Chinatown Squad

1935's "Chinatown Squad" was one of the handful of non genre titles included in Universal's popular SHOCK! package issued to television in the late 50s. I never encountered it on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, but it probably rates as one of the better ones, all 'B' programmers of little distinction, most of which dealt with spies or sabotage. This is a welcome whodunit with Lyle Talbot, still in the leading man phase of his career, getting most of the humorous lines, at the expense of Hugh O'Connell's bumbling police sergeant. The murder victim is conniving embezzler Earl Raybold (Clay Clement), who gets stabbed to death by fork (!) in a Chinatown cafe where all the suspects have conveniently shown up. The busy Valerie Hobson, fresh from "WereWolf of London" and "Bride of Frankenstein," is the main asset, playing a mysterious woman in black, trying to retrieve some incriminating letters from the dead man, while others search for a valuable ring which has disappeared. While monster loving urchins like myself would have turned up their noses at viewing this picture on local 'Creature Features,' this now adult movie buff found it most agreeable.