Charlie Chan in Dangerous Money (1946)

Dangerous Money (1946) is the second to last Charlie Chan film starring Sidney Toler from Monogram Pictures. After Sidney Toler’s death, Roland Winters took over the role for seven more films. This film allows us to appreciate Toler’s portrayal of Inspector Chan for close to the last time. This film was the tenth for Monogram and his twenty-first portrayal of the famous fictional detective.

Dangerous Money (affiliate link) begins on a cruise, where Inspector Chan attempts to catch counterfeiters. Number two son Jimmy Chan, played by Victor Sen Yung, and Chattanooga Brown, played by Willie Best, assist Inspector Chan in his investigation. Due Toler’s bad health, Monogram brought Victor Sen Yung back to help Toler through filming. Toler could barely walk in this film and The Trap (1947).

Inspector Chan has to deal with counterfeiters, blackmailers and murders on the ship and the Isle of Samoa. Jimmy and Chattanooga provide comic relief and the action in this film.

According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), Willie Best appeared with many of the top film stars of the 1930s and 1940s until a drug arrest ended his film career.

Best made a brief comeback in television before retiring. Unlike Mantan Moreland and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, who transcended the stereotypical roles they were forced to play, Willie Best was not so fortunate.

The roles producers cast Best to play pigeon-holed Best as a porter, butler or bellhop. During the Civil Rights Movement, civil rights activist singled out Best’s portrayals  as what was wrong with African-Americans roles in classic Hollywood films.

Tragically, Best, who was born in Sunflower, Mississippi on May 27, 1915, died at the young age of 45 on February 27, 1962.

This film runs about 66 minutes.

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