The Worst Film Ever

Redundant and unnecessary.

Admirable film.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

While Charlie's multi-talented son Lee is traveling by ship to Europe as a member of the US Olympics team, his father searches at home for a newly invented remote control device for planes which is probably on its way to be sold to some obscure foreign power (the political tensions all over the world are already perceptible three years before the beginning of WW II, but the movie doesn't show any affiliation or enmity yet) - and happens to be on the same ship with Lee and his friends, guarded by a 'femme fatale' (Cecil B. DeMille's adoptive daughter Katherine in her probably best role) who arouses the dislike of the young athletes only because she keeps flirting with one of them although he's got a steady girlfriend...Charlie, in the meantime, has found out the 'traveling route' of the device, and 'overtakes' it, first by plane and then aboard the famous zeppelin 'Hindenburg' (which would crash only a year later). But from the moment on that the athletes (one of whom 'smuggled' it into the country without even knowing it), the spies and the police mingle, there is constant confusion, until Charlie seems to have it safely in the hands of the German police authorities - BUT the spies have got Lee...From this moment, we really FEEL the agony of Charlie as a father, and his dilemma of handing the important invention over to the spies or risking his son's life - certainly a very earnest and dramatic entry in the 'Charlie Chan' movies, but not without its lighter moments; and besides that, we get a glimpse of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin - a real time document.

The most notable thing in this movie is that all Swastikas (back then a State symbol ) have been digitally hidden in a story set during the Olympics in (then) Nazi Germany (see the air ship Zeppelin and the flag hanging when the athletes' bus arrives, for example). I am not sure whether the camouflage took place decades ago in the original, or was orchestrated by some smart mind later. I am not even sure the movie was actually filmed in Berlin...it might have been stock footage with actual scenes shot in any studio...or did "n.1 son" win a gold medal swimming for the US team?! The fact, however, that most comments wish fictional Charlie Chan had "taken a stand" against the then legitimate German government AND that care has been taken to edit swastikas from a minor movie like this that surely wasn't the AAA+ blockbuster of the year tells a long story about the intellectual level of both censors eager to please the powerful and of gullible peanuts still wanting to board the winner's wagon 70 years after the fact...making it impossible to conceive life in Nazi Germany as every day's and without horror stories and death chimneys going in the background.Besides, it is unlikely a serious matter of spy rings be dealt with by simple police in Nazi Germany.The film provides mild family entertainment in the typical Chan style. The plot offers various contrivances and subplots...which at times get in the way as a distraction. The "n.1 son" bit works out much better than in most Chan movies. Ah, watch out for a ten seconds fight scene near the end: that's how Bruce Lee learnt his moves.The film revolves around a high-tech device being stolen and smuggled abroad, then purloined several times. The final conclusion falls in place to the dismay of the viewer...who would never have guessed things were as Chan swiftly explains. The drawback is that there are less hints (if any ) throughout the movie that lead to the conclusion.In spite of this all, I still find these movies entertaining and relaxing, even if -unlike the 'circus' or 'opera' one- the "olympics" angle had NOTHING to do with the story.

Charlie has his youngest helper ever - or at least in any of the 20 Chan films I've seen - as 12-year-old Charlie Jr. joins Number One Son Lee as they both help dad solve a crime.Lee (Keye Luke) plays a member of the United States Olympic swimming team in this adventure. The repartee between Chan (Warner Oland) and his two sons in here is terrific. Layne Tom Jr. plays Charlie Junior.The Chan movie is more of an adventure than the normal whodunit as Charlie and the cops travel to the Olympics in Munich, Germany in search of a missing radar-plane "black box." Lee is kidnapped at the games and his dad does everything he can to get his kidnapped son back while not jeopardizing the United States in the process. This is one of the better Chan films and will be available on DVD in December, 2006, as part of another Charlie Chan DVD package of four movies.

"Charlie Chan at the Olympics" opens with the Oriental Detective in his Honolulu office receiving a physical, and with a clean bill of health he's ready to begin another case! Generally, I find the 20th Century Fox Chan films to be remarkably consistent with continuity, however there is a serious lapse introduced early in the proceedings. Layne Tom Jr. portrays #2 Son Charlie Jr. in the film, and appearing to be about twelve years old at most, he is much too young relative to #1 Son Lee (Keye Luke). "Charlie Chan at the Circus" offered a glimpse of the entire Chan clan on a family outing with older siblings, and future Chan films offered Victor Sen Yung as #2 Son Jimmy (also seen as #2 Son Tommy in the later Monogram pictures).If you're intrigued by this sort of trivia as I am, then you'll also be interested in the appearance of actor Allan Lane in the film, portraying Olympic athlete Richard Masters. Lane went on to achieve notoriety as one of the better "B" Western action heroes, appearing in a number of Red Ryder films as the lead character in the mid 1940's and dozens more as "Rocky" Lane. In the 1960's, his distinctive voice became the sound of "Mr. Ed" the talking horse! With the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany as the backdrop, Chan gets involved in a case that begins in Honolulu with the test flight of an airplane outfitted with a newly developed radio control device. With the pilot murdered and the plane hijacked, the hunt is on for the person or foreign agent involved in the theft of the device. A chief suspect is Arthur Hughes (C. Henry Gordon), known to have sold arms to revolutionaries in the world's trouble spots. Another notably apparent suspect is the mysterious woman in the white fox coat, Yvonne Roland, accompanying Richard Masters aboard the steamship Manhattan on the way to Berlin and the Olympics. It's a HUGE coincidence when Miss Roland eavesdrops on a short wave radio conversation between the San Francisco PD and Honolulu regarding suspect Hughes, who missed the boat in New York, but is boarding some time later.It's no less a coincidence also for #1 Son Lee to bump into "Pop" Charlie aboard the steamship Manhattan, making his way feet first through a porthole no less. Lee is helping out with the case, even as he's about to compete in a hundred meter swim race for the U.S. Olympic team. Of all of Lee's jack of all trades exploits we've seen him involved in, this one is the most unbelievable, especially when he winds up with Olympic Gold at film's end! When Charlie is invited to attend the Olympics opening ceremonies, it is at the behest of Charles Zaraca, head of a foreign spy ring, with the fashionable Miss Roland in his employ. Having recovered the remote control device earlier, Charlie has set himself up for danger - "Our game is with the Oriental now." Indeed, Lee is kidnapped and held hostage, with Chan's patriotism and allegiance about to be tested.Ultimately, when the mystery of the stolen remote control device is revealed, it comes as somewhat of a letdown. It turns out that developer Cartright (John Eldredge) stole his own invention as a way to keep future profits all to himself, cutting out his partner Hopkins (Jonathan Hale). All of the international intrigue and mystery provided by the colorful cast of characters turns out to be the usual bucket of red herrings for which the Chan films are noted."Charlie Chan at the Olympics" is not as tightly developed as some of Warner Oland's prior Chan films, such as "London", "At the Racetrack", or "At the Opera", nevertheless it still plays entertainingly well. If you're a serious Chan fan, you'll have to overlook some of the inconsistencies and coincidences mentioned earlier though, and concentrate instead on the Olympic backdrop and the relationship between "Pop" and son Lee.