Docks of New Orleans (1948)

Overrated

Memorable, crazy movie

Great Film overall

Good movie but grossly overrated

Not that Monogram invested too much of anything in their product under the tight fisted and Philistine like regime of Sam Katzman, but they do out do themselves with Docks Of New Orleans. Roland Winters, the third and last big screen Charlie Chan had taken over and this is the second of two Mr. Wong plots that I've discovered recycled for the Chan series.Docks Of New Orleans is remade from Mr. Wong Detective and when I wrote my review of that film I remarked that it was a truly unique and clever way that the culprit had of murdering the victims. Here the gimmick is told from the outset Taking the most important element of the previous film away.One of the partners of a chemical firm says that he feels betrayed by his two other partners and later on winds up dead in a proverbial locked room. Having consulted Roland Winters, Charlie Chan is brought in as a consultant to the New Orleans PD in the person here of John Gallaudet.There's both a smuggling racket and a murder plot and Winters has to solve both in order to solve either. If you saw the Mr. Wong film than you know how this ends and who was doing what.

Fans of the Charlie Chan series may notice right away that Victor Sen Yung (#2 Son) is named 'Tommy' instead of 'Jimmy' as he'd been in many films before. Somehow, he was re-named Tommy late in the life of the franchise and no one seemed to notice or care. In many ways, this is a metaphor for the overall health of the series--no one seemed to particularly notice or care that the series was on cruise control, of sorts.Another thing fans will probably recognize is the overall lack of fun in this film. Since the death of Sidney Toler, the next films all seemed very dry--even with the support of Mantan Moreland. It really just seemed as if the writers didn't mind that the films lost a lot of the 'fun factor'.The plot of the film involves three men who agree to share a company. However, when they start to die off one by one, it is assumed that the surviving partner(s) are at fault. A rather routine story and so I'm not really going to discuss it further but it sure is obvious there's more to the killings. In the end, Charlie talks and talks to explain the convoluted plot, though because this is such a low-energy and adequate film, I think my review should be the same and I'll just stop here. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Docks of New Orleans has one scene that makes the whole movie worth watching. Number Two Son Tommy Chan and chauffeur Birmingham Brown decide to play a duet of ' that old Chop Suey Boogie', with Tommy on violin and Birmingham on piano. The look on Charlie Chan's face as he hears the off key tune from another room, while trying to solve the murder mystery, is priceless.Spoilers ahead: The clever ending, with a captive Charlie Chan tricking the bad guys into believing they have been trapped in a room filled with odorless poison gas, is quite amusing. Roland Winters brought a very low key wit to his portrayal of Chan, which serves the character well; as Charlie frequently reacts to the outrageous events around him with one raised eyebrow and an air of humorous resignation at the idiocy he must contend with, from both dopey policemen and his enthusiastic assistants. This is one of the lesser films in the long running series, but fun for Charlie Chan devotees.

Opposing forces are at work in a dual plot that makes "Docks of New Orleans" an interesting Charlie Chan mystery. An international gang attempts to steal a secret gas formula that they can no longer prevent from being shipped to rival forces in South America. At the same time, the inventor of the gas formula seeks revenge on the owner and partners of the LaFontanne Chemical Company who paid him a measly sum for the formula, while cutting him out of huge profits and a partnership for himself.As usual, Charlie Chan casts a wary eye in all directions and pursues his investigation with excruciating patience. Roland Winters portrays Chan for the second time in this Monogram release. As before in "The Chinese Ring", Victor Sen Yung appears with a confused identity - early in the film, Pop Chan refers to him as Number #2 son, and somewhat later calls him by the name of Jimmy. Near the end of the movie, Chan calls out to Tommy. For those not as familiar with the Chan characters, Tommy as Number #3 Son was portrayed in earlier Monogram's by Benson Fong. Was this a confusing lapse in continuity, or was Monogram by this time goofing on it's audience?Mantan Moreland is back again as Chan servant Birmingham Brown. In an interesting twist, son Jimmy/Tommy retrieves a hijacked vehicle from a parking garage with Moreland's character along for the ride as a passenger; Birmingham is the Chan chauffeur in earlier films. Birmingham also reprises a humorous exchange with an uncredited Haywood Jones as "Mobile" Jones, reminiscent of his "Pidgin' English" dialog with Ben Carter in "The Scarlet Clue" and "Dark Alibi". The key to solving the mystery is provided by Tommy and Birmingham in concert (no pun intended) when they offer a rendition of "Chop Suey Boogie" with Birmingham on piano and Tommy on violin. The high pitched screech of Tommy's violin causes a radio tube to break, leading Charlie to theorize that the deadly gas formula is released in the same manner. To eliminate the three partners who bilked him out of a fortune, inventor Swenstrom cleverly uses his wife's radio broadcasts to break tubes planted in the victims' home and office radios, set to the precise station at the appropriate times.Granted, "Docks of New Orleans" is not high drama, and there are slow moments. Captain McNalley (John Gallaudet) of the New Orleans Police Department is particularly inept in dismissing clues and evidence that Chan immediately considers important. All considered though, this is an entertaining mystery and a nifty entry in the Chan series.