A Máscara Verde

Eccentric and rich scientist Frank Reicher is working on a poison gas formula and he's got the usual collection of servants, relatives, and colleagues in his mansion. That mansion also contains a room where Reicher does his work, keeps his secrets, and can only be opened or closed with a voice command. Should someone not authorized get in, good chance they'll trip a trap that will lock them in and kill them with poison gas.

Despite all this security Reicher winds up murdered and in a most exotic way. Before this Charlie Chan film is concluded four more victims will die. And they'll die in the same exotic way most of them. The method I won't reveal because it's way too good.

Sidney Toler plays the all wise Charlie Chan in this and despite help from number 4 son Edward Luke and Mantan Moreland, Toler solves the case. As for the title, where Jade comes in I don't know, but life masks are an integral part of the case allowing the murderer to whatever evil is planned.

For a Monogram Picture,The Jade Mask wasn't too bad and Charlie is at the top of his game.

This is one of the strangest Charlie Chan films I've even seen, probably because many of the suspects were so weird. That, and the building in which most of the action takes place - with all its secret and motorized panels - is odd to see.

The story: an unpopular family member-scientist, "Dr. Harper," (Frank Reicher) has developed a chemical that makes wood as strong as steel. Our government could use this, especially in time of war, so they are obviously concerned when the scientist is found murdered. They call on Charlie Chan to help solve the case and get the formula. Charlie winds up getting help from his Number Four Son "Eddie," someone I never saw in any other Chan films. He was the bespectacled "intellectual" son in the family and another likable Chan.

Anyway, someone is after the formula - for the money it could bring them - and is culprit is probably from the big family where the doctor was working. All of these people are portrayed as guilty-looking so the audience has a hard time figuring out who's the killer.

The "whodunnit" is wrapped up in the end with a gathering of everyone while Chan explains his discoveries. That was the only problem with the film: the ending was unsatisfying and bit unrealistic.

"The Jade Mask" was made in 1945 and, as was often the case during the war years Charlie Chan movies, there's a McGuffin, some formula or process that will help the war effort. Here, the nutty inventor is paranoid about security so no one in his household knows anything. When he's killed, Chan is brought in, his number four son (Edwin Luke) dragging along behind him.

This film moves slowly, but is brightened by some good dialogue from Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland, who was always a riot. I know his is a stereotyped character in a way, but in another way, it isn't, as he is treated as an equal by Chan. Frankly without Moreland, a good many of these films would be very boring.

I am a sucker for a mystery with a spooky house, strange characters, poison darts and secret panels and this nifty Chan has all this and more. It keeps ones attention from beginning to end. The only gripe is the ending. The denouement is a bit confusing. I don't mind if it's far fetched as the Chan series is meant to be that way. Great humour, too

This film suffers from a cheapness and lack of decent plotting. Its still worth seeing, especially if you have other films to watch as well.

Concerning the death of yet another inventor Charlie Chan runs around and a round the same three or four sets in what at times amounts to little more than a filmed stage play. Its not bad, just needlessly circular and confused, with a denouncement that seems to indicate that the writers were drinking heavily.

This isn't to say that it's a bad film, its not. Despite my opening remark, this is a film that is frustrating more than anything, especially since the film should work better than it does, but it was undermined by the round about nature forced upon it by cost and script.

6 out of 10.