Dark Alibi

Another enjoyable mystery fused with comedy. This time Charlie is hired by the pretty Teala Loring ( sister of Debra Paget and Lisa Gaye) to prove that her father is innocent of a bank job. There's nine days left before he goes to the electric chair, but if there's anyone can prove his innocence it's Charlie Chan. Great surprise ending. Never expected it to be that person ( the main culprit)

A well done opening scene features a bank break-in and a murdered guard. A suspect is quickly arrested because his fingerprints are found at the scene. Though the suspect's daughter insists he is innocent, he is quickly convicted and the case seems hopeless--until Charlie Chan agrees to investigate, even though the execution is only nine days off.

Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong--as chauffeur Birmingham Brown and number three son Tommy Chan--assist Pop Chan as usual. Sidney Toler drops wisecracks at their expense, also as usual:

Toler: "You two not afraid?" Fong: "Afraid of what, Pop?" Toler: "That you sit down so often you get concussion of brain."

There's plenty of plot, some of it involving the real murderers' ingenious method of planting fake fingerprints. Chan's investigation roams from the rooming house where his client lives to the local prison (where Birmingham and Tommy lock themselves into a cell with gleeful convict Tim Ryan).

It's really not particularly exciting or memorable, but it's easy to watch and doesn't take itself too seriously.

Chan's best line is probably when he is grilling rooming house residents about their pasts: "Skeletons in closets always speak loudest to police."

A nice bit of fluff from the Chan series, but not much to dig your teeth into. No one in law enforcement seen anything in the coincidence of three bank robberies solved in the exact same way - the only evidence is fingerprints - with the money never discovered. Of course, Charlie knows that something is going on. The fun cliché of this Chan episode is the warehouse full of theatrical props - like the fun house and the séance, a great setting for a movie mystery.

Prison is never so wacky as when Tommy Chan and Birmingham Brown are let lose - don't fight it, just go with the silliness. Birmingham's brother Benjamin shows up - as a convict, and the duo repeat their stage act for a bit of comic relief.

No dramatic lighting in this one - Monogram wasn't going to pay for fine cinematography. This episode in the series also suffers from a weak female cast - none of the beauties in gowns that fill earlier efforts. The biggest failure is at the very end - the final reveal comes out of nowhere and is over before you can scratch your head. Still, it's a workmanlike Chan, and that's good enough for an hour's fun.

A bank is robbed, and a guard is shot to death. Clues lead the police to the Foss Family Hotel where we meet a varied group of unsavory suspects.

Thomas Harley, who resides at the hotel along with his beautiful daughter June, is the one that the police are after-- it was his fingerprints left on the safe that led the police to the hotel.

He claims that he was locked up in a theatrical warehouse, but he has no witnesses. Even more suspicious is his story that he had received a letter from a man he hadn't seen for many years, asking him to a meeting at the warehouse; but the prosecutor can prove that the man had been dead for eight years.

Chan thinks the set-up is much too pat, and he doesn't give up on Mr. Harley when Harley's daughter June makes an appeal to him to help free her innocent dad. But how can he account for those fingerprints?

The mystery here is not very compelling, which leaves the abundant comedy part that mostly is. Okay, I know the Moreland ("Feets don't fail me now !") brand of silliness is as politically incorrect as can be. But his bits, especially with Ben Carter, are still pretty funny, stereotypes aside. Too bad the weird-looking Milton Parsons (Johnson) doesn't get more screen time. Between him and the jolting Skelton Knaggs, they had the graveyard types of the 1940's all wrapped up.

Seems an innocent man is about to be executed for a robbery and murder he didn't commit. So Charlie has a deadline to meet in clearing him. No dark houses or secret passages here, but there is a prop room full of weird theatrical props (probably Monogram's). Of course, the props meet up with Birmingham (Moreland) creating lots of amusing setups. Fortunately, soon-to-be cult director Karlson keeps things moving in smooth fashion, so we barely notice the skimpy whodunit part. All in all, it's one of the lesser Chan mysteries, but still has compensations.