Monogram Pictures Corporation Distributed: Monogram Pictures Corporation,
May 25, 1946 Production: Began mid-December 1945 Copyright: Monogram Pictures Corporation, March 26, 1946; LP184 Sound:
Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording Film: Black and white
Length: 5,528 feet Running Time: 60-61 minutes Production
Code Administration Certificate Number: 11408 Source: Based on the character created by Earl Derr Biggers
Producer: James S. Burkett Director: Phil Karlson Assistant Director: Theodore Joos
Second Assistant Director: Joel Kronish (not credited) Original Screenplay: George
Callahan
Script Supervisor: Ilona Vos (not credited) Photography: William Sickner
Assistant Cameraman: Joe Farley (not credited) Second Camera: Al Nicklin (not credited)
Operator: Al Nicklin (not credited)
Loader: Bud Davidson (not credited) Special Effects: Larry Glickman and Mario
Castegnaro (neither credited) Technical Director: Dave Milton Supervising Film Editor: Richard Currier Editor:
Ace Herman Set Dresser: Max Pitman (not credited) Musical Direction: Edward J. Kay Recording: Tom Lambert
Recorder: Dean Spencer
Mike Man: Louis Johnson Re-recording and Effects Mixing: Joseph I. Kane (not credited) Music
Mixing: William H. Wilmarth (not credited) Production Manager: Glenn Cook
Still Man: Bill Wallace (not credited)
Cable Man: H.G. Bavaird (not credited)
Prop Man: Johnny Orlando (not credited)
Second Prop Man: Al Seiger (not credited)
Grip: Harry Lewis (not credited)
Second Grip: George Carstensen (not credited) Wardrobe Man: Harry Bourne (not credited)
Wardrobe Woman: Nanette Smith (not credited)
Gaffer: John Lee (not credited)
Electrical: M.H. Serotte (not credited)
Special Effects: Augie Lohman (not credited)
Casting - Parts: Menifee Johnstone (not credited)
Casting - Bits: Rose Alexander (not credited)
Casting - Extras: Bert Hampton (not credited)
Makeup: Harry Ross (not credited)
Hairdresser: Sandra Walters (not credited)
CAST:
Sidney Toler: Charlie Chan Mantan Moreland: Birmingham
Brown Ben Carter: Ben Carter Benson Fong: Tommy Chan Teala Loring: June Harley George Holmes: Hugh Kensey
Joyce Compton: Emily Evans John Eldridge: Anthony R. Morgan Russell Hicks: Warden Cameron Tim Ryan: Foggy
Janet Shaw: Miss Petrie Edward Earle: Thomas Harley Ray Walker: Danvers Milton Parsons: Johnson Edna Holland:
Mrs. Foss Anthony Warde: Jimmy Slade George Eldredge: Brand Meyer Grace: Doorman William Ruhl: Thompson (not
credited) Frank Marlowe: Barker (not credited)
SUMMARY:
When ex-convict Thomas Harley arrives at a boarding house where he lives with his daughter
June, he is arrested for robbing a bank and killing a bank guard. He claims that he was summoned to the Carey Theatrical
Warehouse by a note that sent to him by his former cell mate, Dave Wyatt, and was subsequently locked inside. The police
do not believe his alibi because Wyatt has been dead for eight years. Fingerprints belonging to Harley are found at
the crime scene, and he is put on trial, found guilty, and condemned to death.
Desperate to prove her father innocent,
June asks Charlie Chan to recommend someone who can help her and her father. Chan writes a name and address on a piece
of paper and hands it to June. The note bears Chan's name and and that of his hotel. He agrees that the case against
her father is suspect.
Together with June's boyfriend, prison guard Hugh Kensey, Chan questions Mrs. Foss, the landlady
of the boarding house, who often rents rooms to ex-convicts. It is determined that the note that was supposedly sent
to June's father by Wyatt was written on Foss' typewriter. Chan then questions the other boarders: Miss Petrie, who
works for a small salary at a social foundation; Mr. Johnson, a bookkeeper for the Carey Theatrical Warehouse; Mr. Danvers,
a bank alarm salesman; and Emily Evans, a showgirl whose costume was found at the warehouse. Both Danvers and Evans
had traveled to other cities immediately before banks in those locations were robbed.
The next day, Chan, son Tommy,
and chauffeur Birmingham Brown, drive to the prison where Thomas Harley is awaiting his nearing execution. On the way
there, an unknown assailant shoots at them. Chan deduces that only the persons at the boarding house knew of his plan
to visit the prison that day.
Chan becomes convinced that the fingerprints that were found at the scene of the crime
were somehow forged. After studying the police reports, Chan discovers that although a different man was convicted for
each of the previous robberies, each man had been jailed at the same prison, and the modus operandi used was identical in
each case.
Miss Petrie is revealed as the wife of Jimmy Slade, a convict trustee, who is employeed in the fingerprint
bureau of the prison. When Petrie disappears, Chan, Birmingham, and Tommy hurry to the warehouse. Outside of the
warehouse they are nearly run down by a delivery truck which then speeds off. Inside, they locate Johnson, who suspiciously
feigns hearing difficulty. A little later, Petrie is run down and killed by the same delivery truck that had earlier
attempted the same on Chan and his party.
