Charlie Chan sur la piste sanglante

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.

"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.

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.

Some Charlie Chan movies by Monogram are just wretched. "The Scarlet Clue", however, is fairly well done. Lighting and camera angles make for a suitably mysterious atmosphere. The whodunit puzzle contains a well defined group of suspects. And the script is humorous, both the dialogue between Chan and his son, and the constant jabber of the wonderful Mantan Moreland.

But the film seems terribly dated. The plot, which involves WWII radar secrets in a radio station, is outmoded, and the scientific "equipment" belongs in a museum. Moreover, production values are almost nonexistent. There are some plot holes; and at the end, Chan never tells us how he deduced the identity of the killer.

Overall, for those who enjoy Charlie Chan movies, "The Scarlet Clue" is one of the better ones to watch. Everyone else will probably find this movie lame.

The mystery begins as Chan tracks a murderer across country to a radio/tv station. Once on the scene murder murders occur and Charlie, his son and Birmingham Brown almost meet their end in a rather novel way.

This reminds me of the great Frankie Darro/Mantan Moreland film Up in the Air which concerns murder in a radio station. That film moves better than this one in many ways since it never gets side tracked with the sleuthing of Number Three Son. Still this one has some novel twists in the means of murdering someone which keep this a watchable film.

I'm not entirely happy with the denouncement since events not long before it prove that the filmmakers were far from being fair.

Still for all its flaws its an enjoyable movie, especially with Moreland and his night club partner "not" saying anything

6 out of 10.