[.ca] Charlie Chan: Chinese Cat

A Chauffeur For Charlie:
THE CHINESE CAT is a surprisingly good war-time film by Monogram. Sidney Toler is back as Charlie and Benson Fong has the role of Tommy Chan. Tommy is Charlie's number three son. Manton Moreland as Birmingham Brown begins the movie as a cab driver and ends up as Charlie's chauffeur. Some of the best scenes take place in a fun house.

Unpredictable as usual.:
Another clever picture with the "hard not to like" Mr. Chan

Good entry from the Monogram series:
Monogram Pictures, one of the smaller Hollywood studios, really tried to make its Charlie Chan mysteries competitive with major-studio product, and this time it worked. "The Chinese Cat" (1944) has everything audiences had come to expect from the series: a capable cast of familiar character actors (Cy kendall, Ian Keith, Joan Woodbury, and at least four favorite serial performers), good direction (by the normally uninspired Phil Rosen), and striking photography (by veteran cameraman Ira Morgan). The story concerns an unsolved murder, and a muck-raking novelist whose latest book hits too close to home. Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland are always enjoyable, and number-three son Benson Fong has more to do than usual (he defies the criminal mastermind in a memorable scene). Charlie Chan fans will enjoy this; followers of the Monogram corpus will applaud this fine companion piece to "The Shanghai Cobra" and "The Scarlet Clue." This is one "B" that gets a solid "A" for effort.

Charlie solves an old murder:
Yep Charlie (Sidney Toler) is on the trail of a cold case murder. His nosing around invokes more murder and mayhem. There is even a closed-room murder. We know how it was done. But the question is why. There are several overlapping story threads. And the Chinese cat(S) turnout to be sculptures. We get to see Charlie's number three son Tommy (Benson Fong) always putting his foot in his mouth and stumbling into trouble. However he can be pretty tough when the chips are down. The real comic relief is Birmingham Brown, Taxi Driver (Mantan Moreland.) Benson Fong was in several Chan's and acted well in over 50 films including Flower Drum Song (1961)

After a slow start, this 2nd Monogram has action ending.:
For some reason, the second Monogram Chan movie is a bit slow moving during the first half of the film. Mantan Moreland's comedy material is not very good this time, but would improve in The Scarlet Clue and The Shanghai Cobra. Chan and Number 3 son Tommy get captured and roughed up this time, unusual in a Chan film. I would call this a middling effort from Monogram. Classic Chan line is "Expert is merely man who make quick decision--and is sometimes right."