Shanghai Cobra

This was a 1945 Charlie Chan movie whose plot revolves a bank and several mysterious deaths of bank employees. I don’t really understand why Charlie Chan was selected as the man for this case; something about a failed arrest of a Shanghai criminal. The plot and the solution to the mystery revolves around a video jukebox thing in which you talk to a live representative who can see the patron on a video screen. I highly doubt this was possible in 1945.

I never realized how much of Charlie Chan movies were actually played for comedy. Some of the humor comes from the obviously culturally insensitive stereotypes, but there is a lot of genuine slapstick gags and Number Three Son and Birmingham get an ample amount of important screen time (played by actual ethnic minorities!).

I don’t know the actor who is playing Charlie in this installment, but he is (of course) an elderly white man who talks in a not-really Chinese accent. It’s more of the Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein variety.