Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This may be the highest ranked Charlie Chan film on this entire website. I feel bad for not being as captured by it as most people do. When you have a movie series with literally dozens of entries, it's easy to see them becoming episodic. It seems like less a movie and more like just a long episode of a TV show. In fact, "Columbo", another detective series actually did have episodes that were this long. That being said, this is still a good movie. I am starting to get more familiar with the characters, especially Charlie Chan's son, Jimmy.I really do like how they mixed up the formula a bit here. This wasn't really a simple murder mystery. It was interesting to see Charlie find new light shed on an old case. Was there another movie about that? There's so many characters that have distinct roles it's hard to keep up. There's just so much going on with which character was supposed to die, which one was manipulated, and how someone even died. It's not a mystery to the audience as much, but more to the characters. I still like this dynamic and would recommend this. Uh, sorry I couldn't keep up with the plot that well! ***

One of the more interesting in the Charlie Chan mystery series. The honorable Chinese-American detective played by Sidney Toler uses his astute powers of deduction to solve two murder cases at once. A recently convicted killer(Marc Lawrence)hides out Dr. Cream's(C. Henry Gordon)wax museum and house of criminal horrors. The diabolical doctor does plastic surgery in the basement to change the faces of criminals and puts their likeness in his museum. Number Two Son Jimmy(Victor Sen Yung)actually offers some fruitful advice to his "pop" for a change. Chan also helps clear the name of a falsely condemned man by revealing the real killer in an older case. Terrific atmosphere and scenery for a mystery. The strong supporting cast includes: Joan Valerie, Ted Osborne, Joe King, Hilda Vaughn and Michael Visaroff.

I loved this movie. Of course it is for the lovers of the genre...it's not a Bruce Willis movie, yet this one has interesting plot contrivances and for once turns the typical plot structure inside out: Chan must face a fugitive murderer he helped convict and who was sentenced to death. Apparently all revolves around the attempt of said killer to exact revenge upon Chan after undergoing plastic surgery...but is it? Chan is incessantly urged to join a radio broadcast from a wax museum to discuss some case from the past: a man executed as a result of the evidence collected by an attending German criminologist is thought to have been innocent by Chan... Another mysterious murderer with a new face is around, too. The German criminologist dies...who killed him, though?The most annoying bit is Chan's son...always excited, dumb and oh-so-vulnerable...watch out when he screams in Chinese...I am not sure what the producers were trying to do devoting so much screen time to this useless, irritating character.Acting is fine, for such a movie. Ah...the days when radio was top-notch technology...

After first seeing Warner Oland play Charlie Chan in a half-dozen or more pictures, this was my first look at Sidney Toler playing the famous detective. At first I thought he was a distant second to Oland but I have grown to like his version almost as much.Sen Yung was almost as good as Keye Luke, too, as one of Chan's sons and helpers. Yung plays son "Jimmy" and adds a lot of humor to the movie.What was really fun about this movie were all the varied characters. There were all kinds of suspects at the wax museum and many pretending to be statutes. The film was humorous and fascinating. Toler's films tended to have more humor in them. I enjoyed ogling Marguerite Chapman in this film. So far, no announcement of this on DVD, but I expect since the others are slowing being released.