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19 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Chan Films Go More Comedic With Moreland, 31 October 2006 Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States
This was my first look at Charlie Chan's, or should I say Sidney Toler's assistant "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland.) He certainly changed the face of these movies, and I don't mean that as some sort of racial pun. What I mean is Moreland added silliness to these films, although he's such a likable guy I didn't mind. Many times he even made me laugh out loud.Also new to me at the time of my first viewing of this (sometime in the 1990s) was Number Three Son "Tommy," played by Benson Fong. I liked him a lot, but then I have liked all of Charlie's kids.Anyway, with the addition of Moreland - who was strictly added for comedy - with Chan's witty proverbs, the repartee between father and son, and so on.....these Mongram Charlie Chan movies turned out to be almost more comedy than mystery.....but they still entertained.The most memorable scene in this movie had to be something shocking and violent, the opposite of how I've been describing these latter-day Chan films. In that scene, a trap door in an elevator suddenly sends a man plummeting to his death. Most of the film is talk but it's okay. This whodunit had a surprise ending. I guessed wrong, but that's nothing new.
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Another fun Monogram Charlie Chan, 4 September 2000 Author: mjshannon from LaGrange, Illinois
This is a very good Monogram Pictures Chan that has snappy dialogue, a lot of funny lines from Sidney Toler (as Chan) who berates No.3 son Tommy more than any other of his prodigious offspring and a couple of scenes with Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter which are priceless!! The plot may stretch credibility a bit but the movie has a fast pace, good direction and sets that are above the norm for a Monogram Chan. Keep an eye out, as well, for the great elevator segment that is surprising and innovative. The banter between the actors in the broadcasting studio is also inspired and fun. Although not quite up to par with the Twentieth Century Fox Chan's this is damn close! Monogram Chan's get a bad rap sometimes but this again proves there was magic in the old detective series still. Check it out.
8 out of 9 people found the following review useful: I Got a LIFT Out of This Chan Film, 27 March 2006 Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC
Famed detective and government agent Charlie Chan is back again for this Monogram film where Charlie is trailing a suspect who may be involved with plans to steal radar equipment/secrets from our government for foreign spies and who has just killed aboard a ship. Chan and detective friend trace suspect back to a radio show and from there on Charlie helps at least three more people get killed with his investigation. This is an interesting Chan vehicle and gives Sidney Toler plenty of screen time to hone his Chan skills. Benson Fong and Mantan Moreland are back once again and lift the mundane to the amusing with their comic routines. Moreland, again, steals his scenes and gives the film a lot of vitality it would otherwise not have. I particularly like a couple of routines he does in the film with a guy he knows and neither one lets the other finish the sentence. The comic timing was first-rate! As for the mystery, it is not too terribly confusing though when the end is told no real explanation as to why and who did crimes is revealed fully. I enjoyed many of the characterizations of the show people. I thought the means of death were very inventive, and I loved the whole thing with the elevator. Very clever.
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful: "That's easy Pop, the murderer will be the one with the guilty look.", 20 September 2004 Author: classicsoncall from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The Scarlet Clue takes it's name from a bloody footprint found at the scene of the first murder in this film, which takes place on a suitably mysterious docked boat. The action resumes at the Cosmo Radio Center, where a host of suspects and victims interact with Inspector Charlie Chan as he goes about solving the case. In two wonderful segments, Chan's chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) carries on a spirited dialog with Ben Carter, each interpreting the other and finishing each other's sentences, leaving Number #3 Son Tommy (Benson Fong) totally confused. There's an interesting segue near the middle of the film when Charlie Chan meets a former Shakespearean actor, now radio personality named Horace Karlos; could this be a tribute to Boris Karloff?By the time the film ends, there are four victims, all having been been murdered for being too close to the identity of the criminal attempting to steal government radar plans. In a clever scheme, two of the victims are dispatched via the pitch of a radio broadcast that shatters a vial containing a gas that lethally interacts with nicotine when the victims puff on a cigarette. As in many Charlie Chan films though, you don't see the identity of the guilty party coming, it's only revealed at the end with a neat wrap up by the Oriental detective.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: One of the better post 20th-Century Fox Chans, 19 March 2002 Author: Jeff (Inthegoodlife@Aol.com) from Jacksonville, FL
The Scarlet Clue is one of the better Chans in the post 20th-Century Fox era and is interesting throughout. Chan tries to solve multiple murders on a dock and radio station. The action is fun and the routine between Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter is hilarious and is one of the highlights of the film. The movie feels a lot like the Abbott and Costello movie Who Done It? which also took place at a radio station. The solution to how two people are poisoned is pretty farfetched and the solution may be obvious to some but a lot of action takes place and Charlie is more active then in other Chan movies. The villain also runs around in a costume which is kind of neat. The script comes together pretty well and the movie has a nice flow. Definitely better then many other post 20th-Century Fox efforts. 6.5/10
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful: Above Average For Monogram Pictures, 2 April 2004 Author: Lechuguilla from Dallas, Texas
Some Charlie Chan movies by Monogram are just wretched. "The Scarlet Clue", however, is fairly well done. Lighting and camera angles make for a suitably mysterious atmosphere. The whodunit puzzle contains a well defined group of suspects. And the script is humorous, both the dialogue between Chan and his son, and the constant jabber of the wonderful Mantan Moreland.But the film seems terribly dated. The plot, which involves WWII radar secrets in a radio station, is outmoded, and the scientific "equipment" belongs in a museum. Moreover, production values are almost nonexistent. There are some plot holes; and at the end, Chan never tells us how he deduced the identity of the killer.Overall, for those who enjoy Charlie Chan movies, "The Scarlet Clue" is one of the better ones to watch. Everyone else will probably find this movie lame.
