Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Sick Product of a Sick System

Just what I expected

Fantastic!

I really enjoyed this. Our irrepressible detective finds himself at the home of an old friend who is trying to locate her son who disappeared years ago. While it is unlikely he is alive, her connections to the spirit world through a couple Mystics and her ouija board tell her otherwise. Charlie, respecting the workings of the occult from his Oriental heritage, isn't sure the young man is dead. Well, interestingly enough, he turns up one day, only to be killed at a seance. This throws the whole issue of inheritance into a tizzy. The old lady would be disinherited and her children affected. There are four or five suspects but no evidence. Charlie must set some kind of trap to draw out the culprit. While I pretty much had this figured out way ahead, I still enjoyed it. Mainly, because I wanted to see how he played his cards. By the way, there is some pretty good CSI work done here.

Now, I may be biased, but IMO "Charlie Chan's Secret" is one of the VERY best movies of the whole series. It masterfully mixes supernatural experiments, complete with Ouija-boards, mediums, séances in darkened rooms with ghastly 'apparitions' with a very REAL murder case - where the culprit finally isn't too hard to find out for an experienced crime fan; but it's the AMTOSPHERE that counts.And without being a horror movie, this unique film has some exceptionally scary moments for which many a 'real' horror movie could certainly envy it. On the other hand, though, there's also the clear, logic reasoning of Charlie Chan and his co-star, Henrietta Crosman as Mrs. Lowell, who is a fervent believer in the communication with the dead, but also shows quite remarkable guts! The murder victim is millionaire Allen Colby, who'd been away for years, but suddenly turns up again - much to the chagrin of his aunt's (Mrs. Lowell's) family, who had hoped to inherit his fortune, as well as to Mrs. Lowell's trusted psychic couple, which has already earned quite a nice sum from their obviously faked séances. Then there is janitor Ulrich, who'd hated Crosby ever since he'd seduced his daughter and then dropped her like an old glove, and the poor girl committed suicide, and Colby's lawyer and trustee Phelps... So, as we see, there are QUITE a lot of suspects to choose from! But since Charlie realizes that he'll never get a confession out of any of them, he decides to catch the murderer red-handed - and for that purpose, he applies a VERY clever trick: his 'secret', as the title suggests...This movie REALLY holds you in its spell from the first to the last moment - and when there are moments without the creepiness of dark séance rooms in the old house especially prepared for those procedures, or the even darker secret passageways behind its walls, there are surprisingly welcome comical sequences provided by the ever-scared butler Baxter (Herbert Mundin)... Hollywood entertainment at its VERY best!!

This review is the second of a series of such that I'm devoting to the films of the Charlie Chan franchise. Once again, Warner Oland portrays the famous Chinese detective with his humor and intelligence intact. This time, he's investigating the possible reappearance of one Allen Colby (Jerry Miley) for an inheritance. But there are many associates of his that would rather he not show up...This was another enjoyable Chan entry I liked especially when Herbert Mundin as butler Baxter does some grimaces whenever he has to do something he doesn't want to do. He gets quite funnier with each appearance. And Henrietta Crossman is also fine as an old friend of Charlie's who gets pertinent info about certain things from him. All in all, I rather found Charlie Chan's Secret very good overall. P.S. I feel the need to mention another player from my birthtown of Chicago, Ill., here. This time, it's James T. Mack as the fingerprint man. Also, the coroner played by Landers Stevens is the father of director George Stevens. The lawyer, Warren T. Phelps, is played by Jonathan Hale who a year later would begin essaying his best known role, that of J.C. Dithers in the Blondie movie series. And Rosina Lawrence-who's Alice Lowel here-would eventually become Our Gang/Little Rascals new teacher and appear with Laurel & Hardy in their classic, Way Out West. She'd also decades later marry the man who chronicled the comic duo's lives and careers in books, John McCabe.

In my opinion this compares favourably to the best Chan movies. Of course one has to like the stereotypical device of rounding up many suspects to entrap the culprit, but this one has a simple yet solid plot line that unfolds nicely, is entangled but not confused like say the 'Olympics' movie is, in which conclusions literally fall from the sky. Heir to a fortune comes back after a long stay abroad in the French foreign legion only to be murdered while his relatives and ancillary characters (administrators, accountants, housekeepers etc ) gather to get in touch with spirits, the family's hobby...it turns out everybody would have something to loose from the heir's return, but the culprit is not whom we may expect at first sight. Acting serves the purpose well and the eerie atmosphere is nice. There is no 'number son' bit, which to me is quite a relief, while the comedy moment is provided by a clumsy butler who grimaces all the time. 1930s top-notch science returns when a UV projector is used, and the 'fake medium' bit will be copied nearly verbatim in the Houdini movie with Tony Curtis.