Movie Review: The Shanghai Cobra (1945) directed by Phil Karlson
World War Two may be over, but Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is still working for the federal government. This proves useful when an old friend asks his assistance in handling a series of murders. It seems that each victim works for the Sixth National Bank, and died of cobra bites. But cobras aren’t native to North America, and there’s been no reports of missing or stolen snakes. Chan is called in because he worked an earlier case in Shanghai with a similar modus operandi, and is the one person available that might be able to identify the man suspected in that case, Jan van Horn. And because the bank is storing medical radium for the Feds, Chan has authority to investigate.
Of course, it’s not quite that easy. Jan van Horn was badly burned in the Japanese attack on Shanghai before he escaped, and his appearance is likely to have changed. Charlie Chan does know he had distinctive hair. Hair which looks very similar to the bank president’s hair…and the president admits to being in Shanghai during the time in question. Chan quickly realizes this is a red herring.
More interestingly, each victim had visited Joe’s Coffee Shop shortly before dying. And the most recent victim, Mr. Black, was seen talking to a young woman and man both of whom disappeared afterwards. The young man turns out to be private detective Ned Stewart (James Cardwell) who’d been hired to tail bank secretary Paula Webb (Joan Barclay) only to fall head over heels for her. He doesn’t know the reason he was hired, but after Mr. Black’s murder, he was dismissed by his pseudonymous employer.
The niftiest thing about this movie is the “jukebox” with a human operator who can see the customer through a television apparatus and has two-way communication with the customer via radio. The customer speaks their order and the operator manually puts on the record. I’ve only seen this one other place, a Dick Tracy story, but I wonder if there was an actual jukebox with this gimmick that both fictional accounts are based on.
Charlie Chan is assisted by his bumbling Number Three Son Tommy (Benson Fong) and cowardly driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) who do uncover several clues and are less prominent in this installment of the series, making their comedy relief more bearable.
There are several nice twists, and an exciting conclusion with Charlie Chan and his assistants trapped underground by an explosion. This is a superior entry for this late in the series, and recommended to mystery fans who can forgive the whole yellowface thing.
