Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat (1944)

☆ ☆

Charlie Chan and the Chinese Cat (1944) – P. Rosen

After Warner Oland died, Sidney Toler took over as Charlie Chan with Fox’s blessing for 11 films.  My dad always said he liked Toler better.  However, when Fox dumped the series in 1942, it moved to Monogram Pictures, a so-called Poverty Row studio.  The budget dropped from $200K to $75K.  Although the Chinese Cat is thought to be one of the better Monogram Chans, the low budget shows – we’ve got pretty spare sets and mostly fog or murky darkness.  Toler is good and a bit tougher than Oland – even K. O.-ing a few crooks near the end.  Mantan Moreland provides bug-eyed (racist) comic relief as Birmingham Brown.  Benson Fong is wooden as Number Three Son, Tommy.  For once, the crime isn’t solved by Chan identifying a suspect from a group gathered together for that purpose – instead we are treated to a bit of a chase in a funhouse before the (potentially solvable) answer is revealed.