A man playing chess is shot by an unknown hand. The dying man sweeps the chess pieces off the board–but leaves a bishop standing. A clue? Charlie Chan is eventually recruited to investigate, but he only has 48 hours before leaving town on government business. In that short time, his investigation leads to artsy figurines hidden in bread loaves, and opens secret compartments concealing diamonds in those same figurines. Sidney Toler is steady as always in this modest Chan mystery. Benson Fong is energetic as son Tommy Chan, and the father-son back-and- forth includes the usual amount of moderately amusing banter: Tommy Chan: "Pop, I got a case that will knock your hat off." Pop Chan: "Can remove hat without assistance, thank you." Joan Woodbury is sadly wasted as the murder victim's stepdaughter. You'd think Woodbury would add some zip to a picture like this, but unfortunately she's stuck as a helpless hand-wringer rather than the spunky fast-talker she so often played. However, Woodbury's blandness is nothing compared with that of her detective boyfriend (Weldon Heyburn), who simply has nothing interesting to say or do the whole picture. Poor guy! Thank goodness for Mantan Moreland, who livens up his scenes as taxi driver Birmingham Brown. Fong is also fun as the number three son (although he sure smiles a lot, even when he's just discovered a dead body). Overall, it's not much of a plot but the familiar lead characters are always watchable.

The second of Charlie Chan's Monogram Pictures finds Sidney Toler and number two son Benson Fong involved in a six month old homicide of a wealthy businessman and chess expert. As he dies the victim leaves the telltale clue of a lone bishop standing on the chessboard.What brings Charlie into the case is Joan Woodbury on behalf of her mother Betty Blythe who was married to the deceased. A new book written by Ian Keith is casting aspersions on Woodbury and Blythe and as the case remained unsolved for six months there's lots of room for speculation.Of course Keith has the facts all wrong and the case centers around a statue of a cat done by a noted artist who Charlie knows to put secret compartments in his product. That makes them useful for hiding things, stolen things.This also makes the second appearance of Mantan Moreland who was introduced in the first Monogram Chan feature, Charlie Chan In The Secret Service. No wonder Charlie Chan had to hire Birmingham as a chauffeur, Birmingham's cab gets blown up when the crooks think Charlie is getting too close.Fans of the series should appreciate it though when the series left 20th Century Fox and was picked up by Monogram, as Bob Hope would have said it was like exchanging filet mignon for hog's livers.

It's no great shakes, but this, the second Charlie Chan movie released by B-movie studio Monogram Pictures is an enjoyable enough time-passerThe time around Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) investigates the seemingly unsolvable murder of Businessman Thomas P.Manning (Sam Flint) who was shot dead in a room locked from the inside - which has baffled Police. His Stepdaughter Leah (Joan Woodbury) asks Chan's son Tommy, Son no.3 for help which leaves Charlie with little choice but try to solve the Murder.The Chinese Cat of the title refers to a statue which has a secret compartment that all the bad guys are after.Mantan Moreland is back as Birmingham Brown, this time as a Taxi Driver and Chan's Chauffeur, again he's here for comic relief - but again as the stereotypical African American from that era - which many may find distasteful over 65 years later.The budget again is low which being from a Poverty row studio you have to expect that, The Acting is just about passable, The dialogue is somewhat better than the the last outing (Charlie Chan in the secret service) but still pretty bad and The Mystery (which is what you enjoy most about these) is decent.Come into it with realistic expectations as you should enjoy.**1/2 out of *****

Sidney Toler again reprises most honorable interpretation of Charlie Chan. This time Chan is helping a former police detective(now just a cop) and a beautiful woman out to clear her mother's name in the murder case of her step-father many months ago. It seems he was murdered in his study grasping a bishop from a chess set in the shadow of an ebony Chinese cat statue. Well, this film has a neat and tidy mystery - not too terribly clever or hard to grasp - but highly enjoyable nonetheless. Toler does his best in bringing charm and grace to the role of Chan with always a generous dose of subtle humour. Toler perhaps has too many clichés to throw out, but most of them in this film are amusing and some even telling. Benson Fong is back as #3 son. He and Toler have good chemistry, but he is even better when paired with cab driver/later to be chauffeur Birmingham Brown(played by a great, sometimes forgotten Mantan Moreland). Moreland is just wonderful in his portrayal of a witty, sometimes very blunt/direct working man playing against the characters of Chan and #3 son. Add to this that Moreland is just plain funny. He had me in stitches more than once in this film and every one of his scenes is a real hoot. All the acting is solid if not dazzling in any way. Ian Keith does a particularly solid job as a naysayer to Chan's gift of detection and John Davidson has a good time playing some weird twins Carl and Kurt. While not one of the best Chan films, Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat is a very entertaining entry.