A foggy night: two old guys trail a suspect down to the docks. Charlie Chan quietly joins them and they board a boat, where they discover the dead body of the man they were following. Someone has stepped in his blood, leaving a bloody heel print—the scarlet clue.
This entertaining series entry is set primarily in a tall office building that holds a radar laboratory on one floor and a radio studio just below it. The radio acting company get in on the mystery and one scene even takes place during a television broadcast.
The murderer communicates using a teletype machine in one of the offices and also has installed a fiendish elevator trap door through which he drops his enemies.
Sidney Toler's Chan is assisted once again by Benson Fong as number three son Tommy, whose grinning enthusiasm is silly but harmless enough. (Chan: "Come, we must investigate slight case of murder." Tommy: "Murder! Well, here I come!")
Mantan Moreland also returns as chauffeur Birmingham Brown. The picture's highlights are a couple of great little exchanges between Moreland and comedian Ben Carter—their routine in which they interrupt and finish each other's thoughts is apparently borrowed from a stage show they did. The Moreland-Carter bits are brief buts lots of fun (and certainly better written and rehearsed than anything else in the picture).
Overall this one isn't too bad—it has a few laughs and the plot keeps you guessing.
This entertaining series entry is set primarily in a tall office building that holds a radar laboratory on one floor and a radio studio just below it. The radio acting company get in on the mystery and one scene even takes place during a television broadcast.
The murderer communicates using a teletype machine in one of the offices and also has installed a fiendish elevator trap door through which he drops his enemies.
Sidney Toler's Chan is assisted once again by Benson Fong as number three son Tommy, whose grinning enthusiasm is silly but harmless enough. (Chan: "Come, we must investigate slight case of murder." Tommy: "Murder! Well, here I come!")
Mantan Moreland also returns as chauffeur Birmingham Brown. The picture's highlights are a couple of great little exchanges between Moreland and comedian Ben Carter—their routine in which they interrupt and finish each other's thoughts is apparently borrowed from a stage show they did. The Moreland-Carter bits are brief buts lots of fun (and certainly better written and rehearsed than anything else in the picture).
Overall this one isn't too bad—it has a few laughs and the plot keeps you guessing.