This one is the movie with the warehouse, the inmates and the mysterious truck, and with the proverbs and one-liners, also one of Toler's livelier performances; as always, a neat production. Sometimes the comedy gives the viewer the impression which Birmingham and the younger Chan must have, that the case is almost like a business of the grownups, and meantime there is, for now, the fun. 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.
Review of Dark Alibi
