Shanghai Chest

The Shanghai Chest from 1948 is a Charlie Chan movie that relies on a former plot.

Forging fingerprints came up in another Chan film, I believe with Sidney Toler. In this case, a dead man's fingerprints keep showing up at murder scenes.

Charlie this time has no trouble figuring out how the fingerprints got there, since it was a big part of the former investigation.

The cast includes Roland Winters, Mantan Moreland, Victor Sen Yung, and Tim Ryan. Tommy and Birmingham get into all kinds of trouble - they think they see a burglary and climb in a window, only to be arrested. In the end, they save the day - by mistake.

Entertaining as always.

Another great title let down by a poor script, low budget, and mostly bad acting. This film has Tim Ryan as police Lt. Mike Ruark, whom Chan calls, "Lt. Mike". Overall, it is annoying rather than endearing. Tim Ryan is credited with "additional dialogue". If only he came up with better words. Watch a Warner Oland Chan instead.

Roland Winters carries this off better than in his first couple efforts. There's a little more pizazz to this offering. Several men are killed who were associated with the conviction and execution of a hoodlum. Apparently, he was innocent of the crime. This brings into play someone who is seeking revenge. Since it is thought that he has no relatives or close associates, finding the guy is pretty hard. Once again, we have the poor guys, alone in their offices, with the windows open. They are attacked from behind and left to die. There is a red herring in the barrel that is never dealt with. A man who is the nephew of a judge is to be disinherited and becomes a suspect. He is cleared very quickly (a weakness in the plot--but then he is abundantly unattractive as a person) because of some findings. We pretty much never see him again. The problem with the whole thing is the circumlocutory mess that must be gone through to find our guy. There is an exhumation of a grave, done in about five minutes. It's hard to tell who is who in the fabric of things. When the solution comes my response was "Huh!" And, of course, the two hangers on are there again to participate.

A mysterious figure sneaks into a judge's study and stabs him. Another stealthy figure enters the room--he answers the phone when it rings and is promptly conked on the head by the shadowy murderer, who then flees.

It's the judge's nephew who wakes up on the floor and pulls the knife out of the body right at the moment the cops walk in. It looks bad for him--until a recently executed criminal's fingerprints are found on the knife. The plot thickens when a district attorney is murdered next and the same dead man's fingerprints are found....

Soon enough, Charlie Chan is on the case, with assistance once again from number two son Tommy and chauffeur Birmingham Brown. Chan thinks the case has something to do with an insurance racket; Tommy doesn't actually help much but Birmingham is called on to climb through several windows.

Roland Winters is getting comfortable as Charlie Chan but there's really not much to the role...he reads the lines just fine but the script doesn't give him a whole lot of personality. Victor Sen Yung and Mantan Moreland are familiar and amusing as Tommy and Birmingham but they don't have much new to offer either.

Tim Ryan adds a little color as a police lieutenant who joins forces with Chan. And an actress named Deannie Best is actually kind of good as the murdered judge's slinky secretary.

Overall the picture is oddly watchable...nothing much happens but at least the story keeps on moving. A typical scene is the one where our main characters go to a cemetery to dig up the executed criminal's body: Of course they go at night, of course the grave is empty, of course Birmingham and Tommy are scared...but it's all done and past before we even have a chance to be bothered by how silly it all is.

Charlie Chan (Roland Winters) must prove the innocence of a deeply stupid man (John Alvin) who puts his fingerprints all over a murder weapon. Contrived mess of a mystery with particularly weak writing, even for Monogram. Winters is terrible as Chan. I can't stress that enough. Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Yung are back playing buffoonish comic relief sidekicks Birmingham and Tommy. There's nothing to recommend about this one. If you're a Charlie Chan completist, I suppose you should at least try it. If you're new to Charlie Chan films, please don't let this or any of the Roland Winters movies be your first. As a matter of fact, avoid all of the Monogram movies until you've seen the far superior Fox movies first.