Shadows Over Chinatown

This episode is a bit edgier. First of all, the murder being investigated is much more vicious than others. Charlie is working for an insurance company and is investigating this death but also is working on a personal interest missing persons case. We have here the reappearance of the Charlie's Number Two Son, Jimmy, who has much more personality than son Tommy. Mantan is there again to provide zaniness. That aside, there are several twists and turns in this plot that make it pretty entertaining. Charlie seems to take more of a personal interest in the results of this case because of the brutality of everything. As is always the case, there are some excellent suspects and a love story to boot

Sidney toler is charlie chan, and as usual, victor sun yung is his son, with mantan moreland as birmingham, the faithful but easily scared butler. Listen for a similar bit to who's on first about fourteen minutes in. When widows disappear after collecting the insurance payouts, chan and the local coppers try to find suspect(s). Chan's son and butler play large roles in this one... pretty much stealing the show from chan himself. It's okay. Another chapter with sidney toler as chan. In the later chapters, it was roland winters as chan. Directed by terry morse. He directed a bunch of monster and other miscellaneous films in the 1940s and 1950s... godzilla, fog island, jungle hunter.

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) investigates insurance fraud and a series of murders. Another Monogram Chan film that is helped by the return of "Number Two Son" Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung), last seen in the 1942 Fox film Castle in the Desert. Up until this point at Monogram, Charlie had been saddled with dull-as-dirt Tommy Chan, played by bland Benson Fong. Victor Sen Yung is a breath of fresh air for this stale series. That being said, he can only do so much. It's still Monogram so it's still cheap. Also, there's still obtrusive comic relief Birmingham Brown, played by bug-eyed Mantan Moreland. The good news is that Moreland doesn't overpower Sen Yung like he did Fong. So it's a watchable effort but nothing special. But when it comes to the Monogram series, watchable is about as much as you can hope for.

I was generally a fan of the "Charlie Chan" movies with Sidney Toler and this is one of the better ones. To San Francisco he and fairly hapless No. 2 son "Jimmy" (Victor Sen Yung) travel to assist their police with a mysterious murder investigation. That's not all, though. There's a missing person to be found too. "Mary" (Tanis Chandler) has gone awol and her doting mother (Mary Gordon) and her rather drippy fiancé "Jeff" (Bruce Kellogg) are at their wits end. It doesn't help that our sleuthing genius quickly discovers that this absentee once worked with his original victim. The plot thickens and the pair - assisted ably by the cowardy custard, and only sparingly used, "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland) - must get to the bottom of things before "Mary" comes a cropper. The plot here is a bit more internecine and sophisticated than with many of these adventures. That said, there is a maybe just a little too much coincidence as the thing progresses but I'm sure "Charlie" would have a profound ancestral adage for there being no such thing as luck! There's the tinies of twists at the end and en route it moves along well for an hour. It's always nice to see the original and best Holmesian "Mrs. Hudson" in a film, too!

I really liked this Chan, it kept my interest all the way through. I found the plot complex, not hard to follow. I think that is why I really enjoyed it, there is a lot going on with lots of characters coming and going. Some people on here claimed the plot didn't make sense but let us be fair, a mystery isn't a mystery if you know what is going to happen from one scene to the next. I really have no complaints, this is one I want to watch again very soon. One thing I appreciate about the Chan movies is the fact that the producers tried to give you something a bit different from one film to the next. Sure, they recycle themselves after a while but some Chans really stand out...like this one. I just relax and watch all the events as they occur and let Charlie explain it all at the end! I guess some folks just like predictable films and turn up their noses at anything that doesn't follow the herd.