Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Waste of time

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Given that Boris Karloff is one of my favorite actors, it's no surprise this is my favorite Charlie Chan movie. Now, of course since Karloff is here, we have to start the movie with an atmosphere akin to that of a horror film. Karloff plays an amnesiac opera singer named Gravelle. He regains his memory and escapes from a sanitarium on a stormy night to go find his daughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a child. The police are desperate to catch Gravelle, so they call in Charlie Chan (Warner Oland).Oland is pitch-perfect as always. Keye Luke as "Number One Son" Lee gets to have lots of fun running around in costume backstage at the opera, trying to help his father on the case. William Demarest plays a police sergeant jealous of Charlie who makes several bigoted remarks throughout the movie but comes to respect the superior detective by the end. Boris Karloff gives a terrific performance, which should come as a surprise to no one familiar with his work. He's the only actor in the entire series to be able to match Warner Oland's screen presence.Fast pace, interesting setting, great performances, and a particularly nice atmosphere make this an exceptional entry in the always delightful Charlie Chan series. I'm not big on opera but the music written by Oscar Levant for this film is pretty good and adds to an overall excellent production. As I said before, this is my favorite Charlie Chan film and I see by many reviews here I'm not alone. It's definitely a highlight of the series, with a top-notch guest star (Karloff) and an exciting story, helped greatly by the opera backdrop and music.

According to the extended credits on here, Boris Karloff's singing is dubbed by someone named Tudor Williams.He sounds very much like Lawrence Tibbett, the most popular baritone at the Metropolitan Opera in the mid-1930s, and a singer who would have been known to general movie-going audiences then through radio, recordings, and his own movies. One of the other posters mentions that the dumpy costume worn during the performance by Boris Karloff and the baritone he replaces was a costume of Tibbett's. Tibbett's movie studio was Fox, and he made what was probably his most successful movie for them, Metropolitan, the same year as CC at the Opera.Is it possible that "Tudor Williams" was a cover for Lawrence Tibbett?????

Gravelle (Boris Karloff), a former opera singer who is accused of killing his wife and her lover, is an amnesia victim living in a sanitarium. A newspaper story on the opera sparks some memory in his brain and he escapes to get his revenge on those who did him wrong. A murder at the opera house appears to be the handiwork of Gravelle. But Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is not so sure. Can Chan put a stop to the murders and find Gravelle before anyone else dies? Charlie Chan at the Opera is a very nice installment in the Chan series. And by all rights it should considering it's probably the "biggest" Chan film that Fox made. The movie is entertaining from beginning to end with very few dull moments. Even the opera scenes, which have importance to the plot, don't put a drag on the movie like they could have. Oland is in fine form as Chan and never played the character any better. And it's an incredible joy for me to see two of my favorites, Oland and Karloff, on the screen at the same time. It's heady stuff! The supporting cast is strong with William Demarest making the perfect foil for Oland. Also, the sets go a long way to making this one a winner. The backstage of an opera house has always been a good setting for a mystery.Until I did some reading recently on the internet, I honestly had no idea that so many people considered Charlie Chan at the Opera to be one of the best of the series. While it's got a lot going for it, I can't rank it quite that highly. My biggest problem (and I'm sure I'll get killed for this) with the movie is the plot. I find the mystery elements of Charlie Chan at the Opera to be lacking. The resolution to the mystery seems to rely as much on "dumb luck" (for the lack of a better phrase) and other strange circumstances than it does on actual detection. But this is really all so insignificant when your having this much fun with a movie!

The famous Charlie Chan series of the 1930s starred Swedish actor Warner Oland as the main character. Yes, I understand that having a non-Chinese man playing Chan is NOT politically correct and they SHOULD have had a Chinese guy play the detective as well as play him less stereotypically, but considering this is the 1930s and the films are still entertaining, this is something the viewer is just going to have to overlook. In the 1940s, the series would continue with other non-Asians (Sidney Toler and then Roland Winters) as well as move from glamorous Twentieth Century Fox to poverty row Monogram Studios--where the production values would drop considerably and racial insensitivity would increase dramatically! Since this is one of the earlier Fox Charlie Chan films, it is a definite step up in quality and entertainment.The film starts with Boris Karloff in a mental institution playing the piano and feeling pretty contented for a patient. It seems he was there due to amnesia and had been in the hospital for over a decade. However, out of the blue, he recalls who he is and attacks an attendant and escapes. With headlines such as "Dangerous Maniac Escapes", everyone seems to be worried that Karloff will go on some sort of killing spree, though why a previously harmless guy would suddenly run amok and start killing is beyond me! Anyway, he eventually arrives at the opera house where he hides among in the building like the Phantom of the Opera. At the same time, the company's diva receives a death threat and Chan is brought in to investigate. Well, even the world's greatest detective isn't perfect, as pretty soon this woman assumes room temperature (dies)! Where the movie goes from there and how Karloff fits into it all is a real treat since it's handled so well. Also, just because the story takes place at an opera house does not mean the film is stuffy or packed with opera! Watch it and see how well the series was occasionally written and how it goes when there is a good "villain" like Karloff to add to the film.