The Feathered Serpent (1948)

Touches You

Must See Movie...

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The 'Feathered Serpent' from the title is a reference to Quetzelcoatl, the Aztec reptile god. This is appropriate since the film is set in Mexico and is about evil doers who are trying to steal Aztec treasure. As usual, Charlie Chan and his entourage (including #1 and 2 sons as well as Birmingham Brown) is on vacation when murders start taking place around him. First, they find Professor Scott dying and they rescue him...only to soon have an unseen hand bury a dagger into Scott! Considering Scott is a member of a missing expedition who was investigating a lost temple, it's a good bet this and further mayhem are the work of some folks trying to steal the treasure for themselves. However, instead of just making deductions, this one ends with Chan and his party catching the baddies in this temple...baddies who seem willing to stop at nothing to get rich.The film has two huge problems against it. First, Roland Winters is the third and least interesting actor to regularly play Chan (there was a guy who played him in one early film). Second, after dozens of Chan films, the stories are getting a bit old and familiar. Not a bad film....just not up the usual higher standards of the franchise...though it is nice to have #1 AND #2 sons (Keye Luke and Victor Sen Yung) on hand for this one instead of the usual single son assisting their father.

Here, Charlie and crew (Mantan Moreland; Keye Luke & Sen Yung), are on vacation in Mexico. They stumble upon a man, who is in terrible condition, walking in a nearby field. Charlie takes him into his auto and heads quickly to the nearest city for help. The man is delirious so Chan can get little information out of him other than the fact he was held prisoner and he was on an expedition hunting for a lost Aztec treasure.Chan arrives in a nearby city and soon meets members of an expedition who are also hunting for this lost treasure. In fact the sick man is a member of their group. The ailing man and another archaeologist went missing during their search. Before the ill man can explain what happened he is murdered.Charlie and company join the expedition with the purpose of finding the missing archaeologist and perhaps the lost treasure. Much is made out of the fact that this film features the return of Charlie's son Lee (Keye Luke) and the only teaming of Charlie's Number One and Number Two sons. It's interesting but the screenwriters don't pull off the union effectively. Lee is much more domineering here than he ever was in the Fox films. So it is a bit of a miss, but still of interest to a long time Chan fan.Lastly, I'll comment on the other reviews who need to call the Monogram Winter's films garbage. Yes, they don't have the skilled writers of the Fox series. Yes, the production values don't match Fox, and the plots can be a little oddball. But these are solid little mysteries and quite good compared with other independent studios.

"The Feathered Serpent" is unique among Charlie Chan films for a number of reasons. For one, we learn the identity of the master criminal well before the movie's end. Professor John Stanley (Robert Livingston) has kidnapped colleague Henry Farnsworth to learn the location of an ancient Aztec treasure. Only Farnsworth can decipher the Aztec hieroglyphics that may reveal the location of the riches. Perhaps even more meaningful for fans of the Chan series, Keye Luke has returned after an eleven year absence to reprise his role as Number #1 Son Lee. The last time Luke appeared in a Chan film was in 1937's "Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo", then with Warner Oland in the title role; he had never appeared in a Sidney Toler Chan film. On top of that, this is the only pairing of Keye Luke with Victor Sen Yung, who again appears as Number #2 Son Tommy (although he was Number #2 Son Jimmy in all the Sidney Toler Chan films in which he worked). The movie takes it's name from the ancient Aztec practice of worshiping a feathered snake or serpent. It's a bit difficult getting used to Roland Winters' speech pattern as the Chinese detective in this film, it seems a bit more exaggerated than in his earlier pictures. And I can't imagine why the film makers chose to have Chan run around the Mexican wilderness in his trademark white suit and hat, when a safari suit would have made a lot more sense. The end of the movie plays a lot more like an Abbott and Costello film than a Charlie Chan picture. There's a lot of animated fighting and the Chan brothers actually get a bit violent in pummeling the bad guys, particularly Tommy who repeatedly pounds his opponents' head against a stone step inside the discovered temple; it's actually quite gruesome if you analyze what's going on. But probably the most off kilter moment comes when Charlie himself warns his party to be careful in handling a weapon intended for himself - "Poison dart probably dipped in poison".

Dreadful Monogram Chan film with weak Roland Winters starring. The only item of interest is the paring of both Keye Luke (as Lee Chan) and Victor Sen Young (as Tommy Chan.) Set amidst Mexican pyramids, this is a boring poorly done film. It is sad that Luke and Young together didn't have a better script or budget.