This Week's Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing: "Dark Alibi"
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Skeletons in closets always speak loudest to police."
THIS WEEK: This week, we join Charlie Chan and company within the walls of California’s San Quentin Prison as the detective races to save the life of a man wrongly convicted of murder!
OUR PRESENTATIONS: “Dark Alibi” (1946; 61 minutes) AND we begin our next “extra” presentation, the first cartoon episode of “The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan,” starring Keye Luke, who provides the voice of Charlie Chan: “The Crown Jewel Caper,” (1972; 20 minutes).
FILM SUMMARY: Ex-convict Thomas Harley is arrested for robbing a bank and killing a bank guard. He claims that he was summoned to a theatrical warehouse by a note that sent to him by a former cell mate named James Wyatt and was subsequently locked inside at the time the robbery and killing took place. 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, Harley's daughter, June asks Charlie Chan to help her and her father.
FILM NOTES: The film's working titles were “Fatal Fingerprints,” “Fatal Fingertips,” and “Charlie Chan in Alcatraz.” Stock footage used in “Dark Alibi” shows California's San Quentin State Prison. 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.
TIME: We begin with arrivals and greetings at 7:30 EASTERN TIME. Then, we share our special short “extra” which will be followed at exactly 8:15 when we roll our feature for this Monday evening, “The Red Dragon.”
LOCATION: Our Charlie Chan Family Chat Room, which is accessed at http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html.
IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILM: Often our features can be found available online, and I can happily state that our feature IS available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eitJD6vryZ8
For our Charlie Chan cartoon, “The Crown Jewel Caper you may use this link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4203w4
OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our September 2018 Poll, located at our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info/index.html)!
NEXT WEEK: Join us on Monday, September 17, as we view “Shadows Over Chinatown.” Also, we continue our present series of pre-movie extras with the second episode of “The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan” cartoon series featuring Keye Luke as the voice of Charlie Chan!
SO, PLEASE JOIN US for our Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing as we share “Dark Alibi.”
