In this Doomed Farmer’s humble opinion, Mantan Moreland gets a bad rap. Usually lumped in with “scared and shiftless” stereotypes like Stepin Fetchit, Moreland did indeed play many a frightened servant in his long career, but always managed to come out with his dignity intact, often appearing much more intelligent than his associates. Moreland was a damned funny comic actor who performed the roles he was allowed during the repressive period in which he lived, raising the entertainment level of every film he appeared in, most especially his five-year, fifteen-film stint as chauffeur Birmingham Brown in Monogram’s Charlie Chan series. In at least one of these films (it’ll come to me), we get the delightful opportunity to watch Moreland do a verbal routine with his nightclub partner Ben Carter, as polished and funny a bit of snappy patter as anything Abbott and Costello ever did: Ben, encountering Mantan in the hall, says “Say, did you see…?” To which Mantan replies “Saw him just yesterday… didn’t look so good.” The following routine features endlessly amusing variations of one fellow finishing the train of thought of the other. Here are two films that feature the great Mantan Moreland.

THE CHINESE RING (1947)
Written by W. Scott Darling Directed by William Beaudine

An elegant Chinese woman (Barbara Jean Wong) is murdered in the living room of Charlie Chan’s home in San Francisco, scrawling the words “Capt K…” on a paper before dying. When did Charlie move from Honolulu to San Francisco, leaving all of his large family but Number Two Son behind? Roland Winters’ first assignment as the master detective is a pedestrian one, with Number Two Son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) missing for most of its running time and chauffeur/butler Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) left adrift without Tommy, his usual partner. Winters makes for a fine looking Chan but has none of the suavity of Warner Oland or the cranky charm of Sidney Toler. Byron Foulger and Philip Ahn lend support as a bank manager and sea captain, respectively. Warren Douglas as Sgt. Davidson and Louise Currie as reporter Peggy Cartwright don’t contribute much, either; though a scene in which the Sgt. grabs the reporter by the shoulders and shakes her in manly frustration, provoking her to sock him in the jaw, is satisfying. William “One Shot” Beaudine was so busy, how did he know which Monogram set he was on at any given time? (Viewed on Turner’s new “Charlie Chan Collection” DVD set, this is the most beautiful print of a Monogram film I have ever seen.)

LAW OF THE JUNGLE (1942)
Written by George Bricker Directed by Jean Yarbrough

A friend recently gave me Alpha’s “Sons of Kong” DVD set as a surprise gift: ten cheap jungle movies for a mere five bucks! Who could resist that? Sucker that I am for back-lot jungle movies, I dived right into what looked to be the most enjoyable of the crop, this early 1940’s Monogram programmer starring John “Dusty” King, Arline Judge and Mantan Moreland. It starts off as a fairly serious espionage adventure at a jungle watering hole run by a sleazy and nearly unrecognizable Arthur O’Connell — Miss Judge has an okay (dubbed) musical number, followed by a fistfight and a flight into the nearby jungle. King plays an anthropologist and Mantan his trusty valet Jefferson Jones. Once in the jungle, there is a nicely eerie sequence as hostile natives stealthily creep directly toward the camera, and another in a darkened cave housing a menacing gorilla (looks like Ray Corrigan’s suit). The last ten minutes of the film careens toward outright comedy, as Mantan is romanced by a hefty native gal — she says to him, flirtatiously, in her native tongue: “Keebie keebie?” Mantan replies, in his own version of it: “Scrambola!” — then discovers that the native Chief, who wears top hat and spats, is an Oxford graduate and fellow lodge brother. All good, clean, cheap fun. (Alpha’s DVD print is worn by watchable.)
 — Robert Deveau, The Doomed Chauffeur