Shadows Over Chinatown

This CHAN entry is a little different from the opening. First, there is a sequence in the Missing Persons Bureau with an off-screen narrator explaining the goings on. Then the "torso killings"--shades of the Black Dahlia. I don't recall such gruesome deaths in the earlier Chans, although here they are only spoken of. The plot is pure Monogram Chan for better or worse(a scorecard would come in handy with this outing as well as most of the others). The interaction between Toler, Sen Yung and Mantan Moreland is as always fun to watch. Much has been made of Moreland's parts in these films and their supposed "racist" overtones. Maybe so, but IMNTBHO him playing a scared bumbler is no different than Lou Costello playing a scared bumbler in one of the A&C flicks---and they are both super at it. If all else fails there is beautiful Tanis Chandler to ogle! Why she never became a true star is beyond me--she's a sight.

I was generally a fan of the "Charlie Chan" movies with Sidney Toler and this is one of the better ones. To San Francisco he and fairly hapless No. 2 son "Jimmy" (Victor Sen Yung) travel to assist their police with a mysterious murder investigation. That's not all, though. There's a missing person to be found too. "Mary" (Tanis Chandler) has gone awol and her doting mother (Mary Gordon) and her rather drippy fiancé "Jeff" (Bruce Kellogg) are at their wits end. It doesn't help that our sleuthing genius quickly discovers that this absentee once worked with his original victim. The plot thickens and the pair - assisted ably by the cowardy custard, and only sparingly used, "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland) - must get to the bottom of things before "Mary" comes a cropper. The plot here is a bit more internecine and sophisticated than with many of these adventures. That said, there is a maybe just a little too much coincidence as the thing progresses but I'm sure "Charlie" would have a profound ancestral adage for there being no such thing as luck! There's the tinies of twists at the end and en route it moves along well for an hour. It's always nice to see the original and best Holmesian "Mrs. Hudson" in a film, too!

You'll find all sorts of gems by noodling around in films of the 30s and 40s. Some absolute treasures await you in unlikely places. One of these is in various experiments in the detective story that were being conducted at the time.

And sometimes a series in this period yields riches in how it evolves. But I can tell you that except in one respect this film is so poor in content and interest, you should avoid it. I'm not talking about production values here or even questions about the sense of the mystery.

We've never let them get in the way before if there is a core that rewards.

Everyone seems tired here (except for that one element I'll mention below). Toler was in his seventies and can merely grimace. The Confucianisms that were clever in a few Chan movies are rote and childish here. The plot bumps about until it tumbles down all the stairs allotted to it.

The one bright light is Mantan Mooreland. The series is, after all, about how one race, the Chinese, have gifts — inscrutable insight and some wisdom. Its always been peppered by the caveat of race by the comical black man. Mantan plays this man, the childish chauffeur (usually called a driver).

He's terrified, a coward. And he's ignorant. Combining these two with minstrel characteristics and you get a stuttering, bug eyed foil that easily is well over the line in offensive.

And yet. He is such an artist. His timing is so sublime, that you have to just watch him in awe. He's a star, a great actor. If we don't burden Brando by thinking that he is actually his characters, why should we do so here?

He's in more watchable films, and just as appealing in how he connects. But if you happen to accidentally be watching this, he'll give some relief.

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

This episode is a bit edgier. First of all, the murder being investigated is much more vicious than others. Charlie is working for an insurance company and is investigating this death but also is working on a personal interest missing persons case. We have here the reappearance of the Charlie's Number Two Son, Jimmy, who has much more personality than son Tommy. Mantan is there again to provide zaniness. That aside, there are several twists and turns in this plot that make it pretty entertaining. Charlie seems to take more of a personal interest in the results of this case because of the brutality of everything. As is always the case, there are some excellent suspects and a love story to boot

Charlie Chan, Jimmy and Birmingham are on a bus trip to San Francisco, where he's about to investigate for an insurance company the strange and gruesome deaths of a couple of newly wed young women - all 'torso killings', where the head's been cut off from the body; and now another victim has been found, and the lady who sits next to him on the bus explains to him that she makes the trip in order to find out if it's her missing granddaughter. Meanwhile, the bus has got motor trouble, and the passengers are forced to spend some time in a little shack - where a shot is fired at Charlie from outside, and it's only the watch Jimmy had given him for his birthday that saves him from the bullet! Then, a young man shows up who declares he's on leave from the Marine Corps to see his girl in San Francisco; but it's obvious that he left WITHOUT a leave... Then, when they arrive and Charlie goes to the morgue to see the body (whatever's left of it), he can reassure Mrs. Conover that the dead woman is NOT her granddaughter, because of a scar from an appendectomy which 'little' Mary has never undergone. And the same day, in the hotel restaurant, Charlie recognizes in the pretty young waitress the missing granddaughter, who's dyed her hair blond - and is obviously hiding from something or someone...

As it turns out, Mary is also the girl Joe, the young Marine corporal, is searching for: he'd fallen in love with her, but she'd turned him down because she was afraid - and at last, when Charlie gets hold of her, we learn the reason for her fear: she'd been working for an escort bureau, and she'd become suspicious when her boss had suggested to her to marry Joe whose father is rich, and if she'd get him to take out a high life insurance policy, they'd soon make her a rich widow! And now, it's up to brave little Mary to play the decoy in order to find the boss of the 'torso murder gang'...

A very unusual and suspenseful entry in the 'Charlie Chan' series, with an excellent cast (what a shame that most of their names are almost forgotten by now...), and as always some wonderful jokes and mishaps from Jimmy and Birmingham; a great piece of good, clean crime entertainment!