''Charlie Chan in the Secret Service'' is a 1944 mystery film starring
Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his ...
as
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
. It is the first film made by
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
after the series was dropped by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...
, and it marks the introduction of Number Three Son (
Benson Fong
Benson Fong ( Chinese: ; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor.
Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied ...
) and taxi driver (later Chan's chauffeur), Birmingham Brown (
Mantan Moreland).
Plot
In the two years since the last Charlie Chan feature film (''Castle in the Desert''), Charlie Chan is now an agent of the U.S. government working in Washington DC and he is assigned to investigate the murder of the inventor of a highly advanced torpedo. Aiding Chan is his overeager but dull-witted Number Three son Tommy (Benson Fong) and his Number Two Daughter Iris Chan (Marianne Quon). Also involved in the case is the bumbling and easily frightened Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) who works as a limo driver for one of the suspects.
Cast
*
Sidney Toler
Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his ...
as
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...
*
Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown, Taxi Driver
*
Arthur Loft
Arthur Loft (May 25, 1897 – January 1, 1947) was an American film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 220 films between 1932 and 1947.
Biography
He was born in Denver, Colorado and died in Los Angeles, California. He is interred ...
as Inspector Jones, Secret Service
*Gwen Kenyon as Inez Arranto
*
Sarah Edwards as Mrs. Hargue, Housekeeper
*
George J. Lewis as Paul Arranto (as George Lewis)
*Marianne Quon as Iris Chan
*
Benson Fong
Benson Fong ( Chinese: ; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor.
Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied ...
as Tommy Chan
*Muni Seroff as Peter Laska
*Barry Bernard as David Blake
*
Gene Roth as Luis Philipe Vega aka Von Vegon (as Gene Stutenroth)
*
Eddy Chandler as Lewis, Secret Service (as Eddie Chandler)
*Lelah Tyler as Mrs. Williams
Production
20th Century Fox stopped making Charlie Chan films in 1941. In May 1943 Monogram Pictures announced they had purchased the rights to the character from Fox and would make two Charlie Chan films a year. Sidney Toler would reprise his performance as Chan.
Keye Luke
Keye Luke (, Cantonese: Luk Shek Kee; June 18, 1904 – January 12, 1991) was a Chinese-born American film and television actor, technical advisor and artist and a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
He was known for playing Lee Chan, t ...
was reportedly unable to reprise his role as Number One Son, so a search started for an actor to portray Chan's son.
In June 1943 Monogram Pictures announced ''Charlie Chan and the Secret Service'' would be one of 24 movies and 16 Westerns the studio would make over the following year. This was eight less than the previous year as Monogram said they wanted to make "fewer and higher budgeted pictures".
The film was to star Sidney Toler and also include
Iris Wong
Iris most often refers to:
* Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
*Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional ent ...
from the Fox movies. In July 1943
Benson Fong
Benson Fong ( Chinese: ; October 10, 1916 – August 1, 1987) was an American character actor.
Born in Sacramento, California, Fong was from a mercantile family of Chinese extraction. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, he studied ...
was signed to play Chan's son. Wong eventually was replaced by Marianne Quon.
Filming started 10 September 1943.
[DRAMA AND FILM: Newcomer Ella Raines Lead in 'Phantom Lady' 20th Will Film Unusual Subject, 'Sunday Dinner for a Soldier'
Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 10 Sep 1943: 15.]
See also
*
List of American films of 1944
Below is a list of American films released in 1944. ''Going My Way'' won Best Picture at the 17th Academy Awards. The remaining four nominees were ''Double Indemnity'', ''Gaslight'', ''Since You Went Away'' and '' Wilson''.
A
B
C
D
E-F
...
References
External links
Charlie Chan Family*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
1944 films
1940s crime films
American black-and-white films
Charlie Chan films
Monogram Pictures films
American crime films
Films directed by Phil Rosen
1940s American films