ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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.

mark.waltz 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.

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.

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.