recommended

Brilliant and touching

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Review - Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, released 2-14-44 The first of eleven films released by Monogram Pictures, featuring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, and a worthy movie for the genre of Saturday matinee double features. Our intrepid detective is now with the Secret Service during war time, in D.C., working on a murder case involving a government project with a scientist perfecting torpedoes against the German U-Boats. The scientist is killed and his torpedo design-plans are missing. Chan has to sift through the usual suspects, all of dubious character; some we learn later, are worse than others. Charlie suspects the handiwork of a certain espionage criminal being directly involved. Give Monogram the benefit of doubt with their production. If the movie was from 20th Century Fox, it would still be considered poorly edited, but in order to fit the film in the time frame required, a few cut corners were necessary disallowing certain plot explanations. The music playing in specific scenes was unnecessary, and the picture could have survived without the music accompaniment. For their first time around, it was an interesting film, with a believable story able to keep the viewer enthused till the end, where as always, the explanations run aplenty from Charlie Chan. The climax revealing the killer proved to be a surprise, considering all the suspects were red-herrings. The scenes were almost exclusively in the house of the murders, one location in different rooms. A man is murdered early in the film and Charlie goes about linking the data to the alleged killer, only to have him murdered before actual admission. The true guilty party was working with the prime suspect and was afraid of being found, so she killed him by way of his own studies. Watch the film to witness how Chan catches her at the end.

When an important research scientist is killed, the government sends Charlie Chan to investigate. He keeps the entire set of guests in place while he looks into the events. Soon we have a group of suspects, any one of whom could've culpable. This time, two of Chan's children show up at the scene. If I've got this right, it is his number three son and his number two daughter. They bumble their ways in, but do prove helpful at times. There is also Mantan Moreland, who is the stereotypical black man who often appeared in mysteries of this time. He is really funny, but for many of the inappropriate reasons. Anyway, there is a missing set of schematics for a new torpedo that the late scientist had developed. Charlie must sort through a lot of subterfuge to get at the answer. A decent entry.

The always enjoyable Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) works to find out who murdered an inventor and stole his invention in "Charlie Chan in the Secret Service." This film, from 1944, introduces the character of Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). In this, he plays the chauffeur of one of the party guests.A scientist who is working on an invention to protect Allied ships from torpedoes is being protected by Secret Service. However, on the night he's having a party, he refuses to greet his guests surrounded by Secret Service, so he doesn't want them around. He is almost immediately killed and his invention stolen! Charlie, number three son Tommie (Benson Fong) and daughter Iris arrive to solve the case.This plot was re-used with different McGuffins several times. I don't watch Charlie Chan for the plots, which is a good thing. I like the characters, Charlie's proverbs, and Charlie's relationship with whatever son is along and Birmingham.This particular story is perhaps more incongruous than others in that the inventor is working in his home and has a dinner party filled with suspicious characters, and doesn't want the Secret Service. It has one of those scenes of everyone gathered in the living room for the big reveal - and it could be any one of them.Fun, though I could have done without Iris Chan (Marianne Quon), not a particularly good actress.

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.