biorngm
Review - Dangerous Money, Released 10-12-46
Greed is the central theme, with murder following, because of the rapacity. According to Charlie Chan, the hot or stolen money got loose through the ruthless process of war, renegades raid the cash and steal the loot. The money was described as hot money by the federal agent, currency was circulating among the Pacific islands, that was purloined from multiple sources at war's end. Each scoundrel in the movie had the edacity to fill his own coffers with someone else's gains, including American currency and art objects.
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Charlie Chan is destined for Sydney from his Honolulu home on a passenger-cruise ship, when he is met by Scott Pearson, U.S. Treasury Agent. The agent has had his life threatened twice, thrice with a near-miss talking to Chan, finally he meets his maker minutes later, at the hands of the killer. The agent was tracking hot money, so-described by the Treasury man, and later, quoted by the varlets on board.
Charlie becomes involved due to Pearson's murder. Between the time of the killing at sea and before the ship leaves Samoa, after its 24-hour stop, Charlie is able to uproot all the guilty parties.
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Charlie tells the ship's Captain, there are only two clues given us by Pearson's log: a Mr. Lane and Samoa.
The Captain adds Pearson told him, he was worried leaving Honolulu, he was going to finish his work on Samoa. Pearson must have thought the stuff was taken to Samoa. Chan comments to the Captain, money seems to be traveling with Mr. Lane to Samoa, because agent's murder indicates Scott was approaching prey; essentially, getting closer to the crooks, including his own murderer.
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Charlie talks to all the active parties in the salon immediately after the federal agent was killed with a knife to the back. The murderer is on board the ship, money is stashed likely on Samoa, the mission is to capture all the guilty parties, major and minor, while in port for the twenty-four hour stay. Some suspects are eliminated by the knife killer, some need to be caught with their hands in the stolen loot.
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The process begins with Chan catching the bad guys when one jumps overboard, two are killed, and the assistants literally stumble over the stashed, stolen currency and art objects. The ship's brig has to be brimming with prisoners after Charlie uses his guile and pistol to catch everyone. A definite watch is in order for anyone to enjoy how the plot thickens and the criminals are caught.
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I liked this movie for several reasons: the main character was in the majority of the scenes, and right from the start, i.e. Charlie Chan. It was indeed a mystery, whereby nobody knew who the murderer was until the last few minutes of the show, i.e. the actual killer was not obvious; identified only at the end.
There were numerous bad guys, one was considered a minor conspirator, one killer, there were plenty of characters involved in the central plot, clues were limited, really limited. The story was centered in two primary locations, i.e. on shipboard and in one Samoan port city, at two locations, an inn and a ichthyology museum. The museum artifacts, i.e. fish species, were stuffed with cash. Also found, objects of art included a Gauguin painting, were stolen from a private collection. The killer uses a projectile device to launch daggers, sent very accurately, to their intended targets. The killer is also disguised as a married woman, the primary suspect, the killer's fake-husband, named by the original Treasury Agent trailing the criminal was Lane and Murdock was the killer.
There some loose ends and some nonsensical scenes, or at least scenes not essential to the plot.
Why does Charlie need his chauffer on a cruise, e.g. for the rental car in any port-of-call?
Showman Kirk contacted Rona Simmons' father in London to arrange the journey-cruise from Hawaii to Samoa, because there are certain objects once stored in banks in Manila? Why was Kirk killed? Burke?
Greed would be answer to the killings on Samoa. Why share the bounty with any more people than absolutely necessary.
shakspryn
Ocean-going steamships and trains make great settings for 1940s mysteries. Charlie didn't have any adventures in a train, but this is the second on a ship--the third if you count the docked sailing ship in one of his outings.
Toler is outstanding as always, in one of the greatest ongoing screen characterizations of an ideal film detective: clever, humane, with a sense of humor and of justice. It's his ability to make Chan so very likeable which really elevates these films, putting them, on the whole, on about the same level as the great Universal Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. And Toler never had the support of a truly first-rate, all-pro actor, as Rathbone had in Bruce. This movie is pure fun. Lots of action. The humor is sometimes very corny, but that's part of the charm. Highly recommended!
xnet95
Most of the Monogram Chan's fall somewhere between mediocre and horrendous, but this one was actually interesting. It had some thought put into it and definitely made the most out of its small budget. One of the previous reviewers said the movie was too claustrophobic. This is one of my biggest complaints about Monogram Chan's, but Dangerous Money does a great job of avoiding that. There are many different sets and scenes on the boat, plus there's the added bonus of all the different scenes on the island, which included some exterior beauty shots. Another aspect of this movie I liked was the absence of Bumbleham Brown. He always seems to take over and dominate the scenes he's in, which usually detracts from the mysterious mood that has been created. In Dangerous Money, Chattanooga and Jimmy Chan are more in the background and less obtrusive. I love the last scene where Charlie strangles his moronic son for almost killing Chattanooga. I wonder if they did that because so many viewers had fantasized about doing it themselves over the years? At certain points, the story is difficult to follow, so make sure you have the remote ready. There are a few things that don't make sense, like why the hell did the criminal gang want Rona Simmonds to come to Samoa? It makes no sense, she could identify the missing objects of art. Did they want her to verify that they were authentic? They obviously didn't do it to lure her to her death because they never tried to kill her. Why did Freddie Kirk contact her father to come to Samoa? Another nice thing about this film is that it is in the public domain. The print that I watched from archive.org was crisp and sharp, with good contrast - black and white at it's best. Also, keep your eyes on Miss Simmonds breasts. I swear that they inflate or deflate as the situation calls for. It's mind boggling.
