Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) Collection

Sidney Toler

Benson Fong

Mantan Moreland

James Cardwell

Joan Barclay

Walter Fenner

Roy Gordon

Arthur Loft

Addison Richards

Janet Warren

Gene Roth

Joe Devlin

James Flavin

George Chandler

Phil Karlson

Earl Derr Biggers

George Callahan

George Wallace Sayre

James S. Burkett

Vincent J. Farrar

Ace Herman

Glenn Cook

Tom Lambert

Mystery

Thriller

The Shanghai Cobra

Monogram Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

This rather basic feature sees Sidney Toler's "Charlie" with son "Tommy" (Benson Fong) and chauffeur "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland) investigating the murder of three folks working at a bank. What makes it more curious is that these people have been done away with using cobra venom - and this reminds our sleuth of a previous case he solved in Shanghai some years earlier. That perpetrator, though very badly burned, escaped custody - and "Chan" suspects that he may be up to his old tricks again. Snag - well the burns were so severe as to necessitate plastic surgery, so nobody now knows what he looks like! This film depends more than usual of Moreland and his comedic antics; the rest of the mystery is a bit too procedural with the constantly bumbling efforts of No. 3 son getting a bit wary at times. Still, much of the adventure takes place underground - and that lends an eeriness to the thing, and there is enough here to pass an hour easily. Not one of the better in the series, but still ok.

English