Dangerous Money

When a murder takes place on board ship, it's a good thing that Charlie Chan is there to solve it!

It's Sidney Toler's next to last appearance as the detective, and it's a pretty good entry in the Monogram series. Victor Sen Yung is present again as #2 son, Jimmy, and his comic timing with assistant Willie Best. The cast is well filled out, with Dick Elliott, Joseph Crehan, and Gloria Warren. Toler is looking tired, and the movie is directed to have him move as little as possible. He was suffering from the cancer that would eventually kill him. Longtime cast member Mantan Moreland told him he should be in the hospital, but Toler worked on; "Manny, if I go, all these people are out of a job."

And so he soldiered on. It's good that this one is a better mystery, and the cast was up to higher standards.

A foggy night on a cruise ship. Charlie Chan huddles at the rail with a man who confides that he is a government agent investigating hot money circulating in the islands. Already two attempts have been made on his life. Chan nods sagely.

It's an atmospheric opening that sets the scene nicely, reminiscent of the best Chan mysteries made several years earlier. Various characters slink by or stop to say hello as Chan and the agent talk....all suspects?

Moments later, sure enough, the government man is struck down in the ball room, victim of a knife thrown by an unseen hand. Chan takes on both the murder and the counterfeiting investigations.

Sidney Toler is fine once again as the famous detective. Sen Yung and Willie Best are along as Mr. Chan's assistants, and while this series entry has less comedy than usual, Yung and Best do manage to get some humor out of a pair of two-way radios they use in their efforts to spy on passengers and gather clues.

Overall, the plot is nothing special but manages to hold together for 66 minutes. The cast is solid and includes some familiar faces like ship captain Joseph Crehan. It's not the best Charlie Chan movie but certainly a decent late series entry.

Best movie prop ever: One of the suspects is a professor of ichthyology and he spends most of the movie carrying around a big book called simply FISH.

There's a small turtle with a torch on his back in "Dangerous Money," but that's never explained.

Well, we never do find out about that turtle...

"Dangerous Money" takes place on board ship, where a treasury agent investigating the movement of counterfeit money tells Charlie (Sidney Toler) that two attempts have been made on his life.

Finally, one succeeds, thanks to a flying knife, which plays into other parts of the film as well.

Charlie investigates, with the "help" of Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yeung) and Chattanooga Brown (Willie Best). This time around, Charlie actually has a couple of real assignments for them. The film also features Gloria Warren as Rona Simmonds.

Jimmy and Chattanooga supply some of the humor and play off of one another well. The best is Chattanooga playing sick so that Jimmy can get the doctor's fingerprints.

Entertaining.

Storywise, this is yet another disposable Chan story, industrialized movie-making.

There are two things of interest here.

One is how the needs of the Chan franchise ferret out peculiar corners of the American national story. In this case the US was well into the beginning of administering regions in the Pacific. This gave opportunities for new kinds of crime and the novelty of the crime was one of the attractions of the series at this point. So we have the smuggling of colonial currency, an esoteric illegality — and the use of new weapon, a "knifethrowing" pistol.

Ho hum. I suppose that will be interesting to historians. But for students of film there's a lesson here too. What do you do if your story depends on matters of race and you want to exploit that but also want to bury it? You fold it into other narrative elements of race.

For those who don't know the franchise, it was very long and successful. It stars a white guy pretending to be a Chinese master detective, the acting mostly through a halting English and a few phrases like: "a hasty man can drink tea with a fork." Incidentally, this fits in an odd place in the detective genre because we never really see any detecting, any real wisdom. The only thing we see is him setting traps with the trap revealing the hidden crook. He never figures it out directly.

Back to race. Chan's race is hidden twice. First, we have one of his sons as "assistant," a comic, bumbling idiot. This truly is racist and deliberately so. The contrast between the son (played by a real Asian) and his lack of insight and his father is amplified by the physical appearance and the obvious appearance.

And this is further folded or shadowed (an appropriate term) by the black guy. He is placed as far from the son in all dimensions as the son is from the father. He is that much more comic, and independently clueless, and also independently "ethnic." Its a vile notion to exploit by today's standards, but the method of shadowed folding is clear.

Its a device used in literature, but much more common in film because you can link so many more qualities in parallel, here all aligned to "detection" qualities. That Africanamerican's name is Chattanooga, derived probably from Jack Benny's "man" Rochester.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Definitely, one of the more ambitious Chan mysteries made by Monogram in the 40s, which relied more on deadly devices and chemicals to do in our hero, and just about anybody else. Film historians have long said the difference between Warner Oland and Sidney Toler is the fact Oland was a more methodical, thoughtful actor while Toler came off a tad more serious, slightly mysterious at times, matching the dark characters he was up against. Accordingly, the writers surrounded Toler with more atmosphere and, yes, innovative weapons.

The villain here employs a razor sharp knife gun. You have to admit, it's one insane weapon. For a welcome change of pace, Charlie, assisted by Number Two Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) and Chattanooga (Willie Best) board an ocean liner bound for Somoa, trailing a counterfeting ring, and the MAIN man is a crafty killer. Appropriately, one of Charlie's colleagues is knifed in the back (catch the knife flying through the air!) and the hunt begins. The special effects ain't too bad, either.

Enough suspects to go around, and love all the brooding and guilty faces. Take your pick. The cast features some fine talent; Gloria Warren co-stars, known for her beautiful singing voice, also Rick Vallin (who would turn up many times on tv's SUPERMAN), Dick Elliot (as Burke), always looking guilty, Joseph Crehan as the police captain (a natural in this type of role) and John Harmon (Freddie), often cast in tv westerns, like BONANZA.

Special nod to comedian Willie Best as Chatanooga. Willie actually came to Hollywood and worked as a chauffeur. A staple in many classics, like GHOST BUSTERS opposite Bob Hope, who had nothing but praise for him.

Terry Morse directs this with style, and it shows, boasting some excellent sets to match. Looks like this production had a slightly higher budget. Morse was a well known film editor for years, nicknamed "the doctor," later gaining fame for directing GODZILLA.

Best dvd box is through Warner Brothers, the TCM Spotlight Charlie Chan Collection. 4 dvds, also featuring DARK ALIBI, THE TRAP and THE CHINESE RING. Released 2010. Thanks much to RETRO TV for running Charlie Chan Friday afternoons, and all the memories attached.