Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

jonfrum2000 While this Chan is worth watching for fans of the series, it doesn't quite hold up to the standard earlier episodes set. Charlie is quite grumpy to his son, - to the point of meanness - son #4 Edward, while a distinct character from his siblings, is also a stiff as an actor, and Birmingham Brown's role never takes off. The local policeman Charlie works with cracks homespun expressions that only stop the movie in its tracks. The mystery plays out OK, but the reveal is tough to take.Any Chan is better than no Chan at all, but this one needed more time to shoot and better direction. P.S. Notice I wrote the entire review without mentioning the term 'Poverty Row.' Many reviewers of the Monogram series seem incapable of writing a paragraph about these films without letting you know that they know about Poverty Row. Well la-di-da!

jtyroler I grew up watching Charlie Chan movies - mostly the Fox movies. This movie was kind of difficult to follow - not because of a complex script, but for a Charlie Chan movie, it's kind of boring.One problem is the sound levels - the dialogue is difficult to hear at times. Monogram was a "poverty row" studio and this is a example of their production values. Chan is a federal agent in this film - not the normal Honolulu detective of the pre-war films. Characters seem to just appear and many of them are claiming their share of the inheritance. There's no mention of a jade mask - I guess it made the title sound more "oriental" - and there's probably little appeal if they called this "The Plaster Mask". This movie gets pretty silly at times - poison darts being shot from an air gun placed in a ventriloquist's dummy. A dead man walking like a marionette doll. A person wears a latex mask and takes the place of a murdered man. If you're a Charlie Chan fan, you might want to watch this. If you're not familiar with Charlie Chan movies - watch the pre-war movies.

Michael O'Keefe This Charlie Chan feature is complicated as it is simple. Charlie(Sidney Toler)is summoned to a spooky mansion to solve the murder of a renowned scientist, who is working on a gas that can turn wood into a substance hard as steel. The government is interested in this project, thus Chan on the case. The mansion is full of family and help and all loathed the deceased scientist, that may have taken his secret formula to the grave with him. Everyone is a suspect, but Chan discovers that the murderer and his wife have hidden certain identities with human puppets and masks, making victims seem alive. This black & white film is crisp and well paced. Interesting banter between Chan and his number four son Eddie(Edwin Luke); and you can always count on chauffeur Birmingham(Mantan Moreland)to provide comic relief. Other players in this 66 minute caper: Hardie Albright, Frank Reicher, Cyril Delevanti, Janet Warren and Ralph Lewis.

MartinHafer While I have watched a lot of Charlie Chan movies and I have enjoyed them, they are no doubt very formulaic and the Monogram series is definitely inferior to the original 20th Century-Fox ones. So, how is it that some people gave these B-movies a score of 10?! Sure, they might be entertaining, but aesthetically they are far from high art. Think about it--some people scored this as high (or higher) as many might score GONE WITH THE WIND, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES or ORDINARY PEOPLE!!!! Come on,...this is just a B-movie,...and a very ordinary entry into the series at that. Plus, while I am not the most politically correct person out there, I can't believe a movie with Mantan Moreland's antics could ever merit a 10--or even an 8 or 9.First, let's back up a bit. The original series was pretty entertaining, but like all the Chan films it featured a White guy playing a Chinese man--not unusual for its day, but certainly something that prevent the films from being better--especially with the silly use of the English language by Charlie. While Chinese in ethnic origin, he is supposedly from Hawaii and I assumed most Hawaiians of his day did not talk like morons. Plus, this makes little sense because he is so darn smart a detective. But, most fans are able to look past this and accept that this isn't "high art" but still is quite entertaining. Fine. This is where I see myself. After all, even though he talks silly and spouts a lot of so-called "Chinese Wisdom", he is a decent, brave and intelligent guy--not exactly a negative stereotype.But, after the success of the initial films, Warner Oland (the first famous Chan) had the nerve to up and die and the series started to slip a bit when he was replaced by Sidney Toler. I don't really blame Toler, as he proved in other films he was a good actor. It's just that the original chemistry seemed "different" and Fox soon dropped the series. Enter Monogram Studios to continue the series (known as a "poverty row" studio due to its low production values). Now, the movies featured unknowns doing much of the supporting acting and Mantan Moreland was introduced to the series for new comic relief. Mantand's performances and the writing for his character was highly reminiscent of a smarter and less lazy version of Steppin Fetchit. As a kid, I laughed when he said lines like "feets don't fail me now" when he was scared (something he always seemed to be in the films). Now that I am older, I cringe a bit and know that there are Black people out there who are understandably furious about the stereotype he portrayed--especially because this type role was about the only one you'd see Black men portraying in mainstream films of the era.Now on to this particular film. First off, I have no idea why this movie is called "Charlie Chan and the Jade Mask"--there is no jade mask in the movie at all!!! There are some plaster masks, but even naming the movie after them wouldn't have been the best title. Something like "Charlie Chan and the Secret Formula" or "Charlie Chan and the Poison Gas" might have been better titles. Regardless of the bad title, the film is about a nasty scientist and his nasty family. The scientist is murdered and Chan investigates because the man had been working on a secret formula that the government wanted. In this film, #4 son makes his appearance. He's a bookish lad who thinks he knows everything and is probably more useless than any of the other Chan clan I have seen.The film excels in several ways. First, Mantan Moreland is more human and less a walking stereotype of "the scared and stupid Black man" like he is in other movies. Second, the ending gag was pretty cute. Aside from that, this film is about what you'd expect from any other film from this series by Monogram.By the way, a year earlier Monogram made "Charlie Chan in the Secret Service". In so many ways, it's very similar to this film. Both involve a scientist working on a secret War Department weapon and then are both killed by evil-doers. So, you can see that after a lot of Chan films, the well was starting to run a bit dry.