Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Charlie Chan in Paris" is one of the better Charlie Chan films I have seen so far. It wastes little time getting to the plot (Charlie receives a death threat in the first 2 minutes!), has a dance number (!) - and a damn impressive one at that (whatever happened to Dorothy Appleby??), and has some novelties in its plot (which, of course, I will not give away here). It also introduces Chan's no.1 son, likably played by Keye Luke. Of course there are some doughnut-size holes in the script (to quote the movie itself), like for example, why do they make such a big deal out of finding Mary Brian's fingerprints on the gun, when there were several witnesses who plainly saw her holding it! And remember: "Only foolish man waste words when argument is lost". **1/2 out of 4.

Directly from solving successfully the London murder mystery, Charlie Chan goes on to Paris - on account of a British bank, who's discovered there's some strange business with bonds going on at a Parisian bank, with huge sums of money involved, of course. In Paris, Charlie has got an undercover helper who's been working on the case for a while and has gathered quite some information; and they agree that he and the beautiful young dancer meet right after her performance - but, there's a pretty gruesome beginning to this new case: at the end of her magnificent dancing performance, pretty Nardi is brutally stabbed before she can give any information to Charlie.At least, he finds something in her apartment: a notebook with everything she'd found out, which contains the name of one of the bank's employees, Dufresne, who's been spending surprisingly high amounts of money lately... But Dufresne is soon murdered himself, and the suspicion falls on the bank director's daughter Yvette, who once had an affair with him; then there is Victor Descartes, now Yvette's fiancée and also an employee at the bank, their friend, painter Latouche - and a mysterious, crippled beggar who always seems to turn up near the scene of every crime...Sounds complicated? In fact, it IS, and it requires absolute attention by the audience - and of course of by Charlie, who's in constant danger... To his good fortune, his 'number 1 son' Lee (Keye Luke, in his first appearance in the series) appears in Paris to assist his father! Another VERY well done classic crime mystery, absolutely worth watching and still fresh after 80 years...

Despite a promising start with the energetic Apache ballet, this film is virtually a retread of CHARLIE CHAN IN London (1934) with its plot about coveted wives, duplicitous subordinates, drunken cronies, young lovers in peril, etc. The plot has possibilities (especially with the introduction of the sinister Marcel Xavier character and his eventual comeuppance) but ends up being less interesting than expected! It's still fun and the lightning pace, ultimately, works to the film's advantage. Furthermore, the introduction of Chan's son as his assistant in the investigation will come to be a trademark of the series.

It's the first movie that I see in the Charlie Chan's series. I must say that I liked it. It's a pretty good mystery taking place in Paris. Like other films of this genre, the answer to the puzzle is not known until the end. Like good old Charlie says in the movie: «Must turn many stones to find hiding place of snake»! The dance scene at the Singe Bleu is quite compelling.Out of 100, I gave it 78.