The Jade Mask

This is one of the strangest Charlie Chan films I've even seen, probably because many of the suspects were so weird. That, and the building in which most of the action takes place - with all its secret and motorized panels - is odd to see.

The story: an unpopular family member-scientist, "Dr. Harper," (Frank Reicher) has developed a chemical that makes wood as strong as steel. Our government could use this, especially in time of war, so they are obviously concerned when the scientist is found murdered. They call on Charlie Chan to help solve the case and get the formula. Charlie winds up getting help from his Number Four Son "Eddie," someone I never saw in any other Chan films. He was the bespectacled "intellectual" son in the family and another likable Chan.

Anyway, someone is after the formula - for the money it could bring them - and is culprit is probably from the big family where the doctor was working. All of these people are portrayed as guilty-looking so the audience has a hard time figuring out who's the killer.

The "whodunnit" is wrapped up in the end with a gathering of everyone while Chan explains his discoveries. That was the only problem with the film: the ending was unsatisfying and bit unrealistic.

A scientist who no one can stand is experimenting with gasses. He is killed and because the formulae for a certain type of gas is important, Charlie Chan is sent to the case. Later, he is joined by Number Four Son and Birmingham Jones, who were unable to find a hotel room. Since everyone in the house hated the professor, there is little cooperation when it comes to investigating. There are three women who move almost mechanically. When one goes up the steps, the other two follow and so on. Soon there are more murders. The house is filled with secret passages and protected areas. The problem is that many of these passageways are only known to the deceased. I liked that Mantan Moreland was treated with greater respect in this film instead of the usual treatment as a buffoon.

This is a brief and entertaining Charlie Chan picture, starring the second and probably best Chan Sidney Toler. The story involves an eccentric inventor who has a new formula that will revolutionize a war industry. It seems that no one likes him including every member of his household. Naturally, he is killed, and Charlie Chan must figure out who did the dirty deed. This film was produced by Monogram Pictures near the end of the Chan series. It is a neat little story and has some wonderful lines spoken by Chan to his manservant Birmingham Brown and his number Four son, played by Edwin Luke. Mantan Moreland is wonderful as Brown bringing to the role some needed comic relief.

This film suffers from a cheapness and lack of decent plotting. Its still worth seeing, especially if you have other films to watch as well.

Concerning the death of yet another inventor Charlie Chan runs around and a round the same three or four sets in what at times amounts to little more than a filmed stage play. Its not bad, just needlessly circular and confused, with a denouncement that seems to indicate that the writers were drinking heavily.

This isn't to say that it's a bad film, its not. Despite my opening remark, this is a film that is frustrating more than anything, especially since the film should work better than it does, but it was undermined by the round about nature forced upon it by cost and script.

6 out of 10.

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 films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.

20th Century Fox had 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, usually mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.

Released in 1945, THE JADE MASK is one of the very few Monograms that approaches the quality level of the 20th Century Fox series. This largely due to the expert cast and witty script, both of which are a bit unusual for Monogram. In this particular tale, Chan--who now works for the government during World War II--is called upon to investigate the murder of a scientist working with potentially beneficial but distinctly deadly gasses. Sidney Toler's Chan is always enjoyable, and he is aided in this by the local sheriff (Alan Bridge, who has the best lines in the film) and the inevitable Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland.) Fans of the 20th Century Fox series are likely to find Monogram's Chan a significant disappointment and newcomers who like the Monogram films will probably consider them third-rate after encountering the Fox films. Even so, THE JADE MASK is unexpectedly good, and I think most Chan fans will find it enjoyable.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer