Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat [The Chinese Cat] ** (1944, Sidney Toler, Joan Woodbury, Mantan Moreland) – Classic Movie Review 9053

Sidney Toler stars once again in Phil Rosen’s 1944 murder thriller Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat [The Chinese Cat] as Earl Derr Biggers’ oriental detective Charlie Chan, who this time is in hot pursuit of the killer of a wicked set of villainous crooks who came after a statue that boasts a priceless diamond.

Joan Woodbury co-stars as Leah Manning, daughter of one of the victims, who seeks help from Charlie Chan and his Number Three son Tommy (Benson Fong), while Mantan Moreland is back as the taxi driver Birmingham Brown. Sam Flint plays Leah’s businessman father, Thomas P Manning, a chess expert shot dead in a locked room clutching chess pieces.

Though the set-up is fairly unusual and intriguing, George Callahan’s original screenplay runs out of steam quite early on, just as the long-running series has by now largely run out of any freshness and any real ambition.

The 32nd of 47 Charlie Chan films, it adds up to an all-too ordinary B-movie mystery thriller time-filler, with nothing special to recommend it, apart from perhaps Woodbury, who makes an appealing heroine, as well as Toler of course.

Also in the cast are Weldon Heyburn, Ian Keith, John Davidson, Betty Blythe, Sam Flint, Cy Kendall, Dewey Robinson, George Chandler, Jack Norton and I Stanford Jolley.

Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat [The Chinese Cat] follows Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944) and is followed by Black Magic (1944).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9053

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