By 1946, Twentieth Century-Fox had long since stopped producing Charlie Chan films. The studio had started its famous detective series with actor Warner Oland in 1931; following his 1938 death, they continued on with Sidney Toler. But after Castle in the Desert (1942), Fox decided that the franchise had run its course. Lowly Monogram Pictures thought otherwise, picking up the option on the character and even importing Toler to keep portraying him. Toler had done eleven Chan films for Fox; by the time of Dangerous Money (1946), he had already played the detective in nine further films for Monogram.

Dangerous Money is mainly for Chan fanatics: those fans who wish to see all the available Charlie Chan films (a few are lost) for the sake of completeness. The seemingly unanimous verdict on this entry is that it is one of the least distinguished of the bunch. Chan's case involves a trove of art objects being brought to Samoa aboard a ship. When the Treasury agent guarding the art is murdered, Chan takes over to solve the mystery, but not before there are more murders and Chan uncovers a connection to counterfeit money dating to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The action plays out aboard the ship and in the jungle setting of the island.

The budgets for the Chan films had dropped dramatically when the series shifted from Fox to Monogram, with Monogram devoting well under $100,000 per title. As a result, there are fewer atmospherics, a less-lively supporting cast, and lower overall production values as compared to the Fox entries. Case in point: look for a character on board the ship reading a plain-looking book, entitled simply "FISH."

Critics at the time considered Dangerous Money quite routine. "Headed for bottom-rung billing," declared Variety. Even Chan himself, in the film, declares this case to be in "mere routine line of duty." Victor Sen Yung appears in his tenth Chan outing overall (dating back to the Fox era), as the Number Two Son, Jimmy. Director Terry Morse was primarily an editor at Warner Brothers and Fox at various times in his career, but he also directed about twenty low-budget films at Monogram and elsewhere, remaining almost entirely in the "B" movie world. He had directed an earlier Chan movie, Shadows Over Chinatown (1946).

Toler would go on to do one more Chan picture, The Trap (1946), before his death in 1947. Monogram pressed on with the series for two more years, casting Roland Winters as the detective.

By Jeremy Arnold

SOURCES:
Michael R. Pitts, Famous Movie Detectives
Ken Hanke, Charlie Chan at the Movies