Dark Alibi

Plot synopsis:
Thomas Harley, an ex-convict who served time in prison eight years ago, is wrongfully arrested for a bank robbery he didn't commit. The police have found fingerprints on the crime scene, incriminating Harley, even though he was present at the Carey Theatrical Warehouse at the time of the crime.
The policemen do not believe Harley's explanation, partly because he claims to have been called to the warehouse by a note from an old cell mate by the name of Dave Wyatt, a man that has been dead for eight years. Subsequently, Harley is sentenced to death for the robbery. He goes off to prison to wait for his execution.
Harley's daughter June asks private investigator Charlie Chan for help to prove her father's innocence. Hearing about the suspicious circumstances, Chan immediately agrees to take the case.
With only 9 days before Harley's execution, Chan starts investigating the suspicious note to Harley, and find out that it was written on a typewriter belonging to Mrs. Foss, Harley's landlady, who often rents to ex-cons. He talks to the other tenants in the building: the poor Miss Petrie, bookkeeper Mr. Johnson, salesman Mr. Danvers and showgirl Emily Evans, whose work costume was found in warehouse near the crime scene. Curiously enough, both Danvers and Evans had been in other cities at the time of bank robberies there. When Chan, his son Tommy and the chauffeur Birmingham goes to the prison to see Harley, they are shot at. This makes Chan sure that they are on the right track and believes that the fingerprints on the crime scene must have been placed there by someone else.
When Chan looks into the other robberies he finds that the modus operandi was always the same, and the perpetrators ended up in the same prison. It also turns out the quiet Miss Petrie is married to a convict who works in the prison's fingerprint department.
Later Miss Petrie is overrun and killed by a truck outside the warehouse, and Johnson is at the scene when Chan arrives. Chan returns to the prison to check out the fingerprint department, and discovers that someone has exchanged the print cards. Miss Petrie's husband hears of Chan's suspicions and attempts to escape, but is shot and wounded.
Petrie's husband dies from his wounds, and Chan demands new prints from everyone living in Harley's building, including Johnson. He discovers that Johnson's prints are all over one of the print cards in the prison.
Chan returns to the warehouse again, and finds the tools used to forge fingerprints in the truck that ran Petrie over. Chan is discovered by Danver at the warehouse. It turns out Danver has killed Johnson to stop him from talking, and now he tries to kill Chan for the same reason. He fails and is arrested for all the robberies. Harley us released from prison. Chan tells Harley that June's boyfriend Kenzie was the leader of the robbers, and that he framed Harley because he did not consent to him marrying June.

Tags: mystery

Review:
Clues lead the police to the Foss Family Hotel where we meet a varied group of unsavory suspects.Thomas Harley, who resides at the hotel along with his beautiful daughter June, is the one that the police are after-- it was his fingerprints left on the safe that led the police to the hotel.He claims that he was locked up in a theatrical warehouse, but he has no witnesses.
Even more suspicious is his story that he had received a letter from a man he hadn't seen for many years, asking him to a meeting at the warehouse; but the prosecutor can prove that the man had been dead for eight years.Chan thinks the set-up is much too pat, and he doesn't give up on Mr. Harley when Harley's daughter June makes an appeal to him to help free her innocent dad.
I was a fan of Charlie Chan when the films were first released.
Dark Alibi is another enjoyable Monogram entry of the Charlie Chan series.
This is my twelfth review of a Charlie Chan movie in series chronological order on these consecutive days.
His daughter and lawyer are on the verge of giving up until Charlie overhears and offers his services...Directed by Phil Karlson who had previously helmed The Shanghai Cobra, he once again provides an exciting beginning and ending sequence for a Chan entry.
And despite the now-not-very-acceptable stereotype of a scared black man with bulging eyes in these modern times, Mantan Moreland is still funny to me when he does what he does here.
His comedy is perfectly aided, once again, by Benson Fong as "No. 3 Son" Tommy, and Ben Carter in a reprise of his and Mantan's "interrupted talk" from The Scarlet Clue.
Also, on a personal note, I started watching these Monogram Chan movies (usually starring Roland Winters) on my local station here in Baton Rouge on Channel 2, WBRZ-TV, in the late '70s during the late night lineup of movies on Saturday morning on "Charlie Chan Cinema".
Although the premise was way far-fetched Dark Alibi is nicely done and one of the better Charlie Chan features coming from Monogram.
