Charlie Chan en Mexico

Charlie does the Rhumba in this one, a must see for fans! It's considered one of the worst Monograms but I always liked this one, maybe because it's one of the harder to find Chans. I thought the premise of the remote controlled bullets was a decent effort.

Stolen secret papers contain info on the mysterious 95th element, which could be used to build a giant atom bomb. Charlie Chan signs on to recover said papers—and also to track down the murderer who shot the secretary before snatching those vital documents.

Unfortunately, most of the picture is not as exciting as that sounds....however, this late entry in the Chan series is passably entertaining as well as short and sweet.

A mystery mechanism is used to commit multiple murders—one shot is always heard but two bullets are found. Can Chan solve the riddle before he too becomes a target?

Benson Fong is on hand again as Chan's #3 son Tommy, while Willie Best takes on chauffeur duties for this picture (as Chattanooga Brown, cousin to Mantan Moreland's Birmingham Brown). Tommy and Chattanooga manage most of the comic relief with mildly humorous exchanges such as:

Chattanooga: "My hair's getting tired." Tommy Chan: ""Your hair is tired?" Chattanooga: "Yeah, for the last 10 minutes it's been standing on end."

The fact that Sidney Toler dancing the rhumba is probably the highlight of the picture might tell you something.

Curious why willie best is playing birmingham's role (Chattanooga) benson fong as tommy (also played by victor sen yung) red dragon ink

I have no idea why, but instead of Mantan Moreland appearing in this film as Birmingham Brown, Willie Best is playing this role and he's referred to as Chattanooga Brown...a relative of Birmingham. Benson Fong appears as Tommy Chan and his role was occasionally played by Victor Sen Yung. As for Charlie, he's played by Sidney Toler, who played the role in 21 films from 1939-1946 (after he died, Roland Winters played Charlie for six more films).

In "The Red Dragon", Charlie, Tommy and Chattanooga are in Mexico City to assist Inspector Carvero (Fortunio Bonanova). He's got a group of suspects and all of them seem to be lying about who they are. Chan helps him figure out the truth about the folks. So what's the mystery? There are two things....stolen nuclear secrets AND a murder in which no weapon was found and two bullets came with one shot*. Can Charlie figure it all out once again??

This film is pretty typical of the quality of the Toler Charlie Chan films. I did miss Birmingham but still it's a good film...entertaining and worth seeing.

*Although you may not care, I have a handgun that can shoot two or three bullets with each shot. Some .410 shotgun shells (0 and 00 shot) fire 2 or 3 slugs with one shot.

Sometimes I dread watching some of the later Monogram Chan's, but this one was a pleasure to watch. It's a friendly Chan that's easy to digest. The story is not convoluted with so many twists and turns that you need to take notes to follow the story. This one's pretty basic. Atom bomb secrets are stolen in Checkoslovakia and end up in Mexico City. A secret govt. agent who is watching the thief gets murdered in a mysterious way - one gun shot is heard, but two bullets are found. There are a group of suspects for the murder, and they're all looking for the secret papers. It's Charlie's job to find the papers first, and then find the murderer.

I like the clue the govt. agent leaves on the typewriter as he is dying. It's fun trying to figure out what the message means. If you can do it the first time you watch this flick, you are smarter than me. The way the people are murdered is pretty ingenious, which adds to the mystery. Also, I liked the fact that Chattanooga and #3 son had limited roles in this flick. The focus of these movies should be Charlie and the mystery he is trying to solve, but too many times the mood is destroyed in the name of comedy relief. Thankfully, Red Dragon doesn't have much of that. Another nice aspect was the amount of sets and locations. It helped give the movie a nice flow - it never got bogged down or boring. Sometimes these cheap Monogram's seem claustrophobic, slow, and boring, but this one bounced all around the city.

I read that the original running time for this movie was 64 minutes, but the one I watched last night was a hair under 59 minutes. This was a hard one to track down. It didn't seem like the missing 5 minutes hurt the story. Hopefully, it was just fluff, like Chattanooga and #3 son playing around. If you are a Chan fan and can find this one, it's well worth watching.

Starts off at the US Embassy in Mexico City. Scenery of street makes Mexico city look very nice. Walter Dorn wants to get Charlie Chan to go there regarding secret plans of a Mr Wyans which someone tried to rob twice. It is kind of confusing as to what countries are dealing with who for the plans.

At the airport Chattanooga Brown is Chan's driver. When they land in Mexico City he is with Chan's son Tommy and Charlie Chan. Brown is a cousin of Birmingham Brown. Birmingham is funnier though in other episodes. Chan is waiting for Dorn to pick them up and he is told Dorn is dead.

Walter Dorn is killed at a gathering at Wayan's apartment by a gunshot. There are many people invited there. Insp.Luis Carvero takes Chan there and they did not find anyone with a gun.

Charlie Chan has some doubts' about Inspector Carvero because the Inspector has has a relationship with one of the women where Dorn was killed and Chan thinks he might be biased.

People get shot but no gun visible. Chan has to figure out what is going on. He has figured out the new plan will make a atom bomb more explosive.

So more investigating needed.