Customer Reviews

Meeting at Midnight

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you like the older genre mystery movies and are a "Chan Fan"
this is a must see. The off-spring are a little bit too cutsey
but that adds a little character to the film. Birmingham Brown is
a necessary element in the Chan series by injecting some humor.
As a parent who raised his kids on the 1930's & 1940's B / W mysteries this one is top family entertainment.

This is definitely my favorite Chan film. Sidney Toler is the best of the Chans. It is an atmospheric film with some wonderful scenes. I love the seances and the scene where Toler is hypnotized and appears to be walking off a ledge is
as scary a scene as in any Chan movie.

I don't care what anyone else says, this was one of the best movies I have ever seen. I don't really think it's relevent who the best actor or actress would have been, because this movie was made over fifty years ago. I don't see why more movies like this aren't produced, because you don't need adult content to sell a mystery!!

My mother Frances Chan, a.k.a. Frances C. Eng is now passed away. She and my father owned the Sunset Pacific Motel for 40 years which is only a mile away from the studios where she filmed "Meeting at Midnight" back in 1943 at age 18. She was 79 years old when she fell down the stairs and passed away in 2004.

She never saw the moving "Meeting at Midnight" until age 70 when I saw it on TV and called her on the phone. Until then it was on some shelf at some studio archives. Her pay at the time was only $800.00.

Frances Chan's career ended when she married my father Edward J. Eng in 1944. They lived about a mile from the Monogram Studios where "Meeting at Midnight" was filmed. It is now KCET studios. They have 5 children, 4 daughters and 1 son, myself. The have 9 grandchildren. My parents owned a lot of real estate around Los Angeles. So even though her career as an actress did not endure her career as the landlady collecting rent lasted for 60 years.

Frances Chan's movie career included "The Good Earth 1937", "Samurai 1945" and "God is My Copilot." Her parents Anthony (Suey) Chan and Mary Chan also acted and had numerous bit parts as Chinese actors during the 1930s and 1940s. They were close friends with Keye Luke, Peanuts, and Anna Mae Wong, who were the major Chinese actors during this time period.

Frances Chan got her start by being Miss Chinatown in 1939, and a search of the Los Angeles Times from that period will bring up several articles on her.

I remember the first time that I ever saw this movie. I was approximately 6 years old, and after watching it I couldn't get it out of my head. I'm in my mid-twenties now and I still can't. For this to be such an old movie, it has everything that makes todays movies great. There are ghosts, murder, intrigue, conspiracies, and more. I absolutely love the seance scene: it's the best scene in the whole movie. For anyone who loves the Charlie Chan movies, YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE! It's funny and spooky at the same time. The lady who plays Chan's daughter is also great in this movie. I could go on and on about this movie all day! Trust me, if you buy this movie you will not be disappointed.

In CHARLIE CHAN: MEETING AT MIDNIGHT Charlie and his daughter are confronted with a phony occult scam operated out of an old haunted house. Produced in the middle of World War II, this film stars Sidney Toler as Charlie and boasts a supporting cast which includes Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown.

The director was Phil Rosen and the screenplay was handled by George Callahan. The movie was originally released as BLACK MAGIC.

This film was originally known as "Meeting at Midnight" but when you run the DVD you'll see that the title was changed to "Black Magic". It features Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan and Mantan Moreland is right there as needed for great comic relief. We also get to meet one of Charlie's shrewder kids who is played by the talented Frances Chan. (Yes, her real name is Chan!)

THE STORY: Mantan Moreland replaces the current butler in a big spooky house where scam artists are running seances. Not long after he arrives, a seance takes place and it just so happens that Charlie Chan's daughter is participating... and then a murder takes place during the seance.

The man was shot by the infamous "disappearing bullet"! (How many urban legends have been launched from this idea, I cannot say). In any event, Charlie's daughter becomes one of several suspects in the crime which is a caveat that the police use to twist Charlie's arm a bit to get him to investigate the case.

One of the more heinous acts of the scamsters includes the use of a secret drug which makes the victim very succeptible to suggestion under hypnosis, even to the point that they will commit suicide. Charlie makes progress in the case until he too is slipped some of the drug and commanded to step off a tall building into nothing firmer than air space!

This is a fine mystery, perhaps not the very best of Charlie Chan films, but still very watchable. This 1944 film is, of course, shot in black-and-white and the aspect is full-screen. It was directed by Phil Rosen and the characters are "suggested" by Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan stories. The running time is 65 minutes.

If you're looking for the very best Charlie Chan Films you can view either "Charlie Chan and the Jade Mask" (Sidney Toler), "Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum" (Sidney Toler), "Charlie Chan's Secret" (Warner Oland), or, "Castle in the Desert" (Sidney Toler).

Charlie Chan in The Jade Mask

Charlie Chan: At the Wax Museum

Charlie Chan's Secret

Charlie Chan: Castle in the Desert

Unfortunately, some of these titles are difficult to obtain on DVD and you are relegated to watching them in the VHS format.

In any case, "Meeting at Midnight" is a fine old mystery film and Chan Fans in particular will savor it.

