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Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler), his son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) and his
driver Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) drive to San Francisco by bus to
help the police in a gruesome murder case, in which only the torso of the
(female) was found. On the bus, Charlie meets Mrs Conover (Mary Gordon),
who fears the torso is that of her granddaughter, Mary (Tanis Chandler),
who has gone missing several weeks ago, and Charlie promises to help
finding her, as he doesn't believe her disappearance and the torso are
related. Also, Charlie is shot at at a stopover but survives. At the
missing persons bureau, Charlie spots a person that acts mighty
suspicious, deserted arny Corporal Joe Thompson (Bruce Kellogg), only to
find out he's Mary's boyfriend trying to find her. Plus he meets private
eye Jeff Hay (John Gallaudet), who's a bit too keen on helping with the
case. Soon, Charlie can verify that the torso is indeed not Mary's, but
figures a former escort girl must have been the victim, one who was
involved in an inheritance scam scheme ... and who has worked for the same
company as Mary did. Charlie also finds out to his surprise that a
waitress at the hotel he's staying is actually Mary, but then Mary runs in
with an old gangster acquaintance of hers, Mike Rogan (Paul Ryan), and she
makes a hasty getaway ... and when Charlie and company try to track her
down, they eventually stumble over Rogan's dead body. Mary is eventually
picked up by the police though, and when she's reunited with her lover and
her grandmother she reveals the whole inheritance scam the escort agency
she worked for has run, and she confirms that the girl Charlie suspected
to be is actually the torso victim. Charlie decides to use her as bait to
lure out the brains of the organisation out into the open ... but with the
trap all set, private investigator Hay messes everything up by just trying
to be helpful - but when Charlie and company try to reset their trap, Mary
disappears, and Charlie receives news that Hay is actually the head of the
agency and thus the brain of the whole operation. But it doesn't take
Charlie long to track him down and overcome him before he can do any harm
to Mary. Shadows Over Chinatown is by no means a
remarkable film ... but it's a fun entry into the Charlie Chan
series that might (like most films of the series, actually) not be based
on the most ingenious of scripts - it's too over-convoluted and doesn't
always make sense -, but it profits from a very light-footed approach, a
good ensemble cast, some great comedy from Mantan Moreland, and a
directorial approach that actually does show inspiration at times. So
yeah, maybe no piece of art, not even a genre classic, but an entertaining
exercise in formula filmmaking.
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amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Shadows over Chinatown at adultvideouniverse.com