Sidney Toler as Chan takes on a case where time is essential, the life of Edward Earle who was convicted for a robbery/homicide is at stake, he's scheduled to go to the chair in nine days.Ironically technology has caught up to the events of this film.
And it doesn't take long for Charlie to be convinced of his innocence when on the way to state prison someone takes some sniper shots at him.
And in fact there is one real big connection to the state prison where Earle is counting down his last hours.Ben Carter plays one of the prisoners and an old friend of Mantan Moreland playing the Chan family chauffeur Birmingham.
They know what they're talking about, but poor Tommy Chan played by Benson Fong is standing there without a clue.
Wonderful comic timing all around.Good Charlie Chan film and a masterpiece coming from Monogram..
Thomas Harley, a former criminal who's gone straight for years, is suddenly arrested for bank robbery and the murder of a guard - and although he insists that he was locked up in a warehouse at the time the crime was committed, his fingerprints are found on the scene of the crime; and so he's trialled and sentenced to death...Since his daughter June is convinced that her father is innocent, she begs Charlie Chan to take on the case; and since he remembers immediately that there have been two very similar cases in the last years, he starts investigating: at the hotel where Harley stayed, which is led by Mrs. Foss, a social worker who helps former convicts to start a new life.
But all the people staying at the hotel seem in some way connected either to the warehouse where Harley was locked up, or to the other two banks that were robbed in different cities, or to the prison where Harley had been years ago...And then Charlie gets a seemingly crazy idea: could it be able to FORGE someone's fingerprints and 'plant' them on the scene of a crime?
He comes to the conclusion that there's something going on at the prison's fingerprints department; and, at the risk of his own life, he tries once more to prove his theory's right, to find the real culprits, and to save a man from being murdered 'accidentally' by the State...A VERY clever and suspenseful piece of crime fiction, set partially at the creepy theatrical warehouse and partially in prison - but wherever they are, Charlie's 'sitting assistants', as he calls them, Tommy and Birmingham find time for hilarious jokes and hopeless confusion; but this time, they prove REAL helpful to Charlie, too!
ABSOLUTELY worth watching, not only for fans of the series, but for every friend of good old-fashioned crime entertainment; one of the very best of the Monogram 'Charlie Chans'!.
It was evident this series was coming to an end (as was Toler's life) in this unrealistic mystery that was held aloft by gimmicks.The comedy of Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) was the only bright spot which carried this movie through to it's conclusion.Although a credible actor,Benson Fong playing Tommy Chan, is just plain flat.
The fun cliché of this Chan episode is the warehouse full of theatrical props - like the fun house and the séance, a great setting for a movie mystery.Prison is never so wacky as when Tommy Chan and Birmingham Brown are let lose - don't fight it, just go with the silliness.
Birmingham's brother Benjamin shows up - as a convict, and the duo repeat their stage act for a bit of comic relief.No dramatic lighting in this one - Monogram wasn't going to pay for fine cinematography.
Though the suspect's daughter insists he is innocent, he is quickly convicted and the case seems hopeless--until Charlie Chan agrees to investigate, even though the execution is only nine days off.
Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong--as chauffeur Birmingham Brown and number three son Tommy Chan--assist Pop Chan as usual.
Chan's investigation roams from the rooming house where his client lives to the local prison (where Birmingham and Tommy lock themselves into a cell with gleeful convict Tim Ryan).It's really not particularly exciting or memorable, but it's easy to watch and doesn't take itself too seriously.
Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is asked to prove the innocence of a man already convicted of murder and scheduled to be executed.
So Charlie tries to get to the bottom of how the man's fingerprints could have been at the scene of the crime if he was innocent.
He's got help from incompetent son Tommy (Benson Fong) and trite comic relief Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland).
There's a moronic scene where Tommy and Birmingham wander around a prison with no guards even noticing.
Moreland's old vaudeville partner Ben Carter returns for the second time in the series to do one of their old vaudeville routines.
Don't even get me started on the lack of good aphorisms that Charlie Chan is known for.
If you're new to Charlie Chan movies, do yourself a favor and start with the Fox films.
Don't let your first Chan film be from Monogram or you might never want to try another..
Most of the movies in the Charlie Chan series were bona-fide mysteries that were short on plot credulity and laced with a measure of comic relief throughout.
There are a lot of suspects to choose from in the clever plot in which we have to figure out who is the bank robber/murderer who masterminded the crime and used someone else's fingerprints to frame an innocent man.
