Early Chan

BEHIND THAT CURTAIN-1929-Creaky early sound film noted as the first feature film appearance of Charlie Chan (the character had appeared in a serial in 1926) and an early sound role for Boris Karloff. 

Sir George (Claude King) refuses to give his consent for his niece Eve (Lois Moran) to marry a “real bounder”, Colonel John Beetham (Warner Baxter),an explorer headed to African with the backing of George. Beetham is sweet on the weepy Eve but she seems to only have eyes for a guy named Eric (Phillip Strange). When George is murdered suspects abound. 21 minutes into this talky “filmed play” Chan’s name is mentioned by the pompous Sir Frederick (Gilbert Emory) of Scotland Yard. Then it’s back to the moody melodrama. Later in India Eve is the unhappy wife of the philandering Eric. 

 Not only does she find out Eric has had sex with their servant in their bed (a very provocative scene) but he’s also a murderer. Eve begs Beetham to take her with him to Africa so she can “disappear”. He reluctantly agrees. Soon after the annoying Sir Frederick visits Eric in connection with the disappearance of his wife. He suggests they rendezvous with John’s caravan. They meet up with John but Eve runs away. Later the Chan character finally shows up after more than an hour has gone by! He (the mysterious E.L. Park) and Harry Snapper Organs, I mean Sir Frederick finally set a trap for the murderer. While John is giving a lecture, Eve shows up. So does Eric... with a gun intent on killing her. Frederick takes a bullet for Eve (he doesn't die) and Chan kills Eric.

Despite some interesting pre-code scenes this soggy mystery is like watching paint dry with a lot of inane chatter. Plus the over wrought emoting of lead actress Moran and the “Mony Pythonese” performance by Emory as Sir Frederick really make this tough going. Karloff is Beetham’s faithful servant who doesn't do much. 

Director Irving Cummings was also an actor who started directing in 1921. Two years later he directed Warner Baxter again in THE CISCO KID. His last movie was DOUBLE DYNAMITE with Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra and Jane Russell in 1951. BEHIND THE CURTAIN is based on the novel of the same name by Earl Derr Biggers published in 1928.

Warner Baxter had won a best actor Academy Award in 1927 playing The Cisco Kid in OLD ARIZONA (he was also the first American to win the award). In 1936 he was the movie industry's top actor but a series of nervous breakdowns inhibited his career. He came back in B-films, especially as “The Crime Doctor” in a series of movies but died in 1948 at age 62.

The next film appearance for Charlie Chan would be in the “lost” film CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON I n 1931 (Warner Oland's debut as the intrepid detective). That was followed by THE BLACK CAMEL (also 1931).

Thanks for reading!

The Crime Doctor

THE CRIME DOCTOR'S COURAGE-1945-Warner Baxter starred in a series of 10 features (from 1943-49) playing Dr. Robert Ordway, "the crime doctor", formerly a criminal who suffers amnesia and turns good. It began life on radio and unlike many of these "whodunnit" series at the same time Ordway isn't usually a suspect in the investigation. 

In "Courage" Ordway investigates the murder of a man who's two previous wives died under mysterious circumstances. Hilary Brooke plays almost wife #3. Two Spanish dancers seem to be vampires. The man is played by usual tough guy Anthony Curuso and his wife is played by Lupita Tovar (who was in the 1931 Spanish version of DRACULA; still alive at the time of this writing).


Baxter is engaging as the doc and it's a well done as far as "quickies" are concerned but a final shootout where two characters fire point blank at each other and miss several times is pretty dumb. Jerome Cowan is on hand to help out. Emory Parnell is a police inspector. Director George Sherman started out doing westerns and made THE LADY AND THE MONSTER in 1944 (the first version of "Donovan's Brain"). He made many more low budget films before going into TV.

Thanks for reading!