When Chan returns to the prison, he finds that the fingerprint cards have
been tampered with. Slade overhears Chan, and is mortally wounded during a futile attempt at escape when the gun he
is using misfires and shoots him due to a plugged barrel. After stating that he will not take the rap, Slade dies.
CONCLUSION:
Chan then takes fingerprints of all of the borders at Mrs. Foss' boarding
house, and finds Johnson's on one of the cards from the prison's files. Returning to the warehouse, Chan finds the equipment
necessary for forging fingerprints in the back of the truck that had killed Petrie. Danvers then tries to kill Chan,
as he did Johnson, to prevent him from talking.
After Harley is cleared, Chan explains that Slade had sent the prints
to Johnson, who had copied them for Danvers, who had carried out the robberies. He adds that Kensey was the leader of
the gang, and when Harley had opposed his marriage to June, the guard framed him.
NOTES: The film's working titles were
Fatal Fingerprints, Fatal Fingertips, and Charlie Chan in Alcatraz. The opening title card reads:
Charlie Chan in "Dark Alibi". The Call Bureau Cast Service Lists Minerva Urecal as "Mrs. Foss." However, production
information included in the file on the film at the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences library states that she was
replaced by Edna Holland, who is listed in the onscreen credits.
Adapted from: AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE CATALOG - Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American
Feature Films, 1911-1960
CHARLIE CHAN'S APHORISMS:
Ancient proverb say, "One small wind can raise much dust."
Honorable grandmother always
say, "Do not think of future - it come too soon."
Ugliest trade sometimes have moment of joy. Even gravedigger
know some people for whom he would do his work with extreme pleasure.
Remember old saying: "Earthquake may shatter
the rock, but sand upon which rock stood still right there in same old place."
Never believe nightmare no matter how
real it may seem.
Accidents can happen, if planned that way.
Nothing is impossible.
Skeletons in closets
always speak loudest to police.
Bad men leave marks wherever they go.
No experiment is failure until last
experiment is success.
Many contemptible persons in prison.
OTHER WORTHY STATEMENTS:
Government work keep me hopping like dissatisfied flea from dog to dog.
Wish you would wear out brains instead
of seat of pants. (To Birmingham and Tommy)
Am detective, not magician.
He is like tooth which has been pulled. Tooth is missing, but gap remains. From gap, we may deduce why tooth is gone.
(Regarding Thomas Harley)
(Mrs. Foss: "That's all I have to say.")
That's what woman always say, yet go right on talking.
(Birmingham: [driving to the prison]
"Mr. Chan, is this the shortest way to prison?") No, shortest way is commit crime.
You surprise
yourself, huh? Usually you surprise me. (To Tommy)
What is my reputation
compared to man's life?
At moment, I am like man trying to set clock by guess. And as time does not stand still,
perhaps better not stand still myself.
First time I hear cuckoos outside of clock. (Regarding
Tommy and Birmingham)
You will get out of here [jail cell] before they put you in a garment suitable to
your personality. (Birmingham: "What kind of garment is that?") Straight jacket.
(To Tommy and Birmingham)
Son Tommy is noisy woodpecker on family tree.
He
finish school - now he try to finish me. (Regarding Tommy)
For time, I nurse
theory - very excellent theory - but now, instead of nurse, I fear theory needs undertaker.
Instead of undertaker,
doctor arrive, and theory now very healthy again.
You two not afraid? (Tommy: "Afraid
of what, Pop?) You sit down so much you get concussion of brain. (To Tommy
and Birmingham)
(Tommy: "Pop, I've got a swell idea.")
Good, save it for old age.
Everything now in lap of gods. Very soon I give very hardy shove, perhaps clue fall off
of laps.
You are travelling salesman. This time - no sale. (To Danvers)
FILM NOTES:
THE POSSIBLE DATE OF CHARLIE CHAN'S
INVOLVEMENT IN THIS CASE: Fall 1945 (between the 8th and the 14th of some month)
DURATION: Seven days
PROBABLE LOCATION: Los Angeles, California
CHARLIE CHAN'S "OLD FRIEND":
Warden Cameron
THE NAME OF THE BOARDING HOTEL: Foss Family Hotel
THE
NAME OF THE LOS ANGELES(?) BANK THAT WAS ROBBED: Citizen's State Bank (Thomas Harley convicted of robbing this bank)
THE NAME OF THE THEATRICAL WAREHOUSE: Carey's Theatrical Warehouse
THE
TEXT OF THE NOTE WRITTEN TO THOMAS HARLEY:
"Meet me at Carey's Theatrical Warehouse. Eight
tonight. Door open. Come inside. Need your help. Dave Wyatt"
THE NEWSPAPER
SHOWN: The Star Dispatch
THE STAR DISPATCH HEADLINE: "HARLEY DENIES
GUILT"
HEADLINE TWO: "HARLEY ALIBI RIDDLED"
HEADLINE THREE:
"FINGERPRINTS CONVICT HARLEY"
HEADLINE FOUR: "HARLEY SENTENCED TO DIE"
THE
DATE SET FOR THOMAS HARLEY'S EXECUTION: 17th of the month
THE TIME REMAINING UNTIL THOMAS
HARLEY'S EXECUTION: Nine days NOTE GIVEN TO JUNE HARLEY BY CHARLIE CHAN:
