The Shanghai Cobra (1945)

Review - The Shanghai Cobra, Released 9-29-45 This Charlie Chan movie would considered one of the better efforts by Monogram, because the story holds the viewer interest throughout its hour plus run. There is intrigue from the start, coupled with crimes committed, mysterious methods involved in the deadly misdeeds, and a cast of characters keeping the observer constantly guessing. The action takes place primarily in and below a bank building, and some of the perpetrators are not obvious. There is little comic banter, more serious moves among the guest cast members, no wasteful scenes, gunfire, explosions, secret passageways, and a very interesting method of taking victims. The premise is the mystery murders from a cobra bite, similar to a crime in Shanghai years before, in which Charlie arrested a man named Van Horn for bank robbery and murder by cobra bite. It was the first day Japanese bombers flew over Shanghai, Van Horn was a prisoner, badly injured in the bombing. Inspector Mainwaring rode with Charlie to the British Police Headquarters to meet Van Horn for the second time. Van Horn had bandages about his head, telling Charlie is being framed. While being transported to Singapore, Van Horn jumped out of the transfer boat, and that was the last time Charlie says he heard of Van Horn. Van Horn returns to Washington D.C. to prove his innocence, employed as a bank guard with his daughter helping his cause employed as a bank President's secretary. Locally, three persons are murdered by the bite of cobra fangs, markings on the bodies indicate the bite. All three victims worked for the Sixth National Bank, the same bank as Van Horn and his daughter. There is an additional plot to steal the radium kept by the government in the bank vault. The bank is the distributing center for hospitals, laboratories and factories in this vicinity, utilizing the peaceful uses for the radioactive material. Chan, with the help from his old cohort in Honolulu, Inspector Davis, search for killers and thieves. The story weaves its way through characters, some obviously suspicious, others secretly active with the bank and others. Charlie Chan works the clues expertly, determining how the cobra bites were inflicted, in two ways, while apprehending the perpetrators.This movie is definitely worth watching for all the characters intertwining. The best is last, as usual, but there is really few wasted minutes in the film. Highly recommended.

Another Monogram production of a Charlie Chan mystery concerning nuclear material kept in a bank (!) and an attempt to steal it and a killer who uses cobra venom to kill his victims who work at the said bank. The story is a bit confusing as I couldn't work out why the first three victims were murdered. Charlie Chan is on hand to thwart the robbery and solve the homicides. Phil Karlson direction has its moments but not enough to make it other than routine.Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan does well enough but Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown and Benson Fong as Tommy Chan are rather tiresome. Most of the supporting cast are ordinary. It does have the always watchable Gene Roth and Joe Devlin as heavies however but they unfortunately didn't have enough screen time. The method of murder was ingenious but only if you don't think too hard about it.

The opening is promisingly atmospheric: rain, a shadowy street, a woman who looks like she might be a femme fatale, a man watching her from his car, another man whom SHE seems to be following, a coffee shop with a jukebox whose other end looks like a movie theater (!), and cryptic dialogue between the three. But after one of the men dies and Charlie Chan is brought into the case, "The Shanghai Cobra" becomes a deadly dull mystery. The "how" at least turns out to be somewhat creative, but the "who" doesn't seem to matter much! (the chief bad guy is barely in the film). The only bright spots are Chan's witticisms and putdowns of his Number Three Son ("Pop, I want to talk to you as man to man" - "I am ready, but you still have few years to go"!). Thankfully, Mantan Moreland is kept relatively in check this time around. ** out of 4.

When the strange death of three employees of the same bank from cobra venom startles the police, they start remembering a similar case that had occurred in Shanghai eight years before - and they think that the only one who can identify the killer named Jan Van Horn that had escaped before the trial back then is Charlie Chan, because it was him who'd caught him. But Charlie, once called in for help, explains that the convict had been burnt badly in an accident and his face has probably changed completely; and besides that, he'd always insisted that he'd been framed...But one thing becomes clear pretty soon: there IS something going on in connection with the bank, where a large and immensely valuable amount of radium is stored; and, strange as it sounds, there also seems to be something wrong with the laundry next door, and the coffee shop across the street - and its jukebox...! And when Charlie, Tommy and Birmingham finally find out that there's a secret passage to the bank leading through the underground sewers, they get into a REALLY tight spot there...This 'Charlie Chan' movie definitely has got a BIG 'touch' of Noir, from dark, rainy streets to a ruthless gang of killers to a genuine 'tough guy' private eye (well, he finally turns out not to be so tough after all...) - only the gags that Tommy and Birmingham, and even Charlie himself, deliver, lighten up the otherwise really 'black' and pretty suspenseful atmosphere. But after all the perils are overcome, and the RIGHT guys have been convicted, we get to see an ending that CERTAINLY is one of the funniest of ALL 'Charlie Chan' films!