The Red Dragon (1945)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Admirable film.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Curious why willie best is playing birmingham's role (Chattanooga) benson fong as tommy (also played by victor sen yung) red dragon inkI have no idea why, but instead of Mantan Moreland appearing in this film as Birmingham Brown, Willie Best is playing this role and he's referred to as Chattanooga Brown...a relative of Birmingham. Benson Fong appears as Tommy Chan and his role was occasionally played by Victor Sen Yung. As for Charlie, he's played by Sidney Toler, who played the role in 21 films from 1939-1946 (after he died, Roland Winters played Charlie for six more films).In "The Red Dragon", Charlie, Tommy and Chattanooga are in Mexico City to assist Inspector Carvero (Fortunio Bonanova). He's got a group of suspects and all of them seem to be lying about who they are. Chan helps him figure out the truth about the folks. So what's the mystery? There are two things....stolen nuclear secrets AND a murder in which no weapon was found and two bullets came with one shot*. Can Charlie figure it all out once again??This film is pretty typical of the quality of the Toler Charlie Chan films. I did miss Birmingham but still it's a good film...entertaining and worth seeing.*Although you may not care, I have a handgun that can shoot two or three bullets with each shot. Some .410 shotgun shells (0 and 00 shot) fire 2 or 3 slugs with one shot.

"Red Dragon" is one of the better Monogram entries in the Charlie Chan series, because it presents a genuinely puzzling enigma (one shot, two bullets....no gun), and also has one of the most likable inspectors whom Chan has ever worked with (there is a mutual respect between them, and he doesn't speak with an overdone Mexican accent for comic effect). But Chan has no witty lines, and the killer seems to be picked out of a lottery - there is no logic that would lead Chan, or the viewer, to this particular conclusion. ** out of 4.

Sometimes I dread watching some of the later Monogram Chan's, but this one was a pleasure to watch. It's a friendly Chan that's easy to digest. The story is not convoluted with so many twists and turns that you need to take notes to follow the story. This one's pretty basic. Atom bomb secrets are stolen in Checkoslovakia and end up in Mexico City. A secret govt. agent who is watching the thief gets murdered in a mysterious way - one gun shot is heard, but two bullets are found. There are a group of suspects for the murder, and they're all looking for the secret papers. It's Charlie's job to find the papers first, and then find the murderer.I like the clue the govt. agent leaves on the typewriter as he is dying. It's fun trying to figure out what the message means. If you can do it the first time you watch this flick, you are smarter than me. The way the people are murdered is pretty ingenious, which adds to the mystery. Also, I liked the fact that Chattanooga and #3 son had limited roles in this flick. The focus of these movies should be Charlie and the mystery he is trying to solve, but too many times the mood is destroyed in the name of comedy relief. Thankfully, Red Dragon doesn't have much of that. Another nice aspect was the amount of sets and locations. It helped give the movie a nice flow - it never got bogged down or boring. Sometimes these cheap Monogram's seem claustrophobic, slow, and boring, but this one bounced all around the city.I read that the original running time for this movie was 64 minutes, but the one I watched last night was a hair under 59 minutes. This was a hard one to track down. It didn't seem like the missing 5 minutes hurt the story. Hopefully, it was just fluff, like Chattanooga and #3 son playing around. If you are a Chan fan and can find this one, it's well worth watching.

with no bite. This is probably the worse of the Monogram series. It is clumsy and boring. It is supposedly Mexico City, but it may as well be Omaha.Charlie and his "shadow" Insp. Carvero (there's never a scene without them together) bump around aimlessly trying to find the murderer who uses a silly lethal weapon.The story line throughout this film remains unclear...to me, anyway. Once again, the character of Tommy Chan (Benson Fong) simply does not work well. Even the humour by Chattanooga (Willie Best) is flat.The best part is watching Sidney Tolar do the rumba, which as far is I know is a Cuban dance.Aside from diehard Chan fans, you can skip this one.