Recommended for Charlie Chan fans and for those who enjoy a mystery in which the murderer is very tough to spot (and don't worry too much about the details)..
Monogram Pictures had a hit-or-miss record with the Chan series, but for fans of the characters and of Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong, "Dark Alibi" can make a rainy afternoon more enjoyable.
Good enough, low budget Chan film.
Usually films with this much activity are cluttered and over- plotted, but it all works reasonably well in "Dark Alibi".
I can live without the Birmingham and Benjamin corny old vaudeville bit but it was popular in the 1940's era and it is a better filler for padding purposes than most routines (filler was probably necessary due to Toler's health).
Janet Shaw delivers one of her insouciant tough girl performances that always keep her watchable in films.Sidney Toler gets the job done but he really looks ill at times.
He manages valiantly to stay active enough to stride across a room now and then, but he is sitting down in some scenes, obviously for health reasons.Good work by the director, good red herrings, and lots of somewhat overloaded activity provide us with an OK low budget b-movie in "Dark Alibi"..
As is usually the case, Birmingham Brown and Tommy Chan do everything they can to mess up the case.
At one time or another, each has been convicted of bank robbery based on fingerprints found at the crime scene.
Charlie Chan's hunch is that the fingerprints were forgeries, and the victims were all set up by the real thief.
If you're keeping score, "Dark Alibi" is the eighth installment in the Monogram Studios series of Sidney Toler Charlie Chan films.
Benson Fong is Number #3 Son Tommy; and after a one film hiatus (Red Dragon), Mantan Moreland is back, this time sharing equal billing with Ben Carter.
The two reprise their "Pidgin" English escapades from "The Scarlet Clue" with three different conversations that are the comedic highlights of the film.As usual, there is a lot of misdirection with the introduction of the suspects, but one good clue comes with the identity of States Prison inmate #8251 - Jimmy Slade, a fingerprint file clerk.
It's interesting how many times the same gimmicks are repeated in the Chan movies.
Back in the 1940 film "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise", Chan throws a coin to test the response of a man who claims he's hard of hearing.
He does it here as well, and again uncovers the subterfuge.As we've seen before, the mastermind behind the bank robberies and the murders is revealed at the end with no fanfare or buildup, only the convincing explanation by Charlie Chan himself.
It's a good enough reason by itself to watch "Dark Alibi"..
One of the better Chan films from Monogram.
While the quality of this Charlie Chan film isn't quite up to the exceptional quality of most of the Twentieth-Century Fox Chan films, it does rank among the better films of the series produced by Monogram Pictures.
Most of this is because the mystery itself is more interesting--more of a real mystery than you find in most of the films.As usual, one of the Chan clan is on hand to provide help for their father.
Tommy Chan (Benson Fong) actually is a bit more helpful and resourceful than usual.
However, the acerbic tongue of Sidney Toler (as Charlie) is as cutting as ever as he makes many amusing comments about the "help" usually provided by Tommy and their driver, Birmingham.This film begins with a man being convicted of robbery and murder.
Charlie is called in my the family to try to sort out how the man's finger prints could be at the crime scene and yet he be an innocent man.
While the technology to fake prints isn't apparently possible, how Chan is able to piece it all together is pretty interesting and makes for an excellent plot.By the way, Mantan Moreland and his old stage partner Ben Carter do a couple old comedy routines together throughout the film.
They also did a similar scene in another Chan film, SCARLET CLUE.
I own 20 Charlie Chan movies and have watched more than that, and this is the absolute worst one I've ever seen.
With about 5 or 10 minutes of actual plot, the bulk of the movie is mostly talk talk talk talk about nothing at all, several extremely annoying "comedy" sequences between Mantan Moreland and his vaudeville partner Ben Carter, and, most ridiculous of all, "assistants" Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong finding every possible way to ignore Chan's instructions, get in the way, and generally act stupid.
POSSIBLE SPOILER -- I enjoy humor in whodunits, but this isn't a whodunit (the entire plot consists of Chan asking a lab to experiment with fingerprints), just a series of jokes padded with boring filler.
DARK ALIBI is one of many B-movies of the 1940s starring intrepid Chinese sleuth Charlie Chan, played by Sidney Toler with a dodgy accent and no attempt at even looking remotely Chinese.
