The Scarlet Clue ** (1945, Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Ben Carter, Benson Fong) – Classic Movie Review 6,612

The 1945 thriller film The Scarlet Clue stars Sidney Toler in a fair, busy, tautly handled Charlie Chan series entry with Earl Derr Biggers’s Oriental detective chasing World War Two foreign agents to get back stolen radar secrets. 

Tommy Chan: ‘When it comes to detective work, I know my P’s and Q’s.’ Charlie Chan: ‘But are you familiar with rest of alphabet?’ Good point, Charlie!

Director Phil Rosen’s 1945 Monogram Pictures thriller film The Scarlet Clue stars Sidney Toler in a fair, busy, tautly handled Charlie Chan series entry with Earl Derr Biggers’s Oriental detective (Toler) chasing World War Two foreign agents to get back the government secret radar plans they steal from a laboratory located in the same building as a radio station.

Charlie Chan is working for the US Government, but the man they are tailing is murdered and the only clue is a footprint in blood. Chan’s investigation leads to a radio station.

Benson Fong is back as Number Three Son Tommy Chan and Mantan Moreland reprises his role as the comic chauffeur Birmingham Brown that, 50 years later, upset Spike Lee so much. At the radio station, Birmingham runs into his old friend Ben Carter (as himself). Suspects include the radio station staff, its stars and the cleaning woman… and soon there are more murders.

Also in the cast are Ben Carter, Virginia Brissac, Robert Homans, Jack Norton, Janet Shaw, Helen Devereaux [Helen Deverell], I Stanford Jolley, Reid Kilpatrick, Charles Sherlock, Janet Shaw, Milton Kibbee, Victoria Faust, Charles Jordan, Leonard Mudie and Kernan Cripps.

The Scarlet Clue is directed by Phil Rosen, runs 65 minutes, is made and released by Monogram Pictures, is written in an original screenplay by George Callahan, based on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers, is shot in black and white by William A Sickner, is produced by James B Burkett, is scored by Edward Kay, and designed by Dave Milton.

It was released on May 11, 1945.

Ben Carter (February 10, 1910– December 12, 1946) plays himself and re-creates two of his routines with his real-life nightclub partner Moreland. Carter was one of the first African American performers to land a seven-year contract at 20th Century-Fox. He opened his own casting agency office in 1935 and appeared in numerous Hollywood feature films, including The Harvey Girls, Dixie Jamboree, and Born to Sing.

The Scarlet Clue is in the public domain because original prints lacked a valid copyright notice.

Sidney Toler took over from Warner Oland as Charlie Chan and made 22 Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios.

Here it is to watch free at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/The_Scarlet_Clue

The cast are Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, Benson Fong as Tommy Chan, Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown, Virginia Brissac as Mrs Marsh, Ben Carter as Ben Carter, Robert Homans as Captain Flynn, Jack Norton as Willie Rand, Janet Shaw as Gloria Bayne, Helen Devereaux [Helen Deverell] as Diane Hall, Victoria Faust as Hulda Swenson / Janet Carter, Leonard Mudie as Horace Karlos, I Stanford Jolley as Ralph Brett, Emmett Vogan as Hamilton of the Hamilton Laboratory, Reid Kilpatrick, Charles Sherlock, Janet Shaw, Milton Kibbee, Charles Jordan, Leonard Mudie and Kernan Cripps.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,612

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