Customer Reviews

Charlie Chan's Secret [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an entertaining Charlie Chan mystery with Warren Oland in the lead role. It seems that seven years ago, Alan Colby, the heir to an immense fortune, disappeared while at sea. His body was never found. He suddenly reappears with a plausible explanation for his seeming disappearance, ready to claim his inheritance. No sooner does he return, however, he is murdered.

It appears that members of the Lowell family have been living off his inheritance for the past seven years, thinking Alan Colby dead. They have been using his fortune to fund psychic research. It is they who stand to lose the most from his return. They stand only to gain by his death. Or is the murderer the crooked family lawyer? Could it be the creepy family caretaker? Who killed Alan Colby? Watch the film and find out. If you are not a fan of Charlie Chan, deduct one star from my rating.

This is one of the Chans that is somehow overlooked by critics as one of the best entries in the series. The mystery is incredibly complex, and Chan's solution to the mystery is both surprising and logical. This film also marks the last film where a Chan offspring was not featured. It is also a very spooky, including scenes with a seance taking place, similar to "Meeting At Midnight". Of course, Warner Oland is very good as usual. A noteworthy entry in the series.

This episode of the Charlie Chan series from the thirties starring Warner Oland as Chan has a very atmospheric mood. And it is old-fashioned in a charming way.

AS much as the Chan movies are filled with ridiculous stereotypes it's sad that Turner Classic Movies stopped showing these films due to protests from Asian Americans. Stereotypes aside these films always showed Chan in a positive light and above all provided great entertainment. I used to love staying up with my dad as a kid and watching these on the late show. Those were the days!

Chan is hired to find a missing heir who was presumed dead in an accident several years earlier. The heir, Allen Colby eventually shows up at his familie's mysterious estate and is promptly murdered. A Seance is held and Colby's ghost appears and Chan now knows it's a murder case he has to solve and not a missing persons case. This is kind of a film in the grand tradition of spooky old dark house films. We've got a mysterious mansion filled with secret passages, seances, and all sorts of red herrings thrown in to make this a top notch mystery and a great entry into in this long-running series. The only drawback is that #1 son, Keye Luke does not appear in this film to add his much loved comic relief.

It's quite unfortunate that these earlier films with Warner Oland as Chan are not on DVD while many of the generally awful Toller films are. Hopefully someone wakes up and realizes that there are a lot of fans clamoring for these on DVD.

This is another of the many humorous Charlie Chan mysteries. It is in black and white and was completed in 1935. A rich woman requests Chan to find out if Allen, a rich relative, is still alive or he was drowned when a ship capsized. We see that the man is alive and he is killed when he returns home. Chan needs to determine who killed him. There are about half a dozen suspects, all of whom would acquire large sums of money when Allen died. Number one son is not in the film to add humor, but humor is added by the actions of a very frightened valet.

As usual in these films, Chan mentions many witty sayings, such as the following:
If strength were all that mattered, tiger would not fear scorpion.
Fingerprints very valuable if police can catch fingers.
Greetings at end of journey like refreshing rain after long draught.
Women's intuition like feather on arrow - may help flight to truth.
Necessity mother of invention, but sometimes stepmother of deception.
Finding web of spider does not prove which spider spun web.
Unknown danger like summer lightning - strike when least expected.
Hasty deduction like ancient egg - look good from outside.

Charlie Chan films are frequently accused of pandering to racial stereotypes. There is a certain truth to this, but Charlie Chan and company were neither more nor less stereotypical than such other popular series as the "Blondie" or "Dr. Kildare" series, and--while we may occasionally roll our eyes at a few 1930s sensibilities--its stereotypes are never mean-spirited and Charlie (along with his various sons) is always presented in a positive light.

This 1936 entry in the series find Chan (Warner Oland) investigating the disappearance of wealthy Alan Colby, who was lost at sea--for if Colby is alive, as is rumored, his relatives will not only have to give up the fortune they have inherited, they will have to account for every cent they have spent. With his investigation going nowhere fast, Chan goes to San Francisco to discuss the matter with the Colby family, and murder soon follows.

Although CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET is a nice but minor entry in the series, the real mystery here is why so few Chan films are available to the home market--particularly such major films in the series such as CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS, CHARLIE CHAN AT RENO, and CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND, all three of which easily best this particular film. Recommended to fans, but stay on the lookout for other and better titles in the film series.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Although this is the only Charlie Chan I did not appreciate, the place that sent the product gave excellent service.

I am not sure about the what the star rating belongs to, the sender or the product.

1936's "Charlie Chan's Secret" is another better-than-average episode for the Honolulu Police Detective, here played by Warner Oland. This episode concerns a long missing heir, a house seemingly haunted by ghosts, and a mysterious murder.

The movie opens at sea, as divers in deep sea diving helmets search the wreckage of the S.S. Nestor for the body of one Alan Colby. Colby, the heir to a substantial fortune, has been missing for seven years before recently recontacting his family. When his ship goes down off Hawaii, Charlie Chan is asked to verify his death. Chan finds evidence that Colby was onboard and feared for his life, but not Colby himself.

Chan travels to San Francisco aboard the "new" Pan Am clipper aircraft (one for history buffs) to update Colby's mother, Mrs. Henrietta Lowell, only to find that Colby has preceeded him. Colby's corpse comes to light during a seance run for his mother in a suitably creepy old cottage. Charlie has a houseful of suspects, as the Lowell family, the family lawyer, and the seance expert all stood to lose money if Alan Colby had reclaimed his patrimony. Charlie will have to dodge more than one assassination attempt to uncover the real killer in this atmospheric thriller. None of the Chan sons figure in this episode; comic relief is provided by Herbert Mundin as a very nervous and bumbling English butler.

"Charlie Chan's Secret" is very highly recommended to fans of the Charlie Chan series of movies as an entertaining and suspenseful entry.

This film starts out with that familiar 30s mystery sounding music. Then we immediately cut into a diving scene where they used underwater type music. Here Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is on a boat searching for the missing body of Allen Colby. Allen is the long missing heir to the family fortune and was on his way back to clean it when he met with an accident. Or was it an accident?

Even though the Ouija board said that Allen was dead, we make one last attempt to contact him through a séance. Will Allen show? If so can he point out his killer?

Only Charlie Chan with his unique perspective can make heads or tails of what the secret is all about. Even Charlie has to learn throughout the movie and we learn with him.

This is one of Warner Oland's best. We get a lesson in radio, and quinine that evidently was used at one time for colds.

So let's sit back and enjoy a spooky spirit house, a handful of spooky people, and a shot in the dark.


Charlie Chan: Castle in the Desert [VHS]

CHARLIE CHAN's SECRET is the first Chan film produced by 20th Century-Fox. Charlie is in San Francisco trying to find a missing heir who unfortunately is murdered after he reappears. The movie is hurt by the absence of Keye Luke leaving Warner Oland to solve the case without the usual blundering antics of his number one son.