The Worst Film Ever

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Great Film overall

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I have to disagree with most of the more glowing reviews. I've read several of the actual Charlie Chan novels, and while you can't expect movies to be like novels, some of the other Chan movies are pretty good and much better than this one. Four things made this particular entry very annoying to me. One, Benson Fong as Charlie's kid seemed especially grating, skipping college classes to "help" his pop solve murders and mainly getting in the way. Two, the story itself seemed convoluted and unbelievable, with a lot of "bad guy" characters stumbling around and bumping each other off, in a plot that I just found boring. Three, the chasing around scenes in the "fun house" reminded me of something out of "The Three Stooges" but not nearly as entertaining. Finally, Charlie's abrupt summing up at the end, here's the gun, here are all the bad guys, didn't really seem to explain anything -- or maybe by that time I was dozing off. P.S. One reviewer mentioned that the movie Chan speaks this weird broken English, contrary to what a Hawaiian cop would speak, and in fact my memory is that in the novels Charlie doesn't speak that way at all. Anyway, bottom line, I'd recommend many other Charlie Chan movies over and above this one, for example Warner Oland in "Charlie Chan in Egypt."

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.

This is my seventh review of a Charlie Chan movie in series chronological order during these consecutive days. It's also my first for the Monogram entries, of which this one is the second. In this one, a young woman's stepfather is murdered in a closed room. She enlists Charlie in the case through communicating with his "No. 3 Son" Tommy (Benson Fong) while both stay at a hotel. Also along for the ride, for only the second time, is cab driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland)...The noticeable changes from Fox to Monogram, besides more comic relief with both Fong and Moreland, is some more time for the music score to go along with some more action sequences near the end before we hear Charlie's assessment of the case. Also, the plotting isn't too serious and Chan's wisecracks to his son seem almost mean-spirited, like Abbott & Costello like, though one can take them with a grain of salt. And while Mantan's antics, especially his looks of fright, would probably not do in these politically correct times, he still can be entertainingly funny with what he does here and I don't think it reflects badly on his race at all since to me he's just a funny looking clown who's quite endearing, whatever the race. So on that note, I quite recommend Charlie Chan in the The Chinese Cat. P.S. Mr. Moreland was a native of Monroe in my now home state of Louisiana. And Sam Flint, who played Thomas P. Manning here, was another player in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life. He was the relieved banker in Mr. Potter's office wiping his forehead during the run-on-the-bank sequence.

This second Charlie Chan offering from the Monogram Studios is an improvement over "Charlie Chan in the Secret Service". Back again are Sidney Toler in the Chan role, Benson Fong as #3 Son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland as Yellow Cab driver Birmingham Brown. Monogram remained true to the 20th Century Fox sense of continuity from film to film, as Birmingham refers to the last time he met the Chans in the previous movie.What starts out as an unsolved murder case eventually winds up with two additional corpses. A few elements we haven't seen in prior Chan films occur - Charlie takes one on the chin from one of the baddies, and later gets physical himself, knocking out one of the villains with the butt of a gun. Additionally, Charlie places a bet on the outcome of the case, liking the odds of 10 to 1 given him by the doctor/author who claims to have solved the mystery himself in a book published following the original murder. The ending is rather lame, as son Tommy subdues two bad guys with nothing more than a fire extinguisher; I sure wouldn't want those two in my corner, good or bad!The title of the film comes from a large statue of a black cat, which conceals a secret compartment with a stolen diamond. All in all, The Chinese Cat is a worthy addition to the Chan series, made more entertaining by the amiable presence of Mantan Moreland.