The Shanghai Cobra (1945)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Phil Karlson

Writers:

Earl Derr Biggers (characters)
George Callahan (screenplay)

Release Date:

29 September 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Charlie Chan at his best in his most thrilling adventure!

Plot:

Someone is attempting to steal radium stored in a bank. Cobra bites lead to a number of murders. Charlie investigates.

Plot Keywords:

Bank | Radium | Tunnel | Murder | Charlie Chan

Cast

Sidney Toler	...	Charlie Chan
Mantan Moreland	...	Birmingham Brown
Benson Fong	...	Tommy Chan
James Cardwell	...	Ned Stewart
Joan Barclay	...	Paula Webb
Addison Richards	...	John Adams
Arthur Loft	...	Bradford Harris
Janet Warren	...	Record Machine Operator
Gene Roth	...	Morgan (as Gene Stutenroth)
Joe Devlin	...	Taylor
James Flavin	...	H.R. Jarvis
Roy Gordon	...	Walter Fletcher
Walter Fenner	...	Police Inspector Harry Davis

Runtime:

64 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (Certificate #10989)

Company:

Monogram Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Actual footage of the Japanese bombing of Shanghai is used in the flashback sequence.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: A building supposedly located in Washington, DC, has the California state flag flying from its flagpole.

Quotes:

Charlie Chan: Cannot sell bearskin before shooting bear.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Dancer, Prancer, Donner and Steele (#4.9)" (1985)

Unfinished Business

Back in the days before the American entry into World War II, Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan had occasion to arrest a man accused of a nasty string of killings involving use of cobra venom. That individual escaped. But when in America just post World War II, the same modus operandi turns up in a string of homicides in the same urban vicinity, Toler knows its The Shanghai Cobra at work again.

Toler's hunt for The Shanghai Cobra now involves him in a case where the Feds have a serious interest. The Cobra plans to steal some radium stored in a bank vault for the usual nefarious purposes. With the questionable help of Number 3 son Benson Fong and chauffeur Mantan Moreland, Charlie of course solves the mystery. Not without a few twists in it, like a jukebox with a television camera inside it. Television development was put on hold during the war years and it was still an object of wonder to the public. Also of course the ways The Shanghai Cobra does deliver death is interesting.

One thing though did bother me. You would think that such a man might seek an alternative type poison, lest his work attract the attention of people like Charlie Chan. Cobra venom poison is kind of unique in America, even today.

In any event though, The Shanghai Cobra is not a bad mystery and it is that because you will be crossed up in the end if you think you've identified The Shanghai Cobra.