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 too 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. 

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Charlie In The Big Apple

MURDER OVER NEW YORK-1940-On a plane en route to NYC for a police convention, Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) meets his old friend Inspector Drake of Scotland Yard (Frederick Worlock). Drake is on the trial of a saboteur named Narda and his Hindu servant Ramullah (Lal Chand Mehra) who seem to have vanished so he’s been following Narda’s wife. Drake seems like a future victim especially after being invited to a party given by the smarmy and suspicious George Kirby (Ricardo Cortez). Then when Chan is met by Inspector Vance (Donald MacBride), No. 2 son Jimmy (Sen Yung) shows up! Sure enough, Drake is murdered in Kirby's study, killed by a odorless gas. There are many suspects of course including June Preston (Joan Valerie), an actress, chemist David Elliot (Robert Lowery) , Ralph Percy (Kane Richmond), a guy named Richard Jeffery (John Sutton), a pompous Englishman Herbert Fenton (Melville Cooper) and Patricia West (Mariorie Weaver)and Narda’s wife who turns out not to be a collaborator.

 An hysterical but politically incorrect scene involves a police lineup of local Hindi men where a phony mystic is played by Shemp Howard! They find Narda’s servant but he’s killed. His curio shop turns out to be a front for making poison gas! This method seems similar to the M. O. of the the kiiler in MR. WONG DETECTIVE (1938). Eventually Charlie gets all the suspects on a moving plane and reveals the real killer (Narda with plastic surgery). Jimmy is really a pest in this. Clarence Muse has one scene as stereotypical scared suspect. 

Director Harry Lachman directed DEAD MEN TELL the next year.

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/07/chan-returns.html

Mr. Wong: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2017/07/mr-wong.html

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Chan The Man

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM-1940-Gangster Steve McBirney (Marc Lawrence) is convicted of murder  thanks to the work of famous Chinese detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). McBirney manages to get a gun and “shoot his way out”. He and his buddy hide in a wax museum run by Dr. Cream (C. Henry Gordon) and his female assistant Lily (Joan Valerie). He wants Cream to give him a new face (Cream used to be a surgeon). Later while Charlie confers with police inspector O’Matthews (Joe King), son Jimmy (Sen Yung) comes by. With him are Dr. Cream and reporter Mary Boland (Marguerite Chapman) who want Chan to be on a radio show where he and the pompous Dr. Von Brom (Michael Visaroff) will  try to determine if an innocent man Joe Rock was executed for a crime he didn't commit. It’s really just a trap set by Cream and McBirney to kill Chan. They gather for the broadcast but  unbeknownst to the rest, Joe’s widow is there too. McBirney and his friend convince the crazy caretaker to help electrocute Chan but Von Brom insists on sitting in Chan’s chair and seems to be electrocuted but Charlie deduces that he was shot with a poisoned dart and it is the work of Butcher Deegan, a criminal thought to be dead! 

This is a nice little whodunit with a cool wax museum backdrop but Jimmy's dumb antics (he faints twice) get a little annoying. Funny, unexpected final scene though. Director Lynn Shores was a little bit of a mystery man. He directed several short subjects and an early talkie THE JAZZ AGE (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and also THE SHADOW STRIKES (1937) but not too much else. He died in 1949.

Next installment: MURDER OVER NEW YORK

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Lead Belly - "Black Betty"

UK Strangeness

THE WHITE BUS-1967-A woman (Patricia Healy) who may be suicidal (or dead?) leaves her boyfriend (“I'll write”) and takes a train ride full of football fans to an unnamed city (some say it's Manchester). She joins a double decker tour bus after witnessing what seems like a kidnapping. On the bus she meets the Mayor (Arthur Lowe) and the Macebearer (John Sharp). They go by factories and apartment complexes and listen to a guy (Anthony Hopkins in his film debut) sing in German. They also see people doing Kendo and a fire fighting demonstration. The film changes from black and white to color and back again several times. It ends with the woman eating in a cafe' while a waitress complains about her work. A good double feature with DILLINGER IS DEAD..

.https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2018/10/are-you-sure.html

Director Lindsey Anderson made this freaky short film (46 minutes) a year before IF... for a trilogy that was never finished. Based on a story by Shelagh Delaney. Also known as RED WHITE AND ZERO.

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Also From Japan

FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES-1969-This eclectic experimental Japanese new wave film is part documentary and partially based on the story of Oedipus although it takes place in the gay underground of the '60's. It follows a young transvestite Eddie (Peter) and his pals in Tokyo and features real interviews, unrelated images, sped up fights with comical music, people dancing in their underwear and several violent and graphic murders. One character even shows up and thanks the audience! The ending reminded me a bit of CARNIVAL OF SOULS. 

Director Toshio Matsumoto pushes the envelope especially for the time. He made some other interesting features and shorts but I haven't seen any of them.

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Kill One or A Hundred, You Only Hang Once...

YOJIMBO-1961-In 1860 Japan a master-less samurai Sanjuro wonders the land. In a small town he meets a father and son fighting over the son's wanting to leave their farm and become a gambler. While getting a drink of water he hears the farmer's wife talking about how helpless children are. Then he's insulted by the farmer. In the main part of town people hide behind shutters and a dog wanders around with a human hand in it's mouth. An officer says he could be a bodyguard. Then he's surrounded by some bandits but nothing happens. When he stops for some food the old proprietor tells him about two warring gamblers, Seibei (who's backed by a silk merchant) and Ushi-Tora (who's backed by a sake brewer).The only successful resident seems to be the undertaker. “I'll think as I drink”. Sanjuro hatches a plan to get rid of all the bad guys. “Two coffins...no maybe three”. First he goes to Ushi Tora and kills two of his toughest men (“I've done everything bad”) and cuts off the arm of a third. 

Then he goes and offers his services to Seibei but refuses all offers until he gets what he wants. He also learns that Seibe (Seizaburo Kawazu who had a role in MOTHRA the same years), who's really a coward and his wife and son plan on killing him first chance they get. When the two gangs are assembled for a daylight fight Sanjuro quits Seibei and watches from above. Both gangs are hesitant and afraid to attack first. They flash their swords and yell while Sanjuro laughs. The would be skirmish is interrupted by the news of “an official visit”. Later Ushi-Tora's weird brother Unosuke (Tatusuya Nakadai; FACE OF ANOTHER) arrives with a gun and messes up a hostage exchange. After he saves a kidnapped woman and returns her to her husband and son Sanjuro gets mad when they thank him using words like “idiot” and “stupid” and saying “If you cry I'll kill you”. Later he's imprisoned by Unosuke and beaten up by a giant henchman but he manages to trick his guards and escape. While Ushi-Tora's men wipe out Seibei's gang, Sanjuro plots revenge. In a final showdown he kills everyone and meets someone he met EARLIER. 

 YOJIMBO despite it's serious and violent story line is full of funny wry comments by Mifune. For me this is Kurosawa Akira's greatest film and influenced Sergio Leone (“A Fistful of Dollars”) and many others. Mifune starred in SANJURO, a sequel by Kurosawa in 1962. 

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