Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Absolutely brilliant

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

**SPOILERS** Recruited by the US Government to help in the war effort back home Charlie Chan, Sidney Toland, has his hands full in tracking down a shadowy hooded figure, looking a lot like the ghoul in the movie "Scream", who heads a Nazi spy ring in San Francisco.Setting a trap for Nazi spy Raush, Charles Wegweheim, on the SF waterfront Raush evades Charlie and his partner NYPD Capt. Flynn, Robert Homans,only to end up murdered by one of his fellow spies. Raush had to be silenced because he knew too much and was about to be caught and made to talk by Charlie & Co.Getting the license plate number of the getaway car with the person who murdered Raush driving leads Charlie together with his #3 son Tommy, Benson Fong, and Charlie's chauffeur and Tommy's sidekick Birmingham Brown, Mantan Moreland, to the Cosmon Radio Center. It turns out that the getaway car belonged to radio actress Diane Hall, Helen Deverell, who reported it stolen earlier that evening. It also turned out that Raush's killer is one of the people working at the radio studio! With him leaving his bloody footprint-thus the title of the movie "The Scarlet Clue"- there the same footprint, and shoe size, that he left at the murder scene.From this point on the killer knowing that Charlie is zeroing in on him, in working at the radio studio, starts to murder anyone who can implicate him in Raush's murder as well as being a top Nazi spy. Even those Nazi spies that he's in charge of!Typical Charlie Chan movie with #3 son Tommy gumming up the machinery in him trying to show that he's as good a detective as his Papa Charlie is. Mantan Moreland's Birmingham Brown is by far best thing going for the movie stealing every scene that he's in. Moreland's hysterical quick and witty dialog keeps the audience entertained when the film starts to lag, with a number of confusing sub-plots thrown in, in the second half. There's also Morelands good friend, in real life, Ben Carter who makes a guest appearance in the film as, who else, Ben Carter. The two, Moreland & Carter, go into this routine where they never finish a sentence as if they were reading each others minds. This drives #3 son Tommy almost to drink in trying to figure out just what the two are talking about!Charlie himself comes across as if he's suffering from a severe case of sleep deprivation talking in an, more then usual for him, mechanical-like monotone voice throughout most of the film. If you didn't know any better you would think that Charlie was either under hypnosis or just plain tired, Sidney Toland made a record 5 Charlie Chan movies that year, or overworked.In the end Charlie got his man-The Nazi spy master-with the same trap that he set for Charlie #3 son Tommy and Birmingham Brown earlier in the film. It just goes to show how ineffective the head Nazi spy and his bumbling cohorts were in that he, as well as them, not only couldn't steal the secret radar plans from the US Government but were totally ignorant to what deadly traps they, in trying to off Charlie & Co., set up in he Cosmo Radio Center as well.

The Scarlet Clue finds our intrepid oriental detective Charlie Chan now working for the federal government on a spy case. He's trailing a suspect, but when Sidney Toler requests help from the local police, they bungle it and the suspect winds up dead. He certainly now can't help Toler find who's behind the plot to steal radar secrets.But the roads seem to lead to a local radio station with a whole bunch of suspects from ham actors, to shifty technicians, and an owner who's right out of Rebecca. A few more murders occur before we find out who the master spy is.Charlie is now breaking in number 3 son Benson Fong and if possible he's a bigger dunce and hence a bigger foil for Charlie's fortune cookie wisdom than before. By now Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown has joined the series and his stereotypical role is one reason the series doesn't get much air now. But one thing this film does do is feature Ben Carter who worked a nightclub act with Moreland and two of their routines get into the film. They're pretty funny I will say.What I also found fascinating here is that since this film was made in 1945, made for Monogram and hence made in a matter of days, I'm not sure whether the folks behind the spy ring are Communists or Nazis. It was left vague and I'm certain that was done deliberately.So you might want to see the film and see if you can figure out who was running the radio spy ring.

THE SCARLET CLUE is a fairly interesting Charlie Chan film from the '40s, depending on its humor for the performances of BENSON FONG as #3 son, MANTAN MORELAND as Birmingham Brown and BEN CARTER as Ben Carter. The mysterious deaths of people associated with a radio program that is a front for some sort of radar secrets espionage, is at the heart of the crimes Chan must solve.SIDNEY TOLER was beginning to show signs of fatigue (he died two years later) and the sets and production values are noticeably reduced from what they were when the Chan films were being made by Fox. During the TCM showing of the film, Robert Osborne mentioned that it was Toler himself who brought the idea of furthering the Chan adventures to another studio after shopping the idea around.VIRGINIA BRISSAC, JACK NORTON, JANET SHAW and HELEN DEVERELL are among the chief suspects. I recognized Miss Brissac from her performance as the hard of hearing Miss Seiffert from THE SNAKE PIT. She has quite a different role here.Enjoyable fluff, not one of the best in the Chan series but a respectable enough entry from Monogram.Favorite line: When son #3 tells his dad that he has an idea but then immediately forgets what he wanted to say, Chan replies: "It's now in solitary confinement."

The Scarlet Clue could have been so much better had the writers written a tighter plot. First, in 1945 why be so indirect as to who the bad guys worked for? They were, obviously, German agents. Yet all we had to go on were some references to name changes of the spies from German to English. And one of the plotters seemed absolutely clueless as to who he was working for and what was going on. The ending lacked punch - why did we see one of the agents fall to his death in the trick elevator, but not the Dark Mistress who was behind it all, at the conclusion? Audiences always want to see the "Most Evil One" get his/hers, even in 1945! Not just, "Oh, yes, she's the one. Here's her body. She fell down the elevator shaft." And the "cigarette + gas" thing had me going "huh?" Now Foster and Moreland were excellent, reprising their vaudeville routine. And Sidney Toler did a decent Chan. But overall this plot and writing left much to be desired, even for a Charlie Chan picture.