Charlie Chan in Reno

Sweet but sorrowful Pauline Moore arrives in Reno for her divorce. At the hotel she quickly meets Ricardo Cortez, suave doctor, and Phyllis Brooks, a kind of "social director" at the hotel, who urges her into the lounge for a drink. Also on the scene are Robert Lowery, earnest young socialite, and Kay Linaker, a more serious-minded guest—and the vulgar and tipsy Louise Henry, the would-be future husband of Moore's current spouse, who manages to insult all of the other characters within the space of about two minutes. Not surprisingly….

The nasty woman is shortly thereafter found murdered in her room. Pauline Moore is—unfortunately for her—found standing over the still-warm body; on the plus side for Moore, however, is her old friendship with the great Charlie Chan—who on hearing of her arrest immediately drops everything in Honolulu (he has been working in the police lab on an Easter egg) and flies over to Nevada to assist. He is accompanied by Kane Richmond, Moore's estranged—yet basically solid—husband.

It's a nice ensemble cast, a good mix of suspects. Keeping an eye on them all is Sheriff Slim Summerville, who goes by the name of "Tombstone," is suspicious of everyone, and is pretty much clueless. He is good comic relief, as is—

Sen Yung, back as Jimmy Chan, now a student at USC who borrows a car and sets out for Reno when he gets word that there's a case on. Along the highway, he gets highjacked and loses his car and his clothes….And one of the funniest scenes in the Chan series has got to be the moment when Jimmy, picked up by the cops, walks out under the lights in a police lineup wrapped in a blanket—and his recently-arrived pop is in the audience with the Reno chief.

Once released, Jimmy has a cute romance with hotel maid Iris Wong. "Does honorable father think you're too young to smoke?" she asks as he (amateurishly) lights up a cigarette. "Oh no, I'm no kid," Jimmy insists. "I help him solve his cases." Of course, he has a few ideas on this case as well….

Sidney Toler is fine at the center of it all, bantering with suspects, flattering the sheriff, tut-tutting Jimmy. Eventually, he gathers all of the suspects together for a climactic scene that is quite suspenseful and nicely satisfying.

Very enjoyable. It may be a formulaic series entry—but at this point they sure had the formula down right.

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) rushes to Reno when a friend (Pauline Moore) is accused of murdering her soon-to-be ex-husband's new fiancée. "Number Two Son" Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) also shows up to investigate with comical results. Not the best Charlie Chan movie, even for the Toler series. Still enjoyable though. Supporting cast includes Ricardo Cortez, Robert Lowery, Morgan Conway, and Phyllis Brooks (who has noticeably poor posture). Slim Summerville plays a hick sheriff that's supposed to be funny but comes across as annoying. The killer in this one seemed fairly obvious to me. The mystery's weak but Toler and Sen Yung are good.

The films Charlie Chan films that Sidney Toler made for Fox were very good--much better than the later cheaper series from Monogram Pictures. In fact, these Fox films were good enough that the public warmly embraced the actor who took over the role following Warner Oland's death. