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10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Very Good Noir Photography In Here, 8 June 2007
8/10
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A Treat For Fans Of Charlie Chan, 18 December 2005
Author: Lechuguilla from Dallas, Texas

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
"Anyone else wants to nominate self as the discoverer of body", 26 February 2005
Author: LeRoyMarko from Toronto, Canada

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 (**)

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Mildly entertaining Chan entry with good surprise ending, 8 November 2008
5/10
Author: mlraymond from Durham NC

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This one is mostly of curiosity value for Chan fans, as the first film where Charlie takes a job with the Federal government, to ferret out spies and saboteurs. Its also the first Chan movie to feature Mantan Moreland as the well-meaning but nervous Birmingham Brown, who later becomes Charlie's chauffeur and assistant.

The storyline is simple enough, but with an unusually large group of suspicious characters gathered in the home of a prominent scientist, any one of whom could be the murderer, when the inventor meets his untimely demise. Ranging from a talkative society woman to a grumpy Washington economist, a controlling South American politician who does all the talking for everyone in his party, a surly businessman who doesn't like to answer questions about his background, a no-nonsense housekeeper, the suspects run the gamut from average to pretty peculiar. Throw in the unwelcome " help" from two of Charlie's offspring, Number Three Son Tommy and pretty daughter Iris, and the reluctant assistance of Birmingham, plus assorted cops and federal agents, and this is a pretty lively household.

It's really not a bad picture, though arguably there's more plot and characters than truly necessary. The moment when Charlie realizes that crashing sounds and yelling in the basement mean some of his children have arrived to add their contribution to his problems, is classic Chan, as beautifully played by Sidney Toler.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
In the Secret-Unravelling Service, 23 July 2005
7/10
Author: Gary170459 from Derby, UK

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.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
"When alibi pushed at me, always suspect motive in woodpile.", 8 September 2004
5/10
Author: classicsoncall from United States

This first Monogram Charlie Chan film is a little tougher to enjoy than the prior 20th Century Fox films. For one, Sidney Toler's depiction of Chan is more abrupt and almost mean spirited at times. Music is used more frequently, but seems out of place, as when a dramatic score is used when Chan casually strolls to a taxi. Offsetting these points is the introduction of two new members of the Chan Clan, the film now revealing there are fourteen! offspring. Benson Fong joins the action as Number #3 son Tommy, and Marianne Quon is introduced as Number #2 daughter Iris. Mantan Moreland also joins the cast as Birmingham Brown, although his character has not been fully developed at this point.

The mystery involves the murder of a World War II scientist and inventor who has developed plans for a new torpedo. The cast of suspects is a varied lot, and as Charlie closes in on the killer, the killer himself is murdered. Charlie uses a ruse to flush out the second murderer, but somehow it seems contrived, as there is nothing in the film to lead up to the second killer's identity. Other guests are built up to seem more suspicious, such as Paul Arranto, confined to a wheelchair but who can actually walk. It's as if one of Charlie's own lines in the film can be used to describe the solution - "Explanation too perfect to be true".

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A Good Later Chan, 17 July 2004
7/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

As the Chans progressed the quality varied. They began a slide one they moved to Monogram studios. While not as good as the earlier big budget films they never the less remained entertaining.

This is I think the first of the Monograms and its one of the best of that later period. Certainly its memorable as the introduction of Birmingham Brown, a character played by Mantan Moreland to the end of the series. Generally his appearance denotes whether it one of the greater or lesser Chan films.(Although the reason the films are lesser is due to the patchwork style, reuse of sets and middling writing)

Here the plot concerns the death of an inventor for the war effort, a plot that was reused several times in a row. Its clever with out being obtuse and you'll probably guess the killer, which isn't always easy since Monogram often didn't play fair.

Definitely worth a look.

7 out of 10.

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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Who dunit? Who cares?, 12 February 2001
4/10
Author: D.S. Bertolotti (dbertolo@kettering.edu) from flint mi

This is a below average "whodunit" with the cliche everyone in the living room routine. Charlie Chan is a Secret Service Agent doing government work, and he must find who killed a scientist working on a bomb to defeat German U-boats in World War Two. There is little to recommend with this movie, since the neither the bomb nor the scientist nor the war have much to do with the plot. Charlie Chan fans will most likely find this movie disappointing. Who dunit? Who cares?

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Film Like Sleeping Pill - Give You Plenty of Rest, 15 April 2006
3/10
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

A true yawner and a bad film even for the Chan series. I like a good Charlie Chan film or even a reasonably good one, but this one falls way short of the mark. Charlie is enlisted to help figure out the murder of a scientist working for our government when someone in the house has stolen the plans for another power. The mystery is very pedestrian and the acting doesn't fare much better. The only saving grace for me in the film was the presence of Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown. He gives the film a little comedy and has some good scared faces, but after that the pickings are rather slim. Benson Fong is here as Tommy Chan and pairs up with Chan's daughter of all things. What about Sidney Toler? He is pretty decent but looks like he is straining to carry the film. What I noticed most was the way the film was shot. Chan director Phil Rosen, of whom I generally like most of his entries, uses lots of long shots with no action(like Charlie's initial walk into the house from outside). Why? The film is only 64 minutes long for crying out loud! Shots like that tell me the director had to fill time up because the script was even weaker than he was accustomed to. This probably isn't the worst Chan film ever made, but up to now it is the worst I have sat through unfortunately.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Monogram and Toler join for enjoyable low-budget entry in the series..., 25 June 2007
6/10
Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

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.

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