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CLUE: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

For those who would still like to guess which Monogram CC movies these buildings came from, I offer the following clues:

For the first picture: Note the difference in contrast between the two pictures. Realize the first picture is darker than the other. This hopefully should lead you to the correct movie title.

For the second picture: this building is of a hotel that Charlie and his daughter were staying at.

Re: CLUE: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

Fan -

Took me so long to post (what with losing the first one), that you put out a clue, but rest assured, I did not see it while typing away.

Diana

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

Golly, i was typing away, and was transported away from this screen, seemed to have lost that post. (If half a posting shows up later you will know where it came from.)

OK, back to the movies. Jerry and I both knew right away "Meeting at Midnight/Black Magic". We always thought this movie took place in Berkeley, CA, the town where Jerry lived when he was a child. He probably first saw these Monogram movies while living there. We probably thought of Berkeley because of the "Shattuck Hotel", Shattuck Avenue being one of the main thoroughfares in town.

The other movie, which we weren't so sure about (and had to check ourselves on) was "Dark Alibi". This is another movie we "feel" is set in the Bay Area. Don't know what everyone else's take is on this movie's setting. For "Dark Alibi" (the movie Jerry calls "Foss Hotel"), maybe it is because we used to live down there, or maybe we feel as though the prison might look like San Quenton, or maybe it is just appearance the above building, we don't know.

I think I have spotted another reused street scene, but it isn't as impressive as this building.

Jerry said, when I asked him about this building, that he kinda thought it was in two movies but wasn't sure.

One problem we had was that our original copy of "Dark Alibi" was copied off of an old TV airing, the kind where they cut scenes, to make it fit. We always had trouble trying to figure out how "the boys" got in that cell, until we got the DVD version. Maybe that copy didn't have the building, so it wasn't as "imprinted" as it was in "Meeting".

Keep up the good work, Diana and Jerry

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

Congrats to you and your husband, DMC! Good job identifying the movies with the building. Sorry I threw out the clue so early on. I wasn't sure if I would have another chance today to post it otherwise.

That's interesting about the Shattuck Hotel and Shattuck Avenue. There is, actually a Shattuck Hotel but it doesn't look exactly like the building that portrays it in Meeting at Midnight.

I did find a site with historical LA buildings, and the below picture is of a building that supposenly was in Meeting at Midnight (except without the sign at the top):

building

E. Clem Wilson Building, 5217 Wilshire Blvd. - Meyer and Holler - 1930 (Originally J.J. Newberry Variety Store)

I actually never given much thought to where Dark Alibi took place or noticed if there was any hint in the movie. Something to look for when I watch it again

Again, glad you and your husband like my challenges. I have one more installment of "Seeing Double" that I'll post maybe next Wed. I'm still going to post the Charlie Chan game at 5pm Sunday also.

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

Fan -

This does not look like the building in your pictures, but the other building in the movie.

I will go back to look.

Diana

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

DMC
Fan -

This does not look like the building in your pictures, but the other building in the movie.

I will go back to look.

Diana


Yeah, the picture I posted from that site said the building appeared in Meeting at Midnight, but it's not the same building as the pictures I posted from the movie. I could check later, I know there's at least two exterior scenes in that movie.

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge

Dear DMC,

Off topic a bit, but thank you for your insights regarding a possible location for "Black Magic"/"Meeting at Midnight." I have always thought that the action probaby took place in Los Angeles, as there is certainly a "big city" feel, and, it seemed to me that Mr. Chan may have picked up at least one of his gifts (the jumping beans, and perhaps the others as well) just south of or near to the Mexican border. However, your possible Berkeley connection adds something to the mix! (In another film, Tommy appears on a case and his Pop asks him why he is not hard at work at his studies at University of California. This is most probably a reference to U.C. Berkeley, which could connect Son Number Three with that city. The exact film elludes me at present. So, as daughter Frances assists Chan in "Black Magic," could we surmise that her brother, Tommy, is hard at work in college in Berkeley while she is with her father in L.A.?)

Sincerely,
Rush

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge (The identity of the building)

I found that the building in question was the old Hall of Records in Los Angeles. You can see it with a little information on "Old Los Angeles" at this address: http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal6.html

Sincerely,
Rush

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge (The identity of the building)

Thanks for finding the building for us Rush. I have always wondered, it is so distinctive.

Is it still around? When we lived in LA county, in the 1960s, we tried to avoid going downtown at all, due to the traffic. We lived in Altadena.

Speaking of which, I have always thought that Charlie's time killing taxi ride in "Secret Service" ended up going through Pasadena (I know, it is supposed to be set back east somewhere, nevermind the bear on the flag).

We have always thought that the entire sequence from going through the lobby, getting in the taxi, and walking up that driveway to that dramatic music was silly and kind of funny. Don't remember if we've ever seen anything quite like it in another Chan movie.

Diana

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge (The identity of the building)

Ha ha. Yes that loong Taxi ride of Charlie's in "Secret Service" was astonishingly overdramatic. You think they could've used all that extra time to remove or hide the Bear flag atop the building.

Re: CC Seeing Double - A CC Challenge (The identity of the building)

Rush Glick
I found that the building in question was the old Hall of Records in Los Angeles. You can see it with a little information on "Old Los Angeles" at this address: http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal6.html

Sincerely,
Rush


Thanks Rush for solving the Mystery of the Mysterious Building!

Reminder: Round 9 of The Charlie Chan Game Sunday 5pm EST

Just thought I'd stick a reminder here. A new round of the Charlie Chan game this Sunday at 5pm EST.