Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

writtenbymkm-583-902097 I own 20 Charlie Chan movies and have watched more than that, and this is the absolute worst one I've ever seen. With about 5 or 10 minutes of actual plot, the bulk of the movie is mostly talk talk talk talk about nothing at all, several extremely annoying "comedy" sequences between Mantan Moreland and his vaudeville partner Ben Carter, and, most ridiculous of all, "assistants" Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong finding every possible way to ignore Chan's instructions, get in the way, and generally act stupid. Evidently Monogram decided to forget about producing an actual whodunit and instead make a sort of Three Stooges comedy (almost everything the Three Stooges did was better). POSSIBLE SPOILER -- I enjoy humor in whodunits, but this isn't a whodunit (the entire plot consists of Chan asking a lab to experiment with fingerprints), just a series of jokes padded with boring filler. Awful.

Cristi_Ciopron 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.

bkoganbing Although the premise was way far-fetched Dark Alibi is nicely done and one of the better Charlie Chan features coming from Monogram. Sidney Toler as Chan takes on a case where time is essential, the life of Edward Earle who was convicted for a robbery/homicide is at stake, he's scheduled to go to the chair in nine days.Ironically technology has caught up to the events of this film. The idea of forging fingerprints and leaving them at the scene of a crime as a false clue is not anything startling today. In fact it's fairly simple if you want to take the time and trouble to do same. Still in 1946 I'm sure it was a shock to many.Poor Earle in order to be freed has to find out who put him in the jackpot. And it doesn't take long for Charlie to be convinced of his innocence when on the way to state prison someone takes some sniper shots at him. That by the way was the weakness of the film. No reason to shoot at him yet as he wasn't on to anything yet.There are more than one individual involved in this, in fact it's quite a list of conspirators. And in fact there is one real big connection to the state prison where Earle is counting down his last hours.Ben Carter plays one of the prisoners and an old friend of Mantan Moreland playing the Chan family chauffeur Birmingham. These two had a nice comic act before going into films involving them in a conversation where they constantly interrupt each other's words. They know what they're talking about, but poor Tommy Chan played by Benson Fong is standing there without a clue. Wonderful comic timing all around.Good Charlie Chan film and a masterpiece coming from Monogram.

pbalos if you miss this one. It was evident this series was coming to an end (as was Toler's life) in this unrealistic mystery that was held aloft by gimmicks.The comedy of Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) was the only bright spot which carried this movie through to it's conclusion.Although a credible actor,Benson Fong playing Tommy Chan, is just plain flat. Tommy and Birmingham seem to have a free reign in what appears to be a maximum security prison.Much ado here about nothing.