couple of Green Hornet serials, and making as many as a dozen movie appearances each year. He kept active right up until his death in 1991, last appearing in Woody Allen's film "Alice" (1990). But it is unfortunate that more Wong movies were not made with him in the lead role. If they were as entertaining as "Phantom of Chinatown," they would likely have continued to be significant for having an Asian American actor playing the role -- an ethnic authenticity that happened all too rarely in Hollywood cinema of the time.