O Mistério do Rádio

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.

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.

Monogram Charlie Chan film with a plot that is a mix of a generic espionage mystery with murder at a radio station. It seems like maybe they took the plots to a couple of previous B murder mysteries (not even Charlie Chan ones) and combined them. Once again, Charlie gets help from comic relief sidekicks Benson Fong and Mantan Moreland. Fong plays Tommy Chan and he's as boring as ever. Charlie's a jerk to him throughout the movie and I honestly couldn't blame him. Tommy was clearly Charlie's least favorite son.

Mantan Moreland plays Birmingham Brown, who is a little more restrained here than his earlier Chan films. Also appearing a couple of times is Moreland's old vaudeville partner Ben Carter. The two do an amusing bit that was probably from their vaudeville days. It's basically a conversation between the two where neither ever finishes a sentence because the other seems to know automatically what he's going to say. It's funnier on screen than it reads here. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of Abbott & Costello's vaudeville routines. I have not been a fan of Mantan Moreland's character in the Charlie Chan series. However, if he had been more like he is in his scenes with Carter, I think I would have liked him more. Instead, he's usually just doing his bug-eyed "I'm afraid of spooks" garbage, complete with lots of double takes and talking to himself.

I also liked seeing pretty Janet Shaw. Something about her I always found appealing. There's an actor character called Horace Karlos, played by Leonard Mudie, who is supposed to be a parody of Boris Karloff. That's fun for fans. Altogether, it's not the greatest Charlie Chan or even a particularly strong one. But it's watchable with some enjoyable parts. Considering this was made during the dreadful Monogram years we should be thankful it isn't worse.

"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.

Loosely based on novels by Earl Derr Biggers, 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series proved an audience favorite--but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the studio feared audiences would turn against its Asian hero. This was a miscalculation: actor Sidney Toler took the role to "poverty row" Monogram Studios, where he continued to portray the character in eleven more popular films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.

20th Century Fox regarded the Chan films as inexpensive "B" movies, but even so the studio took considerable care with them: the plots were often silly, but the pace was sharp, the dialogue witty, and the casts (which featured the likes of Bela Lugosi and Ray Milland) always expert. The result was a kindly charm which has stood the test of time. Monogram was a different matter: Chan films were "B" movies plain and simple. Little care was taken with scripts or cast and resulting films were flat, mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.

Released in 1945, THE SCARLET CLUE is neither the best nor worst of the Monogram Chan films, certainly better than such dreadful entries as THE TRAP but a far cry from its 20th Century Fox counterparts. At the same time, however, the film has a certain interest due to its setting: a broadcast company. It would be a mistake to look to any Chan film for factual information, but the film does remind us--and quite effectively so--of that moment in time when radio still dominated even as television (which is repeated mentioned) began to make inroads with the public.

The story, such as it is, finds Chan (Toler) acting as a federal agent who is investing a murder involving radar secrets. When a stolen car leads him to a radio actress he soon finds himself in the middle of the broadcast company itself, where murderous communications are issued via teletype and elevators become instruments of death. It's all very flyweight stuff, but the details make the film watchable--as does the occasional actor, with Mantan Moreland a case in point.

In today's world the type of roles assigned to Moreland would be thought racist, but taken within the context of what was possible for an African-American actor at the time they remain remarkably charming. To it's credit, Monogram recognized Moreland's appeal, and always took care to give his name highly-placed credit in the cast lists. THE SCARLET CLUE is particularly interesting because it also allows us to see Moreland perform a few bits of his "interrupted talk" stage routine, performed here with Ben Carter--a bit of comedy that is every bit as clever as any thing you might find in Abbot and Costello's best work of the same period.

When all is said and done, THE SCARLET CLUE is indeed watchable, but it really is best left to hardcore Chan fans. Newcomers would do better to begin with the 20th Century Fox films, which are now at last becoming available on DVD.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer