Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Panamint 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.

meaninglessname 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.

bnwfilmbuff 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.

gordonl56 An enjoyable Columbia Studios quickie starring Hurd Hatfield, Jean Willes, Ray Walker, Tom Powers, Charles Russell, Jacqueline De Witt, Benson Fong and Victor Sen Young.The film is set in San Francisco's Chinatown. Hatfield is a "slightly" nuts gunman, thief and all around nasty. He works for upscale antique dealer, Jacqueline De Witt. She cases high-end shops etc for expensive pieces and then sends Hatfield to "acquire" said items.Hatfield simply walks in at closing time, sticks a gun in the clerk's face and asks them to wrap up the item. He then shoots the clerk dead, calls the police, tells them there has been a shooting and leaves. The police show up and can never figure out who did the shooting or made the phone call. What really throws the cops off is the different foreign accent he uses when he calls. They are not sure who or what they are looking for.De Witt then fakes up a history for the items and sells them down the coast in L.A. to wealthy clients.This train of events hits a loose rail when one of De Witt's customers reads about a stolen statue in a newspaper story. It sure sounds like the one the woman had bought from De Witt. A call to the cops and they come calling on De Witt.Only problem is that Hatfield reads the same paper and has already tied up the loose end with several bullets to De Witt's back. The police finally tumble to Hatfield when they just miss catching him during a botched robbery.Hatfield hits the flophouse district in an effort to lay low till the heat is off. The cops however keep up the pressure and soon flush him out. There is a rooftop chase and a blazing gun battle before Hatfield is dispatched.This programmer is all nicely tied up in 66 mins. This quickie was directed by Seymour Friedman. Friedman gave us LOAN SHARK, DEVIL'S HENCHMAN, CUSTOM'S AGENT, CRIMINAL LAWYER and several of the BOSTON BLACKIE films.The d of p was Henry Freulich who worked on BUNCO SQUAD, UNDER THE GUN, NEW ORLEANS UNCENSORED, CHICAGO SYNDICATE and THE CROOKED WEB.The lead, Hatfield, was also in DESTINATION MURDER, THE UNSUSPECTED and THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.It is an OK time waster in my humble opinion.