Dreadfully Boring

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Some supposedly bad folks live in a castle in the desert. We are privy to a murder, when a man who has had some friction with the principle characters, dies from a poison drink. Meanwhile, Charlie and Jimmy receive a cryptic message to come to the castle. The family, which are supposedly descendants of the Borgias, are shunned by their neighbors. Charlie gets someone to take him there against the wishes of others in the town and not long after that the number two son shows up like a bad penny. It turns out that this is one weird family. A private detective shows up shortly after and he is poisoned. I rather enjoyed the bleakness of this as well as the skeletons in the closet of these persons. It was quite entertaining.

After a muddled, convoluted first half, the plot really picks up in the second half. A big house full of suspects, candles in lieu of electric lights, an ever-so-subtle echo from the large rooms, and at least one murder combine to create mystery and suspense. At one point in the second half, Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) advises all: "Return to rooms, lock doors; no one is safe now." Good plot misdirection leads us astray, as some "facts" aren't what they seem to be.The overall premise is vaguely believable. But a runtime of only 62 minutes suggests an underdeveloped plot. We don't really get to know the suspects very well. The film hardly gets started; then it's over.One character is strictly ornamental. I could also have done without number 2 son (Victor Sen Yung), added apparently as comic relief, who comes across as merely annoying, mostly because Sen Yung overacts.Stark B&W lighting creates a creepy look and feel, with Chan's very white suit against a dark background and eerie shadows. Some overhead camera shots add visual interest. The castle itself creates an atmosphere of isolation."Castle In The Desert" ends better than it starts. A script re-write, both to make the first half clearer and to expand the back-stories of the characters, would have helped. Even so, it's not a bad Chan film, owing mostly to some good plot misdirection and effective cinematography.

As another commenter mentioned, this Chan does not end well. If you're a Chan fan, you'll enjoy it - it's done quite wellbut the reveal at the end leaves the attentive viewer scratching his/her head. The truth is that loose ends are very common in murder mysteries - only the best are well thought out and sewed up at the end. In this case, we're left wondering how in the world a British detective/sculptor came to be hired by Mrs Manderley in the California desert. And oh, by the way, how did her evil step-brother replace or become that detective? And the guy in the suit of armor? Charlie refers to his law-breaking, but no to his motive. If you watch Charlie for the atmosphere, sit back and enjoy. If you're a mystery fan, don't take this plot too seriously.

This is my sixth review of a Charlie Chan movie in which I go through them in chronological order of when they were made for these consecutive days. This was also the last one made for 20th Century-Fox before the series moved to Monogram, two years later. In this one, Chan goes to the title place after a couple of murders had occurred. One of the family members there is a descendant of the infamous Borgias...Starts off well enough but by the end, I was a little confused by some of Charlie's explanations of what happened. Also, I didn't find many of his exchanges with "No. 2 son" Jimmy all that funny though his wisdom proverbs are still pretty amusing. So on that note, Castle in the Desert is worth a look and nothing more. P.S. I actually noticed a blooper when one of the "statues" moved when Jimmy came closer to him!