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! And when Birmingham plays the 'unfinished sentences game' again with his brother Benjamin (who's doing time in the 'cooler'), even 'Pop' joins in this time, and Tommy's the only one who doesn't get a thing!
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'!
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! And when Birmingham plays the 'unfinished sentences game' again with his brother Benjamin (who's doing time in the 'cooler'), even 'Pop' joins in this time, and Tommy's the only one who doesn't get a thing!
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'!