Glucedee
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Sharkflei
Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
Adeel Hail
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.
csteidler
A well done opening scene features a bank break-in and a murdered guard. A suspect is quickly arrested because his fingerprints are found at the scene. Though the suspect's daughter insists he is innocent, he is quickly convicted and the case seems hopeless--until Charlie Chan agrees to investigate, even though the execution is only nine days off.
Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong--as chauffeur Birmingham Brown and number three son Tommy Chan--assist Pop Chan as usual. Sidney Toler drops wisecracks at their expense, also as usual:
Toler: "You two not afraid?" Fong: "Afraid of what, Pop?" Toler: "That you sit down so often you get concussion of brain."
There's plenty of plot, some of it involving the real murderers' ingenious method of planting fake fingerprints. Chan's investigation roams from the rooming house where his client lives to the local prison (where Birmingham and Tommy lock themselves into a cell with gleeful convict Tim Ryan).It's really not particularly exciting or memorable, but it's easy to watch and doesn't take itself too seriously. Chan's best line is probably when he is grilling rooming house residents about their pasts: "Skeletons in closets always speak loudest to police."
GManfred
Most of the movies in the Charlie Chan series were bona-fide mysteries that were short on plot credulity and laced with a measure of comic relief throughout. "Dark Alibi" falls in line with this tried and true formula, but somebody dumped in an overload of comedy and nearly spoiled the whole picture. There are a lot of suspects to choose from in the clever plot in which we have to figure out who is the bank robber/murderer who masterminded the crime and used someone else's fingerprints to frame an innocent man. Not bad, huh? Even though the story is a little hard to swallow it gets points for creativity. However...No question Mantan Moreland is a funny guy and gets a lot of mileage here with his pop-eyed, 'feets-do-your-duty' scared stiff routine. He is almost hung out to dry with it, and coupled with some misguided scenes with Benson Fong as two incompetents, it is all too much. The picture could have been 15 minutes shorter without some of the excruciating hi-jinks involving these two. The cast was a good one, production values were very good and the film did not betray any trace of a Poverty Row production. Recommended for Charlie Chan fans and for those who enjoy a mystery in which the murderer is very tough to spot (and don't worry too much about the details).
MartinHafer
While the quality of this Charlie Chan film isn't quite up to the exceptional quality of most of the Twentieth-Century Fox Chan films, it does rank among the better films of the series produced by Monogram Pictures. Most of this is because the mystery itself is more interesting--more of a real mystery than you find in most of the films.As usual, one of the Chan clan is on hand to provide help for their father. Tommy Chan (Benson Fong) actually is a bit more helpful and resourceful than usual. However, the acerbic tongue of Sidney Toler (as Charlie) is as cutting as ever as he makes many amusing comments about the "help" usually provided by Tommy and their driver, Birmingham.This film begins with a man being convicted of robbery and murder. However, the man swears he didn't do it. Charlie is called in my the family to try to sort out how the man's finger prints could be at the crime scene and yet he be an innocent man. While the technology to fake prints isn't apparently possible, how Chan is able to piece it all together is pretty interesting and makes for an excellent plot.By the way, Mantan Moreland and his old stage partner Ben Carter do a couple old comedy routines together throughout the film. They also did a similar scene in another Chan film, SCARLET CLUE. Many might find this and the antics of Moreland throughout the film an offensive Black stereotype in film, though they are pretty entertaining despite their political incorrectness.
classicsoncall
Three former convicts have served time in States Prison together. At one time or another, each has been convicted of bank robbery based on fingerprints found at the crime scene. Charlie Chan's hunch is that the fingerprints were forgeries, and the victims were all set up by the real thief. Only one of the three is still alive, and he's just been arrested for the latest bank heist. If you're keeping score, "Dark Alibi" is the eighth installment in the Monogram Studios series of Sidney Toler Charlie Chan films. Benson Fong is Number #3 Son Tommy; and after a one film hiatus (Red Dragon), Mantan Moreland is back, this time sharing equal billing with Ben Carter. The two reprise their "Pidgin" English escapades from "The Scarlet Clue" with three different conversations that are the comedic highlights of the film.As usual, there is a lot of misdirection with the introduction of the suspects, but one good clue comes with the identity of States Prison inmate #8251 - Jimmy Slade, a fingerprint file clerk. But rather than being the master criminal, he winds up being a victim, as does his wife, known to us as Miss Petrie. It's interesting how many times the same gimmicks are repeated in the Chan movies. Back in the 1940 film "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise", Chan throws a coin to test the response of a man who claims he's hard of hearing. He does it here as well, and again uncovers the subterfuge.As we've seen before, the mastermind behind the bank robberies and the murders is revealed at the end with no fanfare or buildup, only the convincing explanation by Charlie Chan himself. The film almost had me though, I thought the warden was in on it!For a Monogram, this is a fast paced fun film, made even more enjoyable by the Moreland/Carter dialog. It's a good enough reason by itself to watch "Dark Alibi".
