Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat

Sidney Toler is Charlie Chan in "Charlie Chan in the Chinese Cat," a 1944 film, part of the Monogram Chinese Chan series. These films were made for twenty cents and probably took a day to film. Nevertheless, they can be fun.

Charlie here is trying to solve a locked-door murder that the police gave up on; however, a book has been published all but accusing the victim's wife of killing him, and his stepdaughter (Leah Manning) begs Charlie to investigate before he moves on to his next case.

With the help (sort of) of taxi driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) and Charlie's son #3 (Benson Fong), he sets out to find what really happened.

The Monogram Chan series is not as fun or as good as the Fox series, but when Fox dropped Charlie Chan, Sidney Toler took him to Monogram. Toler had gotten the rights from Earl Derr Biggers' widow. After Toler died, the role went to Roland Winters.

Some of the dialogue here is quite fun as Charlie berates his son's presence and ability, though #3 son ends up acquitting himself quite well. Mantan Moreland is good as Birmingham, in fact, he was one of the best things about the series, but he doesn't have much to do here.

His usual character was that of the Chan chauffeur. Now he's a taxi driver who worked with Chan previously and comes back into the fold.

Just to show how quickly these were filmed, in one scene, Charlie breaks a numbered light series which shows what maze in a fun house is being used. One of the light bulbs remains intact, but they didn't re-film it.

Anyway, the mystery here is pretty good, and the fun house maze is entertaining. Recommended for Charlie Chan fans.

These Sidney Toler "Monogram" Chan films, the last in the series, don't measure up to Warner Oland's earlier efforts but they are still very entertaining to me. Even with Mantan Moreland, who probably offends the sensibilities of a lot of people with his scared black-man routine. I can see where that's offensive, but if you just take him as a comedian and let it go, you can enjoy and even laugh with him.

The only thing I did NOT find funny in here, but I normally do, is Charlie's insults to his kid. In this film, Tolder insults "Number Three Son" (Benson Fong) so many times that it borders on downright mean-spiritedness.

Anyway, it was still a "decent" combination of mystery and comedy and the ending was cool, with Chan and his assistants chasing the bad guys around a "fun house." All the Charlie Chan movies are entertaining.

I saw this when I was quite young. I hadn't heard of Charlie and his cast of characters --#2 son and Birmingham. They were quite enjoyable. The plot moved at a good pace. I particularly enjoyed the sequence where the bad guys were tracking Tommie and Birmingham in a deserted fun-house. After all these years, I still enjoy it.

Tommy Chan, Number Three Son, promises a young woman that her stepfather's killer will be apprehended by his father. The police have listed it as an unsolved crime and there seems little hope. We, of course, know better. Once again, Mantan Moreland, who is a cab driver in this one, assists out of fear for his safety. There seems to be something going on with Chinese cat statues and diamonds. A police detective, sort of a Neanderthal, who really knows nothing, has been demoted. He fell in love with the young woman in question and was seen as a liability. Actually, it turns out that he is. He knows nothing and contributes nothing to the solution. Charlie also gets into it with a mystery writing who thinks he can outdo the great Asian detective. Maybe a little too much funny stuff and some really stupid criminals. Kind of par for the course.

Son Tommy replaces his brother Jimmy, and for the better. Jimmy's bug-eyed, constantly interrupting persona was somewhat over the top, and Benson Fong's Tommy plays the role of sidekick just straight enough to take the cringe out of the character. Much of the comic relief is transferred to Mantan Moreland's Birmingham Brown, and Moreland was the man to carry it off. Unlike most of the Chan comic relief characters, Birmingham's antics are generally set apart from Charlie's detective work, and don't interfere so much with the unfolding of the mystery. And Moreland himself was just a better actor than the Chan sons or the various other characters who played the role.

The fun house is a classic crime setting, and its use here - though done on the cheap - fits right in to the series. The plot doesn't play out like many Chan movies - a good guy isn't revealed to be a bad guy, As a result, the end is less a reveal than a long action/danger scene. Nice change-up from the usual Chan. And while many prefer Warner Oland, Sidney Toler is Chan to me in this episode - one step ahead, as always.