Murder in Secret... 1936's "Charlie Chan's Secret" is another better-than-average episode for the Honolulu Police Detective, here played by Warner Oland. This episode concerns a long missing heir, a house seemingly haunted by ghosts, and a mysterious murder.
The movie opens at sea, as divers in deep sea diving helmets search the wreckage of the S.S. Nestor for the body of one Alan Colby. Colby, the heir to a substantial fortune, has been missing for seven years before recently recontacting his family. When his ship goes down off Hawaii, Charlie Chan is asked to verify his death. Chan finds evidence that Colby was onboard and feared for his life, but not Colby himself.
Chan travels to San Francisco aboard the "new" Pan Am clipper aircraft (one for history buffs) to update Colby's mother, Mrs. Henrietta Lowell, only to find that Colby has preceeded him. Colby's corpse comes to light during a seance run for his mother in a suitably creepy old cottage. Charlie has a houseful of suspects, as the Lowell family, the family lawyer, and the seance expert all stood to lose money if Alan Colby had reclaimed his patrimony. Charlie will have to dodge more than one assassination attempt to uncover the real killer in this atmospheric thriller. None of the Chan sons figure in this episode; comic relief is provided by Herbert Mundin as a very nervous and bumbling English butler.
"Charlie Chan's Secret" is very highly recommended to fans of the Charlie Chan series of movies as an entertaining and suspenseful entry.
Highly Atmospheric Chan Without Racial Overtones Charlie Chan's Secret opens with Charlie (played by the original Chan, Warner Oland) aboard a diving vessel checking the ocean bottom for unrecovered bodies. They find two corpses, but neither is the missing heir, Alan Colby. But a passenger is still missing. Among the effects of Colby, Charlie finds that two murder attempts have preceded the sinking.
Charlie takes the clipper plane from Honolulu to San Francisco to report on his findings to Mrs. Lowell, his client. Meanwhile Colby shows up at the Colby mansion in San Francisco where he's attracted by a grandfather clock whose time is off.
Mrs. Lowell invites Charlie to attend a séance that night to try to get information about Colby. Those at the séance get more than they bargained for.
Everyone involved has some reason to have it in for Colby, and Charlie finds that protecting life is one of his big challenges.
Unlike many other stories in the series, this one has none of his children in the story for comic effect . . . nor any African-American comics for the same purpose. The humor instead is drawn from a cowardly butler who is intended to be vaguely British. I thought this was a big improvement over the more negative stereotypes played on for humor in the other movies.
The main character in this story is the mansion which houses secret passages, panels, and lots of trickery that Charlie must penetrate. There's a strong sense of its gloomy, dangerous presence that gives the movie lots of emotional depth.
At 73 minutes, the film moves right along and you'll find yourself having to pay close attention to the plot-packed details which involve some of the more inventive scientific curve balls of any of the Chan movies.
A great Warner Olan film An excellent chan film. lots of mystery. a little soft ed on quinine which was indeed used for various ailments back in the olden days. I agree with another reader about Warner Olan on DVD.I have purchased budget dvd's with 2,3 or 4 programs on one DVD and I would suspect the right medium could do the same with some of the chan films.
NICE ATMOSPHERIC CHAN MYSTERY AS much as the Chan movies are filled with ridiculous stereotypes it's sad that Turner Classic Movies stopped showing these films due to protests from Asian Americans. Stereotypes aside these films always showed Chan in a positive light and above all provided great entertainment. I used to love staying up with my dad as a kid and watching these on the late show. Those were the days!
Chan is hired to find a missing heir who was presumed dead in an accident several years earlier. The heir, Allen Colby eventually shows up at his familie's mysterious estate and is promptly murdered. A Seance is held and Colby's ghost appears and Chan now knows it's a murder case he has to solve and not a missing persons case. This is kind of a film in the grand tradition of spooky old dark house films. We've got a mysterious mansion filled with secret passages, seances, and all sorts of red herrings thrown in to make this a top notch mystery and a great entry into in this long-running series. The only drawback is that #1 son, Keye Luke does not appear in this film to add his much loved comic relief.
It's quite unfortunate that these earlier films with Warner Oland as Chan are not on DVD while many of the generally awful Toller films are. Hopefully someone wakes up and realizes that there are a lot of fans clamoring for these on DVD.
Minor But Amusing Entry In The Charlie Chan Series Charlie Chan films are frequently accused of pandering to racial stereotypes. There is a certain truth to this, but Charlie Chan and company were neither more nor less stereotypical than such other popular series as the "Blondie" or "Dr. Kildare" series, and--while we may occasionally roll our eyes at a few 1930s sensibilities--its stereotypes are never mean-spirited and Charlie (along with his various sons) is always presented in a positive light.
This 1936 entry in the series find Chan (Warner Oland) investigating the disappearance of wealthy Alan Colby, who was lost at sea--for if Colby is alive, as is rumored, his relatives will not only have to give up the fortune they have inherited, they will have to account for every cent they have spent. With his investigation going nowhere fast, Chan goes to San Francisco to discuss the matter with the Colby family, and murder soon follows.
Although CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET is a nice but minor entry in the series, the real mystery here is why so few Chan films are available to the home market--particularly such major films in the series such as CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS, CHARLIE CHAN AT RENO, and CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND, all three of which easily best this particular film. Recommended to fans, but stay on the lookout for other and better titles in the film series.
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