Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat

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.

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.

Sidney Toler is Charlie Chan in "Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat," a 1944 film, part of the Monogram Chinese Chan series. These films were made for twenty cents and probably took a day to film. Nevertheless, they can be fun.

Charlie here is trying to solve a locked-door murder that the police gave up on; however, a book has been published all but accusing the victim's wife of killing him, and his stepdaughter (Leah Manning) begs Charlie to investigate before he moves on to his next case.

With the help (sort of) of taxi driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) and Charlie's son #3 (Benson Fong), he sets out to find what really happened.

The Monogram Chan series is not as fun or as good as the Fox series, but when Fox dropped Charlie Chan, Sidney Toler took him to Monogram. Toler had gotten the rights from Earl Derr Biggers' widow. After Toler died, the role went to Roland Winters.

Some of the dialogue here is quite fun as Charlie berates his son's presence and ability, though #3 son ends up acquitting himself quite well. Mantan Moreland is good as Birmingham, in fact, he was one of the best things about the series, but he doesn't have much to do here.

His usual character was that of the Chan chauffeur. Now he's a taxi driver who worked with Chan previously and comes back into the fold.

Just to show how quickly these were filmed, in one scene, Charlie breaks a numbered light series which shows what maze in a fun house is being used. One of the light bulbs remains intact, but they didn't re-film it.

Anyway, the mystery here is pretty good, and the fun house maze is entertaining. Recommended for Charlie Chan fans.

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.

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.