The Scarlet Clue

Famed detective and government agent Charlie Chan is back again for this Monogram film where Charlie is trailing a suspect who may be involved with plans to steal radar equipment/secrets from our government for foreign spies and who has just killed aboard a ship. Chan and detective friend trace suspect back to a radio show and from there on Charlie helps at least three more people get killed with his investigation. This is an interesting Chan vehicle and gives Sidney Toler plenty of screen time to hone his Chan skills. Benson Fong and Mantan Moreland are back once again and lift the mundane to the amusing with their comic routines. Moreland, again, steals his scenes and gives the film a lot of vitality it would otherwise not have. I particularly like a couple of routines he does in the film with a guy he knows and neither one lets the other finish the sentence. The comic timing was first-rate! As for the mystery, it is not too terribly confusing though when the end is told no real explanation as to why and who did crimes is revealed fully. I enjoyed many of the characterizations of the show people. I thought the means of death were very inventive, and I loved the whole thing with the elevator. Very clever.

The Scarlet Clue finds our intrepid oriental detective Charlie Chan now working for the federal government on a spy case. He's trailing a suspect, but when Sidney Toler requests help from the local police, they bungle it and the suspect winds up dead. He certainly now can't help Toler find who's behind the plot to steal radar secrets.

But the roads seem to lead to a local radio station with a whole bunch of suspects from ham actors, to shifty technicians, and an owner who's right out of Rebecca. A few more murders occur before we find out who the master spy is.

Charlie is now breaking in number 3 son Benson Fong and if possible he's a bigger dunce and hence a bigger foil for Charlie's fortune cookie wisdom than before. By now Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown has joined the series and his stereotypical role is one reason the series doesn't get much air now. But one thing this film does do is feature Ben Carter who worked a nightclub act with Moreland and two of their routines get into the film. They're pretty funny I will say.

What I also found fascinating here is that since this film was made in 1945, made for Monogram and hence made in a matter of days, I'm not sure whether the folks behind the spy ring are Communists or Nazis. It was left vague and I'm certain that was done deliberately.

So you might want to see the film and see if you can figure out who was running the radio spy ring.

"The Scarlet Clue" is a Charlie Chan mystery from Monogram starring Sidney Toler, Benson Fong as number three son Tommy, and Mantan Moreland as the chauffeur Birmingham. In this one, from 1945, Charlie is looking into the theft of government papers involving a radar. In doing so, Charlie not only runs into murder but also actors on the radio, as for some reason, there's a lab in the same building.

Delightful, often humorous Chan mystery, though incredibly dated today. Mantan Moreland is hilarious, and Chan has a great relationship with both son Tommy and Birmingham. Toler was a good Chan in very different, not very politically correct for these times. Enjoy them for what they are.

This is a very good Monogram Pictures Chan that has snappy dialogue, a lot of funny lines from Sidney Toler (as Chan) who berates No.3 son Tommy more than any other of his prodigious offspring and a couple of scenes with Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter which are priceless!! The plot may stretch credibility a bit but the movie has a fast pace, good direction and sets that are above the norm for a Monogram Chan. Keep an eye out, as well, for the great elevator segment that is surprising and innovative. The banter between the actors in the broadcasting studio is also inspired and fun. Although not quite up to par with the Twentieth Century Fox Chan's this is damn close! Monogram Chan's get a bad rap sometimes but this again proves there was magic in the old detective series still. Check it out.

This was a nice entry in the Chan series [32/38], with Charlie, Tommy and Birmingham in fine comic form. The rest of the cast displayed no sense of humour at all.

Charlie was still working for the Government this time after a gang of murdering agitators who were after radar secrets from an "experimental" radio, television and radar broadcaster. They don't write radar shows like they used to ... A nice touch was that a suspect (who was responsible for the original apparently indelible clue) was last seen on the 2nd floor of the radio building, found dead on the 10th after falling from a great height. Convoluted! The sets were used thoroughly in the previous film The Jade Mask, the gas chamber being turned in this into an ante room for a weather chamber. Moreland excelled himself with this one, with endless solo wisecracks or even as part of a double act. Was it unacceptable in Hollywood back then for him to have taken his taxi driver cap off as it would have made him appear an equal?

A good Monogram Toler plus Moreland film, even if with more ridiculous intricacies in the plot than usual.