The Fatal Hour (1940) - Nigh and Karloff return with a humdrum crime flick

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Everyone looks to the face of Boris Karloff's Mr. Wong on this well-crafted poster for William Nigh's The Fatal Hour

A murder with ties to the smuggling waterfront of San Francisco requires the expertise of a certain Chinese detective: He is eloquent. He is shrewd. He is gallant. - He is Mr. Wong!

The Fatal Hour is by no means a great film, nor even a good one. It was the fourth and penultimate Mr. Wong film for Boris Karloff (Suspense (1949-53)), who heightens the mysterious lead, detective Wong with his special outlandish glow.
Cinematically these low-budget crime tales were often extremely uninventive, and The Fatal Hour is no exception. It comes off as more than a tad dull, and Karloff is about the only substantial quality in it and reason to see this one.
It is written by Scott Darling (Behind Green Lights (1946)) and George Waggner (Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theater (1957-58)), based on the Colliers magazine short stories of Mr. Wong by Hugh Wiley, and directed by William Nigh (Hoosier Schoolboy (1937)).

Related posts:

William Nigh:  Black Dragons (1942) or, The Sinister Foreigner Attacks!
The Ape (1940) or, The Costume-Crazed Doctor  
Doomed to Die (1940) - Karloff's last Mr. Wong movie is a good one

 Here is a previous Mr. Wong film, Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939)

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
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[The Fatal Hour was released 15 January (USA) and runs 68 minutes. It was shot in Hollywood and San Francisco. Karloff's last Mr. Wong film was Doomed to Die (1940). A sixth and final Mr. Wong movie was made with Keye Luke as the detective, Phantom of Chinatown (1940). Karloff returned in British Intelligence (1940), one of the 8 (!) films he was in in 1940. Nigh returned with Son of the Navy (1940), one of 4 films he directed that year. The film is now in public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. 829 IMDb users have given The Fatal Hour a 5.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Fatal Hour?

The Ape (1940) or, The Costume-Crazed Doctor!

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Strongly, and not completely convincingly colored, sensationalistic poster for William Nigh's The Ape

Three ♥'s might seem a bit overly generous towards this pretty bad film, but I embrace The Ape because, in a way, it is the ultimate 'mad-doctor'-horror flick.

Boris Karloff (The Raven (1963)) plays the doctor, who wants to cure a paralyzed woman with the spinal fluid he obtains from his victims. And to obtain it, he wears an ape costume and strangles innocents.

- The plot of The Ape sure is corny. But it is also quite entertaining, and Karloff is very good. The ape costume is incredibly primitive, and the film kind of drags its way (to a length of only 62 minutes), but that is not unusual in a 1930s or 40s village community crime story as this also is. (Of course, that doesn't really make it better but its serves as context.)
The Ape is written by Curt Siodmak (Ski Fever (1966)) and Richard Carroll (Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)), based on the same-titled 1924 play by Adam Hull Shirk. Its director, William Nigh (Divorce (1945)), made several b-films with Karloff and in total directed more than 120 films from 1914 to 1948!

Related posts:

William Nigh:  Black Dragons (1942) or, The Sinister Foreigner Attacks!
Doomed to Die (1940) - Karloff's last Mr. Wong movie is a good one 

In lieu of something The Ape-related, which is not currently on Youtube, here is a clip from Karloff's appearance on The Dinah Shore Show in 1957

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
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[The Ape was released 30 September (USA) and runs 62 minutes. Siodmak have said that the only thing he kept from the play was a character disguised as an ape. Shooting took just a week in August in California. It concluded Karloff's six-picture contract with Monogram Pictures. Nigh returned with Secret Evidence (1941). Karloff returned in You'll Find Out (1940). 1,270 IMDb-users have given The Ape a 4.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Ape?