Sat 15 Oct 2016
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CHINESE CAT.
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[11] Comments
CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CHINESE CAT. Monogram Pictures, 1944. Sidney Toler, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland, Benson Fong, Ian Keith, Sam Flint, Cy Kendall. Based on charcaters created by Earl Derr Biggers. Director: Phil Rosen.
When it comes to James Bond, Roger Moore is by far my favorite actor to portray 007. When it comes to super-sleuth Charlie Chan, Swedish-born actor Warner Oland is the actor who I most associate with the role. That’s not to say that other actors haven’t portrayed Bond or Chan with conviction and skill. It’s just that when asked to develop a mental picture of either fictional character, Moore or Oland immediately come to mind.
That being said, I am far from close-minded when it comes to different actors portraying the playboy spy or the Chinese aphorism-wielding police detective. Although I can’t claim that Sidney Toler is my top Chan, I still consider Charlie Chan and the Wax Museum (1940) (reviewed here), a film in which Toler gave a solid performance, to be a highly worthwhile, if still deeply flawed, crime film.
The same can’t be said for The Chinese Cat. Directed by Phil Rosen, this installment in the Charlie Chan series is a real disappointment. Although the movie begins on a somewhat promising note with a locked room mystery in which a businessman is shot to death alone in his study.
But the movie soon descends into an inchoate mess in which various crime film elements are employed, all without any coherent effect. There’s a love affair between a detective and the dead man’s daughter; a criminologist who has written a book about the aforementioned murder; a gang of jewel thieves; twin brothers; and various attempts on Chan’s life.
Adding to the disappointment is the clumsy inclusion of the character of Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland), an African-American cabbie who chauffeurs Charlie and Number Three Son (Benson Fong) around town as they race against the clock to solve not one, but three murders.
By the time it all wraps up, it takes a great deal of energy to care about the identity of the murderers, let alone about the reasons why everything went down the way it did.
October 15th, 2016 at 9:13 pm
I concur. My opinion of this entry in the Charlie Chan movie series is that it’s a bunch of mystery clichés in search of a story.
Mantan Moreland does what he can to liven things up, but he really isn’t given anything to say or do.
October 15th, 2016 at 10:50 pm
The main problem as I see it is the lack of the bigger Fox budgets. The Monogram Charlie Chan films had smaller budgets and it shows.
October 16th, 2016 at 12:23 am
Here’s what Wikipedia has to sya:
“The budget for these films [from Monogram] was reduced from Fox’s average of $200,000 to $75,000.”
That tells the story right there.
October 16th, 2016 at 1:55 am
Looked it up:
Chinese Cat was the second Monogram Chan.
The Monobosses made the decision in its wake to make Mantan Moreland a permanent cast member; after one more false start (Black Magic), Birmingham Brown finally became the Chan chauffeur in the fourth MonoChan, The Jade Mask.
Since I don’t know how to link, someone else is going to have to send everybody back to when we were talking about Moreland’s on-screen partnership with Frankie Darro, also for Monogram (not quite coincident with the Chan series).
October 16th, 2016 at 2:52 am
Mike
Here’s the link:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=31983#comments
It will take you to Dan Stumpf’s review of UP IN THE AIR, starring Frankie Darro and Mantan Moreland, but the comments are must reading as well.
October 16th, 2016 at 4:01 pm
That first screen grab makes me want to see the film only to find out if Jack Norton plays an inebriated desk clerk!
October 16th, 2016 at 9:18 pm
That’s him all right, but inebriated? Not this time.
October 16th, 2016 at 10:49 pm
Thanks. I’m glad Jack got a chance to stretch.
October 17th, 2016 at 2:15 am
Jack Norton made at least two more MonoChan appearances:
– In The Scarlet Clue (1945), Jack plays a radio actor who, late in the film, makes his television debut, doing his drunk act for experimental cameras (semi-spoiler: it doesn’t turn out well).
– Shadows Over Chinatown (1946) has Jack as a pickpocket who pretends to be drunk while plying his trade; he has a small but key role in the big finish.
Well, in both cases Jack’s just pretending to be drunk, which must count for something …
October 17th, 2016 at 4:10 pm
The writing was a big problem for the Monogram series as well. The Fox Chan’s had some of the top notch writers from the Fox studios as well as actors like Karloff, Atwill, William Demarest, and others.
October 17th, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Mike,
Interesting that Monogram was somewhat more creative when it came to utilizing Jack Norton’s drunk act.