Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

Not the best Charlie Chan, but sill enjoyable. The short running time of just 64 minutes is a plus. It doesn't take long (not more than 5 minutes) to be in the ambiance. A murder has been committed, nobody leaves the house. Charlie is on his way and his power of deduction will be on display. There's a sense of déjà-vu with the setting and the plot, but Charlie's funny remarks make for a good watch: "Dead man's actions still need explanation". In this one, we learn that Charlie has 14 kids! Son #3 and daughter #2 appear in this movie. Good comic relief from Mantan Moreland in his first appearance of the series. He's good but he'll be better in future films. A drawback: the actors sometimes look like they forgot their lines.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on February 25th, 2005.

71/100 (**)

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.

Just watched this, the first of the Monogram Charlie Chan movies after Fox dropped the Honolulu detective two years before, on DVD. It has Chan as a government agent in Washington, D.C., investigating a murder of a scientist who's invented a weapon used to stop some enemy spy missions. I'll stop there and just say that at just a little over an hour, there isn't too much in the way of excitement especially since nearly the entire thing seems to take place on a mansion but there are some good atmospheric shots and a few good suspenseful moments and also some amusing comic relief courtesy of no. 3 son Jimmy (Benson Fong), no. 2 daughter Iris (Marianne Quon), and, in his first appearance, chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland, who isn't as outrageous as his later appearances in the series). So in summary, Charlie Chan in the Secret Service is a pretty entertaining first entry for the series at its new studio. P.S. In once again identifying someone from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, Sarah Edwards-who was Mary's mother in that Frank Capra classic-plays Mrs. Hargue, a housekeeper here.

I'll say one thing for these Charlie Chan films. There's never a shortage of murder suspects and the clues are always readily apparent to the master sleuth but not to the audience. At least, that's the usual pattern, even when Sidney Toler joined forces with Monogram for several B-picture entries in the series.

CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE follows the pattern precisely, even giving us a final gathering of suspects from which to venture our own guess as to the identity of the murderer. As usual, it's at your own risk for it seldom turns out to be the most obvious.

Once again, Toler plays it close to the vest without giving the audience much of a hint as to which suspect he's onto. The story gets off to a fast start with the murder of an inventor of a torpedo plan murdered in his own home being guarded by secret service bodyguards.

Chan gets the call to solve the case and discovers that the inventor's plans are missing. "No one leaves until case ends satisfactorily," he tells the police. Chan is soon joined by two of his eldest children, who are no help at all in solving the crime. Nor is MANTAN MORELAND as Birmingham Brown, wild-eyed with fear as still another murder occurs.

The explanations are strictly a wild concoction by the screenwriter who has left no stone unturned to make sure that the old cliché about "the least obvious suspect" is once again a truism.

Summing up: Good for a few chuckles, but it doesn't play fair with the clues.

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.