THE FATAL HOUR, DOOMED TO DIE (1940) *1/2 There's not all that much to it, once you get over being astounded that Boris Karloff is cast as a "Chinese copper." And the main entertainment value in that is that he doesn't look any more Chinese than anyone else in the cast. He's useless. Grant Withers' brusque and belligerent rudeness even starts looking good in comparison, and some may delight in Marjorie Reynolds' spectacular, but only occasional, butchering of simple lines. At first I thought that at least they'd actually portrayed police work in a sensible, reasonable way--the cops know who did it, the only problem is gathering evidence--but then I began having a sinking feeling that maybe I was getting set up. Nah, that can't be right, can it? I mean, these people's idea of a plot is to just sit there and see what the lead feels like doing, the camera feels like a little kid following a big kid around the playground.
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