The Shanghai Chest

Charlie Chan (Roland Winters) must prove the innocence of a deeply stupid man (John Alvin) who puts his fingerprints all over a murder weapon. Contrived mess of a mystery with particularly weak writing, even for Monogram. Winters is terrible as Chan. I can't stress that enough. Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Yung are back playing buffoonish comic relief sidekicks Birmingham and Tommy. There's nothing to recommend about this one. If you're a Charlie Chan completist, I suppose you should at least try it. If you're new to Charlie Chan films, please don't let this or any of the Roland Winters movies be your first. As a matter of fact, avoid all of the Monogram movies until you've seen the far superior Fox movies first.