Chan Can Solve It!

CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO-1941-Detective Chan (Sidney Toler) and number 2 son Jimmy (Sen Yung) with the help of local police chief Souto (Harold Huber) plan to arrest singer Lola Dean for the murder of a man in Honolulu after tracking her to a club in Rio De Janeiro. Lola (Jacqueline Dalya) plans to elope with her fiance Carlos but first she visits a Hindu swami (Victor Jory) where she is kind of drugged and reveals that she did in fact kill a man in a jealous rage. I say kind of drugged as the swami only uses a herbal cigarette and a cup of coffee to achieve this. Anyway, her guests start to arrive when she returns to her place. When Chan arrives to make the arrest he finds Lola stabbed to death. Naturally all her party goers are suspects. They include jilted alcoholic (Mary Beth Hughes from I ACCUSE MY PARENTS), (future TV's Science Fiction Theater host Truman Bradley), the singer's secretary Grace (Cobina Wright), another disgruntled woman and a armchair detective. Jimmy actually has a fist fight with the butler who's trying to steal some jewels and comes  out on top! He even gets a love interest in the form of the singer's Asian maid Lili (Iris Wong). Fun outing but Jimmy is just a little to dumb at times... 

One of four Chan entries Harry Lachman directed. He also made OUR RELATIONS with Laurel and Hardy, DANTE'S INFERNO with Spencer Tracy and THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLEN POE before retiring after 1942 to devote his life to being a full time artist.

Followed by CASTLE IN THE DESERT. Thanks for reading!

Chan In Darkness

CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CITY OF DARKNESS-1939-In France during a WW2 blackout Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) investigates the murder of a shady industrialist Petroff (Douglass Dumbrille). Chan is actually helping the chief inspector's bumbling assistant Spivak (Harold Huber) .The story involves a counterfeiter (Leo G Carroll), a couple fleeing a blackmail charge (Lynn Bari & Richard Clarke) and the dead man’s Butler (Pedro De Cordoba). An illegal munitions shipment is at the bottom of it all. This is one of the few movies where Chan is really roughed up when he's taken prisoner by the counterfeiter and his henchman (Lon Chaney Jr). The real spies are killed and the one who murdered Petroff is hailed as a hero. It ends with the police chief receiving a telegram declaring “There will be no war!”. But Chan isn't optimistic saying before  the fade out “Beware of spider who invite fly into parlor”. 

This entry had too much of the idiotic Spivak.. It was almost like a try out for his own series and made me long for Jimmy! Like a few other directors, this is Herbert Leeds only foray in Chan country but he “geared” up for it making MR. MOTO IN DANGER ISLAND the same year. He also made a few “Cisco Kid” films and the WW2 propaganda film MANILA CALLING.

Thanks for reading!