Review of Doomed to Die

A great opening sets up Boris Karloff's last appearance as the Chinese detective who isn't a thorn in the side of police investigator Grant Withers. That would be reporter Marjorie Reynolds who continues to taunt Withers for her abilities (and his apparent disabilities) in crime solving. In this case, it's the murder of a wealthy businessmen with the main suspect being young Guy Usher who wanted to marry the man's daughter (Catherine Craig) which her father violently opposed. Of course, there's other suspects, of the business rival variety, and those aren't as interesting as the family aspect of the case. This is the one time in the series where Wong gets a bit too close for someone's comfort, resulting in a few close calls for him, the only real notable element in this film. The Reynolds/Withers antagonism here goes a bit too far, with Reynolds becoming so obnoxiously annoying at one point that it wouldn't be beyond reason for Withers to stuff something in her mouth and lock her in a closet, or dispatch her himself and gladly turn himself in for the crime. Karloff ends his participation in the series seemingly relieved, and never worked at Monogram studios again.