7 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Won't let you down, 4 June 2006 Author: Gary170459 from Derby, UK
This was a nice entry in the Chan series [32/38], with Charlie, Tommy and Birmingham in fine comic form. The rest of the cast displayed no sense of humour at all.Charlie was still working for the Government this time after a gang of murdering agitators who were after radar secrets from an "experimental" radio, television and radar broadcaster. They don't write radar shows like they used to ... A nice touch was that a suspect (who was responsible for the original apparently indelible clue) was last seen on the 2nd floor of the radio building, found dead on the 10th after falling from a great height. Convoluted! The sets were used thoroughly in the previous film The Jade Mask, the gas chamber being turned in this into an ante room for a weather chamber. Moreland excelled himself with this one, with endless solo wisecracks or even as part of a double act. Was it unacceptable in Hollywood back then for him to have taken his taxi driver cap off as it would have made him appear an equal?A good Monogram Toler plus Moreland film, even if with more ridiculous intricacies in the plot than usual.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: The Radio Spy Ring, 11 June 2008 Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York
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.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Among the Better Monogram Chans, 3 February 2008 Author: gftbiloxi (gftbiloxi@yahoo.com) from Biloxi, Mississippi
Loosely based on novels by Earl Derr Biggers, 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series proved an audience favorite--but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the studio feared audiences would turn against its Asian hero. This was a miscalculation: actor Sidney Toler took the role to "poverty row" Monogram Studios, where he continued to portray the character in eleven more popular films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.20th Century Fox regarded the Chan films as inexpensive "B" movies, but even so the studio took considerable care with them: the plots were often silly, but the pace was sharp, the dialogue witty, and the casts (which featured the likes of Bela Lugosi and Ray Milland) always expert. The result was a kindly charm which has stood the test of time. Monogram was a different matter: Chan films were "B" movies plain and simple. Little care was taken with scripts or cast and resulting films were flat, mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.Released in 1945, THE SCARLET CLUE is neither the best nor worst of the Monogram Chan films, certainly better than such dreadful entries as THE TRAP but a far cry from its 20th Century Fox counterparts. At the same time, however, the film has a certain interest due to its setting: a broadcast company. It would be a mistake to look to any Chan film for factual information, but the film does remind us--and quite effectively so--of that moment in time when radio still dominated even as television (which is repeated mentioned) began to make inroads with the public.The story, such as it is, finds Chan (Toler) acting as a federal agent who is investing a murder involving radar secrets. When a stolen car leads him to a radio actress he soon finds himself in the middle of the broadcast company itself, where murderous communications are issued via teletype and elevators become instruments of death. It's all very flyweight stuff, but the details make the film watchable--as does the occasional actor, with Mantan Moreland a case in point.In today's world the type of roles assigned to Moreland would be thought racist, but taken within the context of what was possible for an African-American actor at the time they remain remarkably charming. To it's credit, Monogram recognized Moreland's appeal, and always took care to give his name highly-placed credit in the cast lists. THE SCARLET CLUE is particularly interesting because it also allows us to see Moreland perform a few bits of his "interrupted talk" stage routine, performed here with Ben Carter--a bit of comedy that is every bit as clever as any thing you might find in Abbot and Costello's best work of the same period.When all is said and done, THE SCARLET CLUE is indeed watchable, but it really is best left to hardcore Chan fans. Newcomers would do better to begin with the 20th Century Fox films, which are now at last becoming available on DVD.GFT, Amazon Reviewer
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Sidney Toler moves to Monogram for this one..., 10 June 2008 Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.
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."
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