This time around he's tasked with aiding a criminal due to execution; the problem is that the man didn't do it, so Chan has nine days before an innocent man goes to the chair.At least half of the running time is made up of likeable but dated comedy featuring genre regular Mantan Moreland, at his shivering, OTT best.
Benson Fong as Chan's kid also plays it up for laughs, and indeed the humour is more pronounced than the mystery.
This Monogram Charlie Chan movie was maybe the last in the series where Sidney Toler was on camera frequently, i.e. most of the scenes, after the initial setup murder-robbery.
As a fan of the entire Warner Oland-Sidney Toler series, there was not a dissatisfying movie of the entire lot; buy the premise, buy the program.
The story centers on the framing of certain convicts' fingerprints appearing at the scenes of bank robberies and at least one murder to start our movie.
It is for Charlie Chan to work the odds of determining the real perpetrators, bring them to justice while freeing the doomed man framed for the crime.
The warden of the prison asks Charlie how is it possible to exonerate the condemned man.
Charlie works the crowd of suspects knowing the real guilt falls in part upon the hotel residents and a third person located in the prison, but not a convict.
Charlie has multiple scenes among the hotel, the prison and the police lab; all are important in solving the crime.
The ending occurs in the prison with the warden arresting the third party, responsible for masterminding the felony-robbery.Watch Chan work his clues finding the guilty while freeing the convicted.
Good timeless comedy, because the detecting tends to be average, the '40s equivalent of something like later TV series, or perhaps crime teleplays, but the comedy in it is delightful, and Toler's acting looks more dynamic than in other movies, it was cool to have a duo for the comic relief, a comic team (like O'Brian and Kerr), but the puzzle plot is good too, a puzzling mystery, how were the fingerprints forged, if they were, Wong visited people, but Chan does more than that, he visits milieus, here he has a lot of proverbs to offer, advices, some or funny, most are really useful, the scenes in the warehouse were effective, and there are the occasional bursts of violence (a girl is killed, an inmate shots himself), but there's also the characters' insouciance regardless of the body count, Chan's cases are about pretty ingenious means of crime and murder, and give a good sense of the places, the sets..
Charlie Chan mysteries.
The famous Honolulu Hawaii based Asian detective gets called in to another mystery and solves it with great deduction, humor, and charm.*Special Stars- Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland & Ben Carter, Benson Fong.*Theme- A detective's observation and deductive power can solve mysteries.*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W.
This is the 40th of 47 Charlie Chan films made.*Emotion- Non-Asian playing Asian roles?
There have been many actors playing Charlie Chan, but Mr Sidney Toler seems to have captured the essence of the polite yet strong detective in his Chan portrayals.
Forged fingerprints has Charlie Chan helping free a wronged man..
Charlie Chan(Sidney Toler)is asked by a public defender(John Eldredge) to help clear one of his clients, Mr. Harley, who is wrongfully accused of bank robbery...and murder.
Charlie has a boarding house full of possible suspects to question; but the thing that really needs deeper investigating is the chance of forged fingerprints since Mr. Harley swears he has never been in the bank that was robbed.
Absolute hilarious is chauffeur Birmingham Brown(Mantan Moreland)seeing his brother Benjamin(Ben Carter)inside the prison while Chan gathers some information.
Tommy Chan is played by Benson Fong; other players include: Joyce Compton, Russell Hicks, Edna Holland and George Holmes..
A pretty young woman's father has been framed for a felony murder, his fingerprints having been found at the scene of the crime.
It's the job of Charlie Chan to prove those fingerprints were somehow forged and that someone is masterminding a series of robberies using the same method.It doesn't begin too promisingly, with Toler interviewing all the members of the boarding house in which the framed man lived.
But it livens up with Toler and his two assistants -- African-American Mantan Moreland and Enumerated Son Benson Fong -- visit San Quentin and then wind up in a climactic chase in a warehouse full of stuffed animals and other assorted junk.The film is full of the stereotypes of the period -- the frightened black chauffeur, the ambitious but dumb Chinese kid, the pinched and spinsterish social worker.
Moreland has some good scenes with Ben Carter in which each anticipates what the other is about to say.
As Toler says at one point, "Even small wind raise dust." Fong and Moreland have gotten themselves locked up in a cell with two convicts.
This movie won't carry you away in the same way but it ought to entertain you for its sixty-one minutes of running time..
Usually you surprise me!"There is the customary padding (the sequence where Chan's assistants are bumbling about in a dark warehouse), and the customary last-minute surprise killer.