Shadows Over Chinatown

The story is set in the Chinatown of San Francisco. The detective Charlie Chan helps two separate people looking for missing relatives. The two searches bring him to the same place: a murder scheme built around insurance money. The film solves its mystery through a fast cut fitted into sixty four minutes. It is one of the crime pictures made in series in American cinema of 1946. Chan is played by Sidney Toler, an actor who was not Asian, a practice that is openly criticised today. The supporting character played by Mantan Moreland also carries the racist conventions of the period. That side of the series makes the film uncomfortable to watch now. Victor Sen Yung is also in the cast. Terry O. Morse’s American film was completed in 1946.