This was my first look at Charlie Chan's, or should I say Sidney Toler's assistant "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland.) He certainly changed the face of these movies, and I don't mean that as some sort of racial pun. What I mean is Moreland added silliness to these films, although he's such a likable guy I didn't mind. Many times he even made me laugh out loud.
Also new to me at the time of my first viewing of this (sometime in the 1990s) was Number Three Son "Tommy," played by Benson Fong. I liked him a lot, but then I have liked all of Charlie's kids.
Anyway, with the addition of Moreland - who was strictly added for comedy - with Chan's witty proverbs, the repartee between father and son, and so on.....these Mongram Charlie Chan movies turned out to be almost more comedy than mystery.....but they still entertained.
The most memorable scene in this movie had to be something shocking and violent, the opposite of how I've been describing these latter-day Chan films. In that scene, a trap door in an elevator suddenly sends a man plummeting to his death. Most of the film is talk but it's okay. This whodunit had a surprise ending. I guessed wrong, but that's nothing new.
Also new to me at the time of my first viewing of this (sometime in the 1990s) was Number Three Son "Tommy," played by Benson Fong. I liked him a lot, but then I have liked all of Charlie's kids.
Anyway, with the addition of Moreland - who was strictly added for comedy - with Chan's witty proverbs, the repartee between father and son, and so on.....these Mongram Charlie Chan movies turned out to be almost more comedy than mystery.....but they still entertained.
The most memorable scene in this movie had to be something shocking and violent, the opposite of how I've been describing these latter-day Chan films. In that scene, a trap door in an elevator suddenly sends a man plummeting to his death. Most of the film is talk but it's okay. This whodunit had a surprise ending. I guessed wrong, but that's nothing new.