Review - Dark Alibi, Released 5-25-46
This Monogram Charlie Chan movie was maybe the last in the series where Sidney Toler was on camera frequently, i.e. most of the scenes, after the initial setup murder-robbery. Considering the actor was 73 years old at the release date, and lived less than a year afterward, kudos should be given just for showing up at the studio. As a fan of the entire Warner Oland-Sidney Toler series, there was not a dissatisfying movie of the entire lot; buy the premise, buy the program.
The story centers on the framing of certain convicts' fingerprints appearing at the scenes of bank robberies and at least one murder to start our movie. The guilty party is sentenced for execution, convicted of the murder of a bank guard and the robbery of a bank vault. It is for Charlie Chan to work the odds of determining the real perpetrators, bring them to justice while freeing the doomed man framed for the crime. The warden of the prison asks Charlie how is it possible to exonerate the condemned man. Charlie's reply, the man dies without his efforts to save him.
Questioning each and every person possibly involved leads to an entertaining hour of tracking the guilty parties, and there are a few, this is not isolated to one killer and robber. Each person living at a hotel has a story connected in some way to the resident innocent victim. Charlie works the crowd of suspects knowing the real guilt falls in part upon the hotel residents and a third person located in the prison, but not a convict. Charlie has multiple scenes among the hotel, the prison and the police lab; all are important in solving the crime. The ending occurs in the prison with the warden arresting the third party, responsible for masterminding the felony-robbery.
Watch Chan work his clues finding the guilty while freeing the convicted. There is relief found in the son offering his hand in solving the crimes, and the vaudeville routine breaks the detective work, only to provide comical pause.
The story centers on the framing of certain convicts' fingerprints appearing at the scenes of bank robberies and at least one murder to start our movie. The guilty party is sentenced for execution, convicted of the murder of a bank guard and the robbery of a bank vault. It is for Charlie Chan to work the odds of determining the real perpetrators, bring them to justice while freeing the doomed man framed for the crime. The warden of the prison asks Charlie how is it possible to exonerate the condemned man. Charlie's reply, the man dies without his efforts to save him.
Questioning each and every person possibly involved leads to an entertaining hour of tracking the guilty parties, and there are a few, this is not isolated to one killer and robber. Each person living at a hotel has a story connected in some way to the resident innocent victim. Charlie works the crowd of suspects knowing the real guilt falls in part upon the hotel residents and a third person located in the prison, but not a convict. Charlie has multiple scenes among the hotel, the prison and the police lab; all are important in solving the crime. The ending occurs in the prison with the warden arresting the third party, responsible for masterminding the felony-robbery.
Watch Chan work his clues finding the guilty while freeing the convicted. There is relief found in the son offering his hand in solving the crimes, and the vaudeville routine breaks the detective work, only to provide comical pause.