Must See Movie...

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fantastic!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Warner Oland had died and Sidney Toler took over the role of Charlie Chan. While Lee is apparently in college, Number Two son, Jimmy, becomes the one aspiring to be a detective. During a rather tiresome beginning involving the birth of a grandchild, there is some banter between father and son and other child. While Charlie is at the hospital with the entire here, one of the boys gets a call about a murder aboard a ship. Jimmy and his stowaway brother end up on the ship, impersonating honorable father. In addition to two woman, a strange man who sleeps with a lion, is a weird character played by George Zucco, who was in many horror films. He has a kind of fish tank where he keeps a brain alive. Anyway, things go from bad to worse. One of the women came aboard with 300,000 dollars. It is soon missing. There are numerous suspects and eventually Charlie gets wind of his son's bumbling activities (not terrible, just not very insightful) and heads for the ship. This isn't a bad transition for the series as Toler picks up pretty well where his predecessor left off. This Chan, at least for now, is a bit harsher.

"Charlie Chan in Honolulu" is Sidney Toler's first Charlie Chan, and the difference between him in this and in his last films is very noticeable. Here he is much more lively.As this story unfolds, Charlie's daughter is about to give birth, and while he and his wife are at the hospital, the police call Charlie at home and ask him to go to a ship where someone has been murdered. Aspiring detective Jimmy Chan (Sen Yung, Bonanza's Hop Sing) intercepts the call, and he and #5 son Tommy (Layne Tom Jr. who in real life became a distinguished architect) decide to take on the case. Tommy immediately gets stuck in an area where wild animals are being kept for importation to the zoo; chaos ensues. This takes up some footage at the beginning.Charlie finally arrives and tries to sort out the mess, but there's another murder, and a missing and reappearing $10,000, a mysterious doctor (George Zucco) who pretends to be deaf and has an interesting science experiment on board, a fast-talking detective and his charge -- meanwhile, Charlie keeps getting calls from his son-in-law.They really threw the book at this one, complete with very dramatic music, as Toler's debut. He's delightful.One of the crazier Chan films, but it's nice to see Toler so energetic, and the Chan family is fun.

This was the first Charlie Chan movie to star Sidney Toler (following the death of Warner Oland). Along with a new Chan came a new Chan Child, as Victor Sen Yung (Jimmy Chan--also called #2 Son) took over from Keye Luke. In the case of Toler, he was a bit different from Oland--less servile and passive--more cranky and physical. I liked the jobs both men did as Chan and couldn't help but laugh at Toler's cranky comments about the bumbling Jimmy.The plot involves a murder on a freighter bound for Hawaii. When the police call the Chan household to ask him to investigate, one of the Chan children (Layne Tom Jr.) takes the call but instead of telling his father, tells Jimmy. Jimmy, like #1 Son, wants to be a detective and decides to investigate on his own. Later, fortunately, Charlie arrives to extricate Jimmy from the mess he created! The plot is okay though not great by Chan standards. The biggest fault I had with it was that some of the characters acted so stupidly you wish Chan had just arrested them all! For example, when he tells everyone to stay on the ship when it arrives so he can complete the investigation, one of them runs from the ship anyways! Also, George Zucco's character is just bizarre and crazy--like he should be in one of his B-horror films--yet he's supposed to be a psychiatrist! Despite these and other writing gaffs, the film is entertaining enough to watch and enjoy as well as not miss Oland's talents all that much. A good, but not great first effort from Toler.

"Charlie Chan in Honolulu" opens with a view of the mailbox at the Chan family home, reading 'Chas. Chan' - I never really thought of the Oriental Detective as "Chas". The film is Sidney Toler's debut as the master detective, along with Victor Sen Yung's first portrayal of Number #2 Son Jimmy, although he appears in the credits simply as Sen Yung. Layne Tom, Jr. is back, this time as unnumbered son Tommy; he had appeared in "Charlie Chan at the Circus" and "Charlie Chan at the Olympics" as Number #2 Son Charlie Jr., but his age in those films does not coincide with the chronology of the Chan offspring, which is revealed in this film to be at thirteen.With Charlie off in a rush to the Maternity Hospital for the birth of his first grandson, Tommy intercepts a phone call from the Honolulu Police stating a murder has been committed aboard the freighter Susan B. Jennings. Tommy convinces brother Jimmy to get involved with the case, then manages to stow away aboard the ship to help with the investigation. Charlie meanwhile, about to view his first grandchild strikes a comedic note describing a nurse's mistake in bringing out a black baby - "wrong flavor".By the time the elder Chan gets wind of the murder case, Jimmy is deeply embroiled in the effort, having been mistaken for the famed detective. There's a colorful cast of characters offered here, led by the sinister presence of George Zucco's character Dr. Cardigan, a criminal psychologist who reveals his penchant for nursing a live human brain! The comedic chores of the film are handled by animal keeper Hogan (Eddie Collins), who spends most of his time keeping the free ranging Oscar the Lion in check.The murder victim was to have received three hundred thousand dollars in a business deal, delivered by Miss Judy Hayes (Phyllis Brooks). Fellow passenger Carol Wayne is eventually revealed to be the wife of the victim, seeking a divorce and in a pact with the ship's captain to steal the money; Ms. Wayne/Hillman eventually becomes victim number two. Rounding out the passenger list aboard the freighter, and thrown in as likely suspects are a supposed Detective Arnold (Richard Lane) and his captive Johnny McCoy (Marc Lawrence). Chan smokes out the phony detective, a McCoy accomplice, as he sets up the ship's captain (Robert Barrat) to reveal his identity with a rigged gun threaded to a hidden camera; the camera reveals the person who made an attempt on Chan's life as he comes close to solving the mystery.As Charlie Chan films go, this one is probably about middle of the road in terms of interest, though a fine effort for Sidney Toler's first portrayal of Chan. For the viewer, there's a little more to go on to solve the murders than the earlier Warner Oland mysteries, so the revelation does not come off as a complete surprise. But the real payoff comes at the end of the film when Charlie receives word that he has become a new "grand pop" - his response to the news: "In present case am only innocent bystander."