Black Magic

This late-entry Charlie Chan movie gets marks simply for the entertainment, not for a deep-thinking suspenseful "whodunnit." It's just fun to watch with an always-smiling daughter (played by Frances Chen) replacing number-whatever-son and the eyes-popping-out-of-the-head Mantan Moreland adding humor, although of his humor is a bit stupid (and insulting to black folks, I'm sure). However, Moreland is a likable guy so it's hard to get annoyed at his silliness.

The story is a familiar one of the day, about the occult (seances) and, thankfully, another that exposes the mediums as crooks.

These Sidney Toler-Mantan Moreland collaborations, as opposed to the early Warner Oland/Charlie Chan movies, replied more on comedy and gimmicks rather than brains, and once you accept that, you just go along with an entertaining hour of lamebrain fun, especially when Chan starts to put people down with his sarcasm.

Average Monogram Chan potboiler, in the Mongram House with some of the Monogram staff - but then, I've always liked this one! The surviving print (in Chanthology) is in excellent condition, lending a nice overall atmosphere to the proceedings and helping a lot in following the story. One of the things that always makes me smile watching Monogram's is that the plots usually involve dispensing with some or a lot of accepted social conventions - they weren't meant to be analysed and mulled over decades later. In this Moreland and Frances Chan are in and out of the house like yo-yo's, and creeping all over the place unseen - it wasn't their house but as in a lot of Monogram's you weren't supposed to dwell on ownership issues which obstructed juvenile frisson or slapstick.

At a séance a man is apparently shot dead with what turns out to be an invisible bullet, as Charlie jocularly puts it. The quest is on to find out which of the clients around the table did it and how. The way in which Charlie solved it is depressingly familiar and trite, but everything was wrapped up nicely anyway. As usual Moreland was acting scared witless, in fact with "gremlins galloping up and down his spine" this time - a fantastic image! Frances Chan couldn't act very well but she certainly looked like she was enjoying the experience of making a movie with her constant smiles - her sunny disposition seemed to be rubbing off on Toler too who was enjoying his own aphorisms more than ever.

Overall, nice to watch once in a while especially in a Chan season. And I prefer big shoes to big corns.

In a break from the typical Chan pattern Charlie is aide by his daughter this time. Interestingly he treats much better than he he ever did any of his boys.

This concerns a murder at a seance and more following. Its far from the best of the Chans, but at the same time its far from the worst, especially in light of there not being a son to get into mischief. Its the atypical nature that lifts it up from being a purely run of the mill story. Granted if you've not seen a good number of the Chan films the small differences may not seem like much, but for those of us who've seen every appearance its the little things that count.

7 out of 10 for those looking for a break in the Chan formula, 6 out of 10 for everyone else.

The newer films were filled with more silliness. Mantan Moreland became more and more a part of the series. While he was a very funny man, he really only played one note. In this one, a psychic is shot while performing a phony séance. Chan's daughter happens to be at the event and that's how Charlie ends up on the case. The police actually extort him into staying and solving the murder. Mantan, Birmingham Jones, and the daughter are the real investigators. There is a kind of hypnotic drug used and once again we must put aside our beliefs and accept this. Part of the fun is the chicanery that goes on behind the scenes as the credibility of the medium comes tumbling down. I have to admit that our detective has numerous close calls but seems to land on his feet. If you've seen the movie, you'll know how important this is in this film. About average as Chan movies go.

This is my eighth review of a Charlie Chan movie in series chronological order on these consecutive days. In this one, someone is murdered during a séance of which one of the witnesses is Chan's daughter, Frances (Frances Chan). Oh, and the newly hired butler is one Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland)...So instead of one of his adult sons, here Charlie is assisted by his lovely daughter who doesn't get any wisecracks aimed at her unlike her sometimes bumbling brothers, just compliments on her beauty and brains (though hearing the actress occasionally repeat others' lines can be somewhat annoying). With the mystery treated a little more serious here then the previous one called The Chinese Cat, Moreland's antics are also not as frequent but you still get plenty of it in the beginning and the end. As I've said before, his characterization borders on a stereotype that wouldn't do in today's social atmosphere but if you just think of him as a harmless clown that wouldn't hurt anybody, his shenanigans should be amusing enough. Anyway, I highly enjoyed Black Magic (or Meeting at Midnight), and if you love Charlie Chan, you'll probably enjoy this. P.S. Ms. Frances Chan actually appeared as the youngest Chan daughter in a previous entry, now considered lost, called Charlie Chan's Greatest Case. And supporting player Geraldine Wall-who's Harriet Green here-is another one in these series entries I'd like to cite as being born in my birthtown of Chicago, Ill. and that she was originally cast as Dolly Tate in the movie version of Annie Get Your Gun when Judy Garland was cast (in fact, I have a CD of the soundtrack album with her voice tracks on maybe one or two songs) but was replaced by Benay Venuta when Betty Hutton replaced Ms. Garland.