Despite its "B" origins, this was actually one of the most popular of the Charlie Chan franchise. Sidney Toler bought the rights to Chan as Fox lost interest and moved him to smaller studios. They then became inexpensively made "B" pictures, strictly to entertain. Too often these fun but slight "B" entries in the Charlie Chan series are compared unfavorably to the topflight Fox films starring Warner Oland, then Sidney Toler. This is actually a fun little gem for Chan fans, however, and one of the best in the "B" series of Chan film from Poverty Row.

When this film begins, Mantan Moreland has taken a job at a spooky house where a crooked seance racket is going on. Birmingham (Mooreland) is a hoot throughout the film, attempting to make himself disappear from the spooks. Frances Chan, Charlie's bright and adorable daughter, is present at one of the seances when a man is killed, so becomes a suspect. Charlie is headed back to Honolulu but is coerced into helping Frances and Birmingham by Police Sgt. Matthews (Joseph Crehan) who obviously needs Chan to solve the case for him. Lovely Helen Beverly is among those Chan must inquire of to get to the bottom of the mystery. Old secrets and a bit of magic will make this a delight for Chan fans.

This one is fun for a rainy night. Its blend of humor and a solid little mystery belie its "B" origins, making it an entertaining surprise. Charlie takes a chance and has a scene atop a skyscraper reminiscent of Basil Rathbone's in Sherlock Holmes and the Woman in Green. Interestingly, Frances Chan had appeared as a little girl in the 1933 Chan "A" entry "Charlie Chan's Greatest Case" which is now considered lost. It was based on the first Earl Derr Biggers' novel featuring the detective, The House Without a Key, which has recently been rereleased and is a fantastic read. She adds energy to Meeting at Midnight and is quite adorable, making one wish she'd had more opportunities as Chan's perky daughter. All in all, this is a fun "B" entry for Charlie Chan fans to enjoy.

WWII brought out many phobias including anti-semitism, distrust of those of Oriental descent (the infamous story of Japanese/Americans sent to concentration camps in California was a national disgrace). The Chan series during this period adhered to the sleuth working for the government to ease any qualms the movie public may have had. Fox had dropped the series in fear of losing money, low-budget Monogram picked it up and to Fox's dismay, the series continued on successfully. This entry, as with THE CHINESE CAT, does not stick too much with govermental secrets being stolen. Instead it finds Charlie's daughter a possible suspect when a murder is committed at a seance. Mantan Moreland (Birmingham Brown) plays the the sidekick and comic relief again (and stereotyped as most people of color in Hollywood during this era), but that aside--this is a dandy little murder mystery with elements of film noir and the supernatural involved that makes for a very entertaining entry into this rather uptight series made during the war. Originally titled BLACK MAGIC, this is part of the 6 disc CHANTHOLOGY (all the discs are identical to the 6 that can be bought seperately). The lost copyrighted, pre-war films are far superior. Let's hope MGM or some other studio releases them instead of relying on those poorly made DVD-Rs that pop up all the time for sale or auction.

A solid entry in the series considering the time period. And if you are Chan fan, you definitely won't be disappointed with our favorite sleuth!

Loosely based on novels by Earl Derr Biggers, 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series proved an audience favorite--but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the studio feared audiences would turn against its Asian hero. This was a miscalculation: actor Sidney Toler took the role to "poverty row" Monogram Studios, where he continued to portray the character in eleven more popular films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.

20th Century Fox had regarded the Chan films as inexpensive "B" movies, but even so the studio took considerable care with them: the plots were often silly, but the pace was sharp, the dialogue witty, and the casts (which featured the likes of Bela Lugosi and Ray Milland) always expert. The result was a kindly charm which has stood the test of time. Monogram was a different matter: Chan films were "B" movies plain and simple. Little care was taken with scripts or cast and resulting films were flat, mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.

Released in 1944, MEETING AT MIDNIGHT (also known as BLACK MAGIC) is often described as one of the best Chan films made at Monogram--but the term "best" is comparative. It is certainly better than such Monogram Chan films as THE TRAP, but it is a far cry from the 20th Century Fox films of the 1930s. Although it has a running time of little more than a hour, it drags; the plot is profoundly unoriginal; the dialogue is not in the least memorable; and the cast, for the most part, is merely marking time.

The story concerns a spiritualist whose seance draws Chan's daughter Frances--who finds herself a witness to murder when the medium dies under very suspicious circumstances. In order to spare his daughter any unpleasantness, Chan agrees to take the case and soon uncovers fraud, strange drugs, hypnosis, wire-rigged skeletons, and a revenge murder plot. It is always nice to see Sidney Toler reprise Chan, but in truth he is less entertaining than Mantan Moreland, who played Chan's nervous servant in the Monogram films; although changing times have led us to look upon his performances as demeaning to African-Americans, he was an expert comic, and taken within the context of the era his performances have a certain innocent likeablity.

Fans of the 20th Century Fox series are likely to find Monogram's Chan a significant disappointment and newcomers who like the Monogram films will probably consider them third-rate after encountering the Fox films. Like other Monogram Chan films, MEETING AT MIDNIGHT is best left to determined collectors. Three stars, and that's being generous.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer