Doomed to Die

1940 film by William Nigh

August 12, 1940 (1940-08-12)

Running time

68 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

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,^[1] which also features Withers and Reynolds.

Plot

When the head of a shipping company is murdered in his office, suspicion is focused on the son of a competitor who is engaged to the dead man's daughter. The girl asks the detective Mr. Wong to investigate, hoping to prove that her fiancé is innocent.

The murder occurred a few days after one of the company's liners had caught fire and sunk, with the loss of more than 400 lives. Wong is given information by the leader of a powerful Chinese tong that leads him to other suspects. The tong leader tells Wong that one of their members was smuggling a large amount of tong money aboard the ship. The smuggler survived the sinking but disappeared with the tong's money.

Wong uses technology to recover seemingly lost evidence. He uncovers multiple conspiracies within the shipping company and proves that the original suspect 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 1940. The film uses actual news footage from the burning of the liner SS Morro Castle, which caught fire on September 8, 1934 during a trip from Havana to New York City.^[2]

References

^ Stephen Jacobs, Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster, Tomahawk Press 2011 p 259-260
^ Internet Movie Database Trivia

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Doomed to Die.

Doomed to Die at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Doomed to Die at IMDb
Doomed to Die at the TCM Movie Database
Doomed to Die is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
Doomed to Die at AllMovie
Doomed to Die at Google Videos

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)