Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

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

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Not a good entry in the Charlie Chan, Warner Oland entries. I always liked it when Keye Luke is in the movie. He adds genuine humor being No. 1 son Lee. He is a great comic foil for his father, but he's a good detective too, slower then his pop however. Stephin Fetchit is an awful black stereotype that is not funny. His comic moments take away from the film. The plot is not hard to follow, but it's development and pace are slow beyond belief. As usual Warner Orland is the highlight of the film as Charlie Chan. But it almost seemed that Chan was bored with this mystery, and I was too. I've watched most of the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland, and this is the worst of them. Uninteresting characters, lame plot, unfunny, in overall it's boring. Avoid this one in the series, you aren't missing anything.

So, Charlie Chan goes to Egypt - or, more accurately, to Fox's "Egypt" backlot. The film does manage to get some atmosphere out of its meager budget, but it's mostly a yawner. A dark-haired Rita Hayworth has a small role (we all have to start somewhere), while Stepin Fetchit is simply unintelligible. In "Charlie Chan in London", I thought it made a nice change that Chan did not have any sidekicks with him; in this picture, he probably needed them, because the rest of the cast is short on charisma. ** out of 4.

Although I had the murderer pretty well figured out way before the end, this Charlie Chan film is still a pretty good one with Warner Oland of Sweden giving a grand interpretation of the celebrated Chinese sleuth from Honolulu.There are some superficial resemblances to the classic Boris Karloff feature The Mummy as the setting of this film is Egypt and an archaeological expedition. The death of Lord Carnarvon shortly after he opened King Tutankhamen's tomb was subject matter for many a story with an Egyptian setting. But while Karloff's The Mummy dealt with sinister supernatural forces from the ancient past, Charlie Chan In Egypt has some very human murderer with some very human motives.Charlie Chan who has been hired by a French Museum to oversee their interests arrives in Egypt and the daughter of the expedition leader Pat Patterson gets Warner Oland to go out to the dig and find her father George Irving who hasn't been heard from in 3 months. He finds him all right, in the mummy's case all wrapped in white linen with a bullet in the chest. Later on Patterson's brother James Eagles is killed with a very clever device that emits poison gas.Pat Patterson had a minor career in the Thirties and retired from the screen after she married Charles Boyer. In only her second film Rita Hayworth under her real name of Rita Cansino plays a mysterious Egyptian girl who adds a bit of decoration in a bit role. Nothing mysterious about Stepin Fetchit who sadly paraded his usual stereotype in his role as the camp errand runner.I think you'll figure this one pretty early, but no reason you still won't enjoy Charlie Chan In Egypt.

Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) *** 1/2 (out of 4) An archaeologist makes a major discovery when he finds a mummy's tomb but he hasn't much time to celebrate his finding because he's shortly after found dead. The locals believe that it's the curse of opening up the tomb but Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) believes something human was behind the murder.CHARLIE CHAN IN Egypt is without question the highlight of the series as it contains the perfect mix of mystery and some pretty dark horror elements. It's funny to think that the mummy only appears in a couple scenes here yet you could make a strong argument that this here was much better than Universal's 1932 film as well as any of its sequels that would follow. Of course, this isn't a mummy movie per say because it's a mystery but there's no doubt that the horror elements here are used to perfection and in the end we're left with a very good and highly entertaining gem.I think the strongest thing going for the film is its atmosphere created by director Louis King. The director had specialized in "B" and "C" movies throughout the silent era but this here was clearly the job of someone with talent who could show it when given the right material. The screenplay itself contains a very good story, some memorable characters and there's no question that it leaves you guessing as to who is doing the killings all the way to the end. Take the screenplay and mix it in with the atmosphere and you've got something quite special. Just take a look at how dark the entire movie is and how the director makes perfect use of the trapped doors and those glowing eyes from the mummy's tomb.Another major plus are the performances with Oland once again delivering a great one in the role of Chan. By this time he obviously had the role down perfectly but it's worth praising him for not just sleep-walking through the film or phoning in the performance. Pat Paterson, Thomas Beck and James Eagles are all extremely good as well. A young Rita Hayworth adds some sexiness to the picture and Stepin Fetchit is here with his typical scared cat role.CHARLIE CHAN IN Egypt is one of the better mysteries from the decade but you can also strongly argue that it contains some of the best horror elements as well. It's funny to think that Fox really wasn't all that impressive when it came to their horror films from this decade yet, in a mystery of all things, they deliver something this good.