15) CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CHINESE CAT

Director: Phil Rosen
Stars: Sidney Toler, Benson Fong, Mantan Moreland, Joan Woodbury, Ian Keith, Weldon Heyburn
Year: 1944
Rating: NR

One of the later Charlie Chan films, made by Monogram studios and starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, this entry in the popular mystery series finds Charlie Chan taking on the case of a businessman who was killed in his private study over six months ago, in a locked room as his desk, a chessboard with just a lone bishop standing on it the only clue.

Leah Manning (Joan Woodbury), stepdaughter of the deceased man, has come to find Charlie Chan to see if he can finally solve this crime, as the police have failed to do. She finds Chan's number three son Tommy, and Tommy ends up promising her the Chans will help - humbly binding his father to his word, so that Charlie has no choice but to take the case. It seems a Dr. Paul Recknik (Ian Keith) has recently published a book about the crime, all but naming Leah's mother as the murderer, and will now do anything to find her stepdad's really killer, if only to clear her mom's now-tainted name.

Jewel thieves, explosions, gunfire, more murders, wisecracking chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland, a god comic actor here, if you can look beyond the political INcorrectness of his character!), and a seemingly empty funhouse all contain the answers, and it's up to the world's greatest detective, Charlie Chan to solve it all - which, of course, he does.

For one of the Monogram Charlie Chan b-movies (low budget, so-so script, tissue-thin story), this one has its moments and is fairly entertaining. I grew up with Charlie Chan films on WGN-TV, and every time I catch one I haven't yet seen, it is sort of like old home week.

And for a Monogram entry in the series, this one does have some fun in store ... but would be of little interest to anyone who is not a Charlie Chan (or mystery film) fan. If that's you, best to stick to one of the earlier, 20th Century-Fox films in the series if you ever do want a good introduction to one of hte more interesting, unique detectives to ever hit the silver screen (eveen if the films aren't exactly what you could call politically correct today). *** - Reel Cool