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The Black Camel

1931 1h 11m Mystery & Thriller List
Reviews 65% Audience Score 50+ Ratings
Sleuth Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) asks a fortuneteller (Bela Lugosi) and others about a starlet slain in Hawaii. Read More Read Less

Critics Reviews

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Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) For those familiar with the later Charlie Chan movies, The Black Camel is revelatory. For anyone else, it's a great introduction to the series. Rated: 4.5/5 Nov 1, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member The best movie character ever portrayed: Warner Oland as Charlie Chan! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member The earliest surviving Charlie Chan picture with Warner Oland seems to be in pretty good shape, with some nice shots of Hawaii. It also has the kind of static staging typical of early talkies -- but this "all the suspects gathered in a room" format became a mainstay of the "whodunnit" picture and most of the Charlie Chan films adhered to the formula. This one is lifted by the presence of Bela Lugosi (suspect #1 of course) and an impossibly young Robert Young. A Hollywood actress is murdered but another murder three years earlier seems to hold some clues to this one. A few too many undifferentiated suspects and a hard to solve puzzle don't really diminish the pleasures of the formula, if you are into that kind of thing. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member Death is a black camel that kneels unbidden at every gate--Earliest surviving Warner Oland Chan Film!! Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Lugosi is assured and confident. The chemistry between him and Warner Oland is undeniable. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member Early Chan effort features some Hawaiian location work, Bela Lugosi and Robert Young, Chan's entire family (never identified but probably featuring Jimmy Chan) a sympathetic murderer and an incredibly annoying Japanese assistant for Charlie. Every time Charlie got exasperated by the foolishness of Lee, Tommy or Jimmy Chan he should have remembered he could have been stuck with this guy for comic relief instead. Oland is in top form and shows a lot of energy ( he even drives a car!) in what is a more serious mystery than many of the later films in the series. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review bill t Not a bad whodunt here, with plenty of twists and surprises, and a baggage-less Bela Lugosi (Dracula would come out a few months after this)/ Charlie Chan is on the case figuring out who killed a young film star. Plenty of people wandering around a house to pick apart, and Chan's faithful sidekick, Kashimo, thankfully has very little screen time to do his hysteical Japanese Person bit. Thankfully, the only time we see this character. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Black Camel

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Sleuth Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) asks a fortuneteller (Bela Lugosi) and others about a starlet slain in Hawaii.
Director
Hamilton MacFadden
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Aug 14, 2007
Runtime
1h 11m