Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

I'm pretty sure there wasn't a Chan film made that I didn't like: I preferred Oland to Toler and Fox to Monogram but am more than happy (maybe even keen!) to watch a Toler Monogram effort. They all transported you to a world of more or less cultured baddies, each hiding a thousand secrets which Charlie (and us of course) has to work his way through. Usually, as in this case, to find the murderer from a roomful of shifty twitching eyes.

Electrical scientist murdered and the secret plans stolen, Charlie with a little ... help from offspring Tommie and Iris has to decide which of the house guests did it. The Monogram house's hanging drapes and thick carpets lend a nice atmosphere to the mystery. Only gripes: the incongruously brash and childish music track and the continual visual reference to a Watching Evil Eye from a Dark Place.

Watched from the Chanthology DVD and with the widescreen TV set to mild zoomview meant it was like the first time again for me seeing this, an experience I'd have to recommend and one I want to repeat with the other titles in the set.

This movie has some of the best film noir photography I have seen in all the Charlie Chan entries. This is one I am still waiting to have issued on DVD, so I can enjoy those visuals.

Storywise, it's a decent story with an interesting cast of suspects. My complaint is fairly minor: it is a little below-average in the amount of humorous Charlie Chan proverbs that we Chan fans love so much. Otherwise, I enjoyed the movie.

Although not Charlie's official chauffeur-assistant in here as he was in most of these Monogram Chan films, Mantan Moreland ("Birmingham Brown") plays his usual role as a guy helping out and adding humor. He's a likable guy as are all of Charlie's kids, two of them joining in this mystery. We get Number Three Son "Tommie" (Benson Fong) and daughter "Iris" (Marianne Quon. Chan's kids are always nosy, goodhearted and, in the latter-day films, not that helpful.

A few quick action scenes help keep things rolling and, as usual, we get Charlie's summary of the case at the end in which our hero exposes the crook. Overall, is this a great Charlie Chan film? No, it's average....but just average is still good to me. I love these films and hope all of them eventually are available on disc.

After a two year hiatus, the Charlie Chan series moved over to Monogram from 20th Century Fox and the production values dropped accordingly. Continuing as Charlie Chan was Sidney Toler who with one exception would confine his thespian activities to playing the shrewd Oriental detective who spoke in fortune cookie aphorisms. Assisting Charlie in a manner of speaking are two offspring Benson Fong as number 2 son Tommy and Marianne Quon as number 1 daughter.

Charlie Chan In The Secret Service, the title does say it all. Charlie is called in as a consultant on a murder case by the Secret Service which was guarding a scientist/socialite who worked at home upstairs and threw parties downstairs. At one of those parties he winds up quite dead with no outward appearance of homicide. He also would not allow any bodyguards inside the house. That was a bit much, the President of the United States can't override their presence much less a scientist.

Toler deduces first that it was a murder, second the method used, and lastly who did it. Then his culprit also is killed with a silent gunshot and Charlie then has to find the accomplice.

This was one of the only Chans at least in the Monogram films that had a wartime related plot to it. Amazing how many foreign nationals could get close to a scientist working on a government project with no kind of clearance.

The film has one very large red herring as the plot lets you in on a secret one of the suspects has. Because the secret is divulged early you know this can't be the culprit. The real culprit will surprise you though.

The character of Birmingham Brown is introduced who in two films later would wind up employed as the Chan family chauffeur. For now he's the chauffeur of one of the invited guests and apparently Toler deduced early on he wasn't the murderer because he gets in on the investigation, albeit reluctantly with the Chan kids.

A lot of plot holes, typical of a Monogram Picture are in this one. But I did like the ending.

Aside from this being the first appearance of Mantan Moreland in a Charlie Chan movie, there's not a lot about this film to distinguish it from a long line of Monogram Pictures Charlie Chan movies. In other words, it's a pretty standard B-movie mystery. While it is a fun picture and I enjoy Charlie Chan pictures, I just can't understand the very biased group of individuals that give EVERY Charlie Chan movie a score of 10 on IMDb. Have these individuals no shame?! After all, the movies were always intended to be light entertainment--not films that would rival GONE WITH THE WIND or THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.

In many ways this film is similar to THE JADE MASK--a Chan film that came out a year later. Both involve scientists working on War Department projects who are murdered and their top secret plans were stolen (why, by the way, these super-duper top secret projects are always carried out in their homes and not a secure facility is beyond me). And, like so many other Chan films, there are very fancy murders--with gadgets and gizmos instead of a hard blow to the head or a bullet in the chest! Believable?! Not in the least--but also highly entertaining. While this and most of the Monogram Chan movies are not as good as the earlier series by Fox, this is still pretty good and a lot of fun.

PS--Yes, I KNOW that the guy playing Chan is some white guy and Mantan Moreland plays a stereotypical "dumb, scared black guy". This was considered pretty acceptable in its day, though it will no doubt offend many today.

This was Monogram Pictures very first Charlie Chan movie, and for a first attempt you expect better. This is basically a "locked room" mystery with the suspects all in a house and Chan is brought in to find the murderer of an inventor. This was in 1944, World War II was still in full swing and the inventor is a sort of Oppenheimer who is in the process of developing bigger and better bombs. Mantan Moreland is there as comic relief and this is his introduction to the Chan series as Birmingham Brown. The movie is just okay. There is inappropriate and somewhat distracting uses of music here (especially in a scene where Chan is seen merely walking around, getting into a cab and then getting out of the cab and walking into the murder scene mansion..why did they need to add driving, suspenseful music here?). There is a typical suspicious looking cast and the solution will seem, as in many Chan movies, far-fetched, but you go into a Chan Movie almost expecting this. Worth watching if you are a fan of the Chan series, if you are not familiar with the Charlie Chan movies, don't be discouraged if this is your first .. there are much better movies in this series.