Thanks for the memories!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Its a Sam Katzman produced film so you know its cheap. But that is OK in this case since its a police-procedure black and white movie that doesn't require any kind of budget to be effective. Its a serviceable representative of the raw style police films that were popular in the late 1940's/early 50's. Hurd Hatfield delivers another of his flawless performances that elevated every project he ever appeared in. Hatfield was a remarkable actor who deserved much more than he received from the Hollywood establishment. He is much admired retrospectively nowadays for his contributions to stage, screen and TV. Also featured is a versatile and familiar actor, as talented as he was gruff, by the name of Tom Powers as the police captain. Numerous other capable and familiar actors do good work here.This film moves along briskly which helps overcome the low budget and general lack of depth. It evokes the 1949 San Francisco ambiance and is a sincere attempt to produce a worthwhile police action genre piece. Just go along for the fast action (sometimes quite violent) and good acting. You won't be disappointed in "Chinatown at Midnight" if you don't expect depth or anything classic.

This intriguing little B film noir reminds me of the more well known "The Killer That Stalked New York" which doesn't deal with a murderer, but the carrier of a deadly virus that could affect millions. In this crime drama, Hurd Hatfield is the nefarious murderer of the son of a Chinese antique dealer and his fiancee, killing them coldly in the midst of his stealing a valuable vase which he then has shipped out of town to sell to the sophisticated Jacqueline de Witt. His partner is the sultry Jean Willes who isn't above Hatfield's wrath, and in just 67 minutes, Hatfield creates enough pandemonium in the city of San Francisco to frighten every neighborhood. A Chinese phone operator is the key to helping detective Tom Powers find the killer who spoke to her right after she heard gunshots in Mandarin, and through some intelligent sleuthing, they determine that they are not looking for an Asian man. Hatfield gives a sly performance, perhaps not as calculating as he was as Dorian Gray, but every bit as deadly. The film is told through Powers' point of view as he explores the clues he gets from the residents of Chinatown which takes him to other neighborhoods as well. They even identify a building which withstood the 1906 earthquake. I really did feel like I was on the streets of San Francisco with the shadowy photography truly a character all its own. This keeps you glued throughout, although I wish for once in a crime programmer like this that the ending was altered so it didn't involve a shoot-out where the villain is cornered and comes out with guns a-blazin', leading to the obvious conclusion.

There's this white guy holding up stores in San Francisco's Chinatown for objets d'art. He prepares by learning Chinese phrases for tourists from a phonograph record. After he steals a valuable vase by the clever ploy of shooting the clerk he sees a young woman in the next room phoning the police, so he shoots her, then gets on the phone and tells the operator, in Chinese, "a robbery at Wing's store, call the police."Why does he need to learn Chinese to perform stickups in Chinatown? Why does he report the crime to the telephone operator? Why does he do it in Chinese? Did the language course really include the Chinese for "a robbery at Wing's store, call the police"? If you think the film is going to answer these questions, you are going to be disappointed. And this is only the first few minutes. Nearly all the actions of police and crook throughout the remainder are equally illogical or counterproductive. Moreover the film was so low-budget that long stretches are a silent movie with voice-over narration.In other words, this could well have served as Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder. Since it didn't, why might you want to watch it? Old footage of Chinatown and other San Francisco neighborhoods. Brief appearances by two of Charlie Chan's number one (or two or three) sons, Victor Sen Yung and Benson Fong. You might want to laugh, of gag, at Hollywood stereotypes, both positive and negative, of Chinese Americans of that era. There's the usual pretty young Chinese American actress born fifty years too soon. The biggest surprise is the bad guy being played by Hurd Hatfield, just four years removed from the title role in MGM's The Picture of Dorian Gray. Hatfield never again attained Hollywood leading man status, but had a long and successful career. How he sank, even temporarily, to this low ebb is the film's real mystery.But the main reason to watch is if you're into "so bad it's almost surrealistic." If you're an Ed Wood fan you'll probably enjoy this film.

Even though it's a programmer I still expected better with this cast. Actually they do a good job with the limited material. Hurd Hatfield was a very good actor and he does not disappoint as a thief that fences the goods through Jacqueline deWit's interior design shop. There's no motivation for Hurd's behavior - doesn't appear to be money or love. Tom Powers is the police captain and the only guy with brains on the force. Jean Willis has a throw away role but does manage to look good. It doesn't make a lot of sense but it still manages to keep your attention.