Movie Review: Meeting at Midnight (1944) directed by Phil Rosen
World War Two still rages, but Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) has been given permission to take a vacation from his government work to visit his family in Honolulu. He won’t need his driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) for a while, so that worthy has used a friend of a friend to secure a position as manservant to William and Justine Bonner (Dick Gordon and Jacqueline deWit). Birmingham probably should have asked more questions as to why the previous servant seems so eager to leave. As it happens, the Bonners hold regular seances. Charlie’s daughter Frances (Frances Chan) is attending tonight’s séance when Mr. Bonner suddenly dies, apparently shot. But there’s no bullet!
Detective Sergeant Matthews (Joseph Crehan) is baffled, and only too thrilled to use Frances as a suspect to force the famous Charlie Chan to lend a hand. Charlie quickly figures out that the Bonners were actually scam artists, and most of the people at that midnight meeting had a motive for murder. But how was it done, and who is the actual killer?
The original title of this movie was Black Magic; it was renamed on re-release as an Orson Welles movie of the time had the same title.
Supernatural trappings put this story into the “weird menace” category, there’s a rational (but scientifically dubious) explanation for all the strange goings on. I figured out who the murderer was in the first ten minutes because of my knowledge of mystery story tropes, which was a good thing because Charlie Chan deliberately keeps several clues hidden from his colleagues, and thus the viewer. He’s clearly enjoying his chance to play the magician.
Frances is a rather bland sidekick, and she lampshades that she’s there because Detective Chan always has one of his children with him. Birmingham’s “amusing” fear of the supernatural is a good fit for the plotline, but even that doesn’t really spice up the proceedings.
Overall, a mediocre entry in the Charlie Chan catalog. At just over an hour, it might make a good pair with a more exciting movie.
