Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

Good WWII concept for a mystery story and the script is not bad except for a bit of routine mystery-movie padding typical of the era. This film is crisply and professionally edited, better than most low-budget films. And there are a few surprisingly good cinematography highlights.

The discount supporting cast does a good job although you may not recognize some of them, and you will notice that Sarah Edwards develops a watchable odd character who has custody of all the keys to the house. Mantan Morland has some poorly written throw-away dialog but his comedy timing is perfection and his performance is very polished as he does a great job.

Sidney Toler gives us a first rate Charlie Chan. The remarkable 70-year old is vigorous, keeping the proceedings moving as he strides briskly and confidently through all the scenes.

Moves at a good pace and held my attention throughout. What more can you ask for in a murder mystery?

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.

A house full of guests is the setting for this mystery story, wherein a scientist is murdered. Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) investigates, along with his two irksome kids. The wonderful Mantan Moreland plays a bug-eyed Birmingham Brown, a role inserted presumably to add comic relief.

This sixty-three minute film contains about fifty minutes of story. The rest is filler, mostly in the film's first half. The story, about a secret WWII torpedo plan, is simple and direct. It's the kind of film I can envision as being typical for a 1940's Saturday afternoon matinée. There's a stage play quality to it, in that most of the scenes take place in three or four rooms. As with other films in the Chan series, the production design here is minimal and cheap looking. The emphasis is on the whodunit puzzle, but that's what counts most for murder mystery fans.

And the script does provide a good puzzle. The killer is camouflaged amid well thought out red herrings, in a way that makes solving the puzzle not real easy.

For Charlie Chan fans, this is one of the better mysteries in the Monogram series. For everyone else, the film has little or nothing to offer.

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.

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.