The Shanghai Cobra (1945)

By CinemaSerf

This rather basic feature sees Sidney Toler's "Charlie" with son "Tommy" (Benson Fong) and chauffeur "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland) investigating the murder of three folks working at a bank. What makes it more curious is that these people have been done away with using cobra venom - and this reminds our sleuth of a previous case he solved in Shanghai some years earlier. That perpetrator, though very badly burned, escaped custody - and "Chan" suspects that he may be up to his old tricks again. Snag - well the burns were so severe as to necessitate plastic surgery, so nobody now knows what he looks like! This film depends more than usual of Moreland and his comedic antics; the rest of the mystery is a bit too procedural with the constantly bumbling efforts of No. 3 son getting a bit wary at times. Still, much of the adventure takes place underground - and that lends an eeriness to the thing, and there is enough here to pass an hour easily. Not one of the better in the series, but still ok.