Charlie Chan in London

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andy f Possibly the weakest entry in the whole Charlie Chan series - the biggest problem is it has nothing to do with London!! No 'son' in this early series entry either so the humour is lacking. Without the laughs, we're left with a sub standard Agatha Christie whodunnit. Even an early showing from Ray Milland can't save the day. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Charlie Chan (minus family members) has just delivered a British criminal he caught to London when a distraught woman tells him about her brother about to be executed for a murder she is convinced he did not commit, of a house guest at a country mansion. Though all others believe the brother guilty, Chan investigates the evidence and become suspicious, and visits the mansion. Unfortunately more deaths occur as Chan launches his own investigation. This is a straightforward story with some subplots and red herrings, no comic relief from Number One Son or anyone else. But at least the ending is not what I had anticipated. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Really good early detective story with the only true Asian to play Chan, Warner Oland. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member The Charlie Chan character is still deductive and astute, but the movies are long and rather dull. I regret to say that they definitely have not aged well. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Charlie Chan in London (1934) This is one of the first surviving Charlie Chan movies with Swedish actor Warner Oland playing Inspector Charlie Chan. The other movies, Charlie Chan Carrie On (1931), Charlie Chan's Chance (1932), Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933) and Charlie Chan's Courage (1934) are forever lost to us. Charlie Chan has been a racist stereotype, but the author, Earl Derr Biggers took the Charlie Chan character based on an actual Hawaiian police detective, and although Oland is playing in "Yellow Face" he is considered the better Charlie Chans in the franchise. Hugh Gray (Douglas Walton) is nervously staying in Death Row while his Sister Pamela (Drue Leyton) is anxiously trying to get a stay of execution with her fiancee, Neil Howard (Ray Milland) and Geoffrey Richmond (Alan Mowbray), who are talking to anyone who will listen to them, without success. Then Inspector Chan shows up in town, and is asked to see what he can come up with. Chan goes to Geoffrey Richmond's mansion during fox hunting season to get all of the suspects together to re-inact the crime, while time is running out. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member Charlie Chan has three days to save a man from the gallows by finding the real killer at an English country estate. This time he has no sons in tow and there is therefore a little less comic relief. This is a relatively early Warner Oland entry and the Chan character doesn't seem to have jelled (or maybe I've watched too many Sidney Toler entries in the interim) -- he seems a bit slower in his way of speaking and more likely to play up the cultural miscommunicatiion angle in his interactions with the suspects (kind of like a Chinese Colombo perhaps). More alarming is the other characters' continued alarm at seeing a heavy-set Chinese man -- these over-reactions themselves seem almost racist and force one to remember that Oland is in fact Swedish (Ohlund) not Chinese. But these little concerns aside, this is another solid entry and the setting and cast of characters are better defined and the mystery yields some true suspense (even if the conclusion is again impossible to solve on one's own). Ray Milland makes an early appearance. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Charlie Chan in London

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