bkoganbing Some bad science characterizes this Monogram Charlie Chan feature with Sidney Toler. The other thing that characterizes this film is the temporary absence of chauffeur Birmingham Brown on vacation to be sure. Mantan Moreland is replaced as Chan chauffeur by Willie Best, another member of the Brown family who hails from Chattanooga.Charlie, Chattanooga, and son Benson Fong as Tommy Chan are in Mexico City on a case. Charlie was to meet a contact there who was murdered an hour before meeting Chan and Mexican detective Fortunio Bonanova is there to break the bad news. Two more murders occur before this is all solved. I do have to say that the weapon used is quite a unique gadget, firing bullets, but hardly from a traditional gun. Of course you have to get up close and personal with your target before moving a distance away to fire the weapon. And no guarantee as to how the bullet will be aimed. You'll have to see the film to know what I mean.Originality in weaponry is one thing, but the science is appalling here. The object of the Chan search is some hidden document noting a discovery of an unknown atomic element of a higher grade than Neptunium or Plutonium which they say were discovered during the Manhattan Project Research. Not so, not so at all, but I imagine few physicists went to see Monogram Pictures.Such sinister types as Charles Trowbridge, Don Costello, Barton Yarborough, George Meeker, and Marjorie Hoshelle are around and with enough mysterious background to have everyone looking twice. Marjorie Hoshelle later married Jeff Chandler, here she's the mysterious Countess Irena, fake royalty, but good nightclub singer.The Red Dragon shows the decline in quality when the Charlie Chan series went to Monogram, still even with the bad science it's hardly the worst one out there.

xnet95 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.

NativeTexan Sidney Toler brings dignity to the role of Charlie Chan, even in these poor-relation Monogram entries. The script isn't great, but it's still good to see Toler as Chan and some of Hollywood's important character and supporting actors such as George Meeker, Don Costello, and Charles Trowbridge in supporting roles. Willie Best is fine as Chattanooga Brown.

pbalos 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.