Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat

This is my seventh review of a Charlie Chan movie in series chronological order during these consecutive days. It's also my first for the Monogram entries, of which this one is the second. In this one, a young woman's stepfather is murdered in a closed room. She enlists Charlie in the case through communicating with his "No. 3 Son" Tommy (Benson Fong) while both stay at a hotel. Also along for the ride, for only the second time, is cab driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland)...The noticeable changes from Fox to Monogram, besides more comic relief with both Fong and Moreland, is some more time for the music score to go along with some more action sequences near the end before we hear Charlie's assessment of the case. Also, the plotting isn't too serious and Chan's wisecracks to his son seem almost mean-spirited, like Abbott & Costello like, though one can take them with a grain of salt. And while Mantan's antics, especially his looks of fright, would probably not do in these politically correct times, he still can be entertainingly funny with what he does here and I don't think it reflects badly on his race at all since to me he's just a funny looking clown who's quite endearing, whatever the race. So on that note, I quite recommend Charlie Chan in the The Chinese Cat. P.S. Mr. Moreland was a native of Monroe in my now home state of Louisiana. And Sam Flint, who played Thomas P. Manning here, was another player in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life. He was the relieved banker in Mr. Potter's office wiping his forehead during the run-on-the-bank sequence.

Sidney Toler again reprises most honorable interpretation of Charlie Chan. This time Chan is helping a former police detective(now just a cop) and a beautiful woman out to clear her mother's name in the murder case of her step-father many months ago. It seems he was murdered in his study grasping a bishop from a chess set in the shadow of an ebony Chinese cat statue. Well, this film has a neat and tidy mystery - not too terribly clever or hard to grasp - but highly enjoyable nonetheless. Toler does his best in bringing charm and grace to the role of Chan with always a generous dose of subtle humour. Toler perhaps has too many clichés to throw out, but most of them in this film are amusing and some even telling. Benson Fong is back as #3 son. He and Toler have good chemistry, but he is even better when paired with cab driver/later to be chauffeur Birmingham Brown(played by a great, sometimes forgotten Mantan Moreland). Moreland is just wonderful in his portrayal of a witty, sometimes very blunt/direct working man playing against the characters of Chan and #3 son. Add to this that Moreland is just plain funny. He had me in stitches more than once in this film and every one of his scenes is a real hoot. All the acting is solid if not dazzling in any way. Ian Keith does a particularly solid job as a naysayer to Chan's gift of detection and John Davidson has a good time playing some weird twins Carl and Kurt. While not one of the best Chan films, Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat is a very entertaining entry.

These Sidney Toler "Monogram" Chan films, the last in the series, don't measure up to Warner Oland's earlier efforts but they are still very entertaining to me. Even with Mantan Moreland, who probably offends the sensibilities of a lot of people with his scared black-man routine. I can see where that's offensive, but if you just take him as a comedian and let it go, you can enjoy and even laugh with him.

The only thing I did NOT find funny in here, but I normally do, is Charlie's insults to his kid. In this film, Tolder insults "Number Three Son" (Benson Fong) so many times that it borders on downright mean-spiritedness.

Anyway, it was still a "decent" combination of mystery and comedy and the ending was cool, with Chan and his assistants chasing the bad guys around a "fun house." All the Charlie Chan movies are entertaining.

Monogram's Charlie Chan films tended to suffer towards the end by lack of caring. The plots ended up confused and messy aimed more at Birmingham Brown and the Chan son of the film being silly while Charlie said wise things. Here, thankfully, the film is blessed with a decent mystery, different sets than most of the others, and several good supporting performances, in particular by the always wonderful, and sadly not well known John Davidson.

Here we have the death of a chess expert and assorted other goings on that make this one of the better later Chan films. I don't want to say too much since the joy here is in the watching, and this film is certainly worth watching.

7 out of 10

The second of Charlie Chan's Monogram Pictures finds Sidney Toler and number two son Benson Fong involved in a six month old homicide of a wealthy businessman and chess expert. As he dies the victim leaves the telltale clue of a lone bishop standing on the chessboard.

What brings Charlie into the case is Joan Woodbury on behalf of her mother Betty Blythe who was married to the deceased. A new book written by Ian Keith is casting aspersions on Woodbury and Blythe and as the case remained unsolved for six months there's lots of room for speculation.

Of course Keith has the facts all wrong and the case centers around a statue of a cat done by a noted artist who Charlie knows to put secret compartments in his product. That makes them useful for hiding things, stolen things.

This also makes the second appearance of Mantan Moreland who was introduced in the first Monogram Chan feature, Charlie Chan In The Secret Service. No wonder Charlie Chan had to hire Birmingham as a chauffeur, Birmingham's cab gets blown up when the crooks think Charlie is getting too close.

Fans of the series should appreciate it though when the series left 20th Century Fox and was picked up by Monogram, as Bob Hope would have said it was like exchanging filet mignon for hog's livers.