GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

gridoon2018 "The Jade Mask" has intriguing aspects in its mystery and a fairly unexpected solution, but it suffers from snail-like pacing and static direction. Charlie Chan has a few very funny lines, the one in my summary above or "Every time you open your mouth, you put in more feet than centipede. Remain here and produce nothing but silence!" made me laugh out loud. One of the supporting characters is described as "a strongwoman in vaudeville", but we never really see her perform any amazing feats of strength, we just hear about them. Mantan Moreland provides typical - for the time - easily-scared-black-guy comedy relief; his funniest scene is at the very end of the picture. ** out of 4.

jonfrum2000 While this Chan is worth watching for fans of the series, it doesn't quite hold up to the standard earlier episodes set. Charlie is quite grumpy to his son, - to the point of meanness - son #4 Edward, while a distinct character from his siblings, is also a stiff as an actor, and Birmingham Brown's role never takes off. The local policeman Charlie works with cracks homespun expressions that only stop the movie in its tracks. The mystery plays out OK, but the reveal is tough to take.Any Chan is better than no Chan at all, but this one needed more time to shoot and better direction. P.S. Notice I wrote the entire review without mentioning the term 'Poverty Row.' Many reviewers of the Monogram series seem incapable of writing a paragraph about these films without letting you know that they know about Poverty Row. Well la-di-da!

Celticnationalist 'The Jade Mask' is yet another 40's Charlie Chan B-movie made by poverty row studio Monogram Pictures,The Title is misleading though as there are No Jade masks, only a piece of a plaster mask which is used in the denouement, but then again you shouldn't look for faults in low budget B-movies.This time around Chan (Sidney Toler) is asked by the U.S. Government to look into the disappearance and apparent murder of an eccentric Scientist (Frank Reicher) at a spooky mansion, The man was liked by no-one not even his own family so Chan along with No.4 Son Eddie (Edwin Luke) and Chauffeur/Comic relief Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) arrive at the Mansion to no end of suspects.'The Jade Mask' is low budget, although it has better and wittier dialogue and acting than other episodes than I've seen, it has a surprisingly high body count and the mystery keeps you guessing.The only downside is the ludicrous reveal of the Killer although the premise was way before its time and a staggering 50 Years Plus before the Mission Impossible Films did something similar.**1/2 out of *****

gftbiloxi Loosely based on novels by Earl Derr Biggers, 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series proved an audience favorite--but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the studio feared audiences would turn against its Asian hero. This was a miscalculation: actor Sidney Toler took the role to "poverty row" Monogram Studios, where he continued to portray the character in eleven more films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.20th Century Fox had regarded the Chan films as inexpensive "B" movies, but even so the studio took considerable care with them: the plots were often silly, but the pace was sharp, the dialogue witty, and the casts (which featured the likes of Bela Lugosi and Ray Milland) always expert. The result was a kindly charm which has stood the test of time. Monogram was a different matter: Chan films were "B" movies plain and simple. Little care was taken with scripts or cast and resulting films were flat, usually mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.Released in 1945, THE JADE MASK is one of the very few Monograms that approaches the quality level of the 20th Century Fox series. This largely due to the expert cast and witty script, both of which are a bit unusual for Monogram. In this particular tale, Chan--who now works for the government during World War II--is called upon to investigate the murder of a scientist working with potentially beneficial but distinctly deadly gasses. Sidney Toler's Chan is always enjoyable, and he is aided in this by the local sheriff (Alan Bridge, who has the best lines in the film) and the inevitable Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland.) Fans of the 20th Century Fox series are likely to find Monogram's Chan a significant disappointment and newcomers who like the Monogram films will probably consider them third-rate after encountering the Fox films. Even so, THE JADE MASK is unexpectedly good, and I think most Chan fans will find it enjoyable.GFT, Amazon Reviewer