OUR CHARLIE CHAN FAMILY MONDAY EVENING CHAT FOR September 4, 2023: “Dark Alibi”
CHAT NUMBER: 1,219
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Hens sit often, but they lay eggs.”
THIS WEEK: Charlie Chan and company work against the relentless clock to save a man wrongly convicted of murder from his impending hour of execution!
OUR CHAT ROOM: Go to our “Chat Room” page, and, at the bottom of that page, click on the “Charlie Chan Family Chat Room ENTRANCE” link. You may then enter as a “Guest.”
OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION: A “colorized” copy of “Dark Alibi” (1946; 61 minutes) Our film is available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r5rrl4ONp0
FEATURE 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 was sent to him by a former cellmate 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.
FEATURE 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.
THIS WEEK’S EXTRA:
Secret Agent x 9 Chapter 8 The Dropping Floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMM9X01Rgog
Running time: 18:44
OUR MESSAGE BOARD: Please consider visiting our Message Board! While there, feel free to add a message to a post or begin a conversation…or state a Chan-related thought! Our Message Board has been there for YOU since 2004!
AS ALWAYS, WE BEGIN OUR EVENING at 7:30 Eastern Time with a 45-minute block of time for arrivals and greetings, and the sharing of an extra…or two...or even three! (see above). Then, at precisely 8:15 ET, we begin running our feature film simultaneously starting our personal or online copies of this week’s feature!
AT OUR BULLETIN BOARD: THE CHARLIE CHAN FAMILY HOME 2022 NEWSLETTER is now available at our “Bulletin Board” at our Charlie Chan Family Home! Also, at our Bulletin Board you will find a lot more in the form of links to other Chan-related items of possible interest!
OUR SEPTEMBER POLL is available on our Bulletin Board or our Home Page…or directly at this address: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8TMCMTV
This month’s poll question: Have you read any "non-canon" (i.e. not written by Earl Derr Biggers) Charlie Chan mystery?
A MOST WONDERFUL, “MUST GET” NEW BOOK!
Our own "HonoluLou," Lou Armagno, has just published a fantastic new book focusing on the aphorisms of Charlie Chan as found in the original Chan mysteries by Earl Derr Biggers! To learn more about this book, please visit our BULLETIN BOARD section: https://charliechan.org/bulletin-board/
Thank you so much, Lou, for creating the most unique of Charlie Chan studies!
NEXT WEEK: We will be sharing “Shadows Over Chinatown.” Also, we will include Chapter 9 of the 13-part serial, “Secret Agent X-9,” featuring Keye Luke with Benson Fong as the week’s “extra”!
Take care, and please join us within the always-friendly confines of our Charlie Chan Family Chat Room at our Charlie Chan Family Home, located at charliechan.org, as we share “Dark Alibi”!
