El gato chino

A man playing chess is shot by an unknown hand. The dying man sweeps the chess pieces off the board–but leaves a bishop standing. A clue?

Charlie Chan is eventually recruited to investigate, but he only has 48 hours before leaving town on government business. In that short time, his investigation leads to artsy figurines hidden in bread loaves, and opens secret compartments concealing diamonds in those same figurines.

Sidney Toler is steady as always in this modest Chan mystery. Benson Fong is energetic as son Tommy Chan, and the father-son back-and- forth includes the usual amount of moderately amusing banter:

Tommy Chan: "Pop, I got a case that will knock your hat off." Pop Chan: "Can remove hat without assistance, thank you."

Joan Woodbury is sadly wasted as the murder victim's stepdaughter. You'd think Woodbury would add some zip to a picture like this, but unfortunately she's stuck as a helpless hand-wringer rather than the spunky fast-talker she so often played. However, Woodbury's blandness is nothing compared with that of her detective boyfriend (Weldon Heyburn), who simply has nothing interesting to say or do the whole picture. Poor guy!

Thank goodness for Mantan Moreland, who livens up his scenes as taxi driver Birmingham Brown. Fong is also fun as the number three son (although he sure smiles a lot, even when he's just discovered a dead body).

Overall, it's not much of a plot but the familiar lead characters are always watchable.

I saw this when I was quite young. I hadn't heard of Charlie and his cast of characters --#2 son and Birmingham. They were quite enjoyable. The plot moved at a good pace. I particularly enjoyed the sequence where the bad guys were tracking Tommie and Birmingham in a deserted fun-house. After all these years, I still enjoy it.

Tommy Chan, Number Three Son, promises a young woman that her stepfather's killer will be apprehended by his father. The police have listed it as an unsolved crime and there seems little hope. We, of course, know better. Once again, Mantan Moreland, who is a cab driver in this one, assists out of fear for his safety. There seems to be something going on with Chinese cat statues and diamonds. A police detective, sort of a Neanderthal, who really knows nothing, has been demoted. He fell in love with the young woman in question and was seen as a liability. Actually, it turns out that he is. He knows nothing and contributes nothing to the solution. Charlie also gets into it with a mystery writing who thinks he can outdo the great Asian detective. Maybe a little too much funny stuff and some really stupid criminals. Kind of par for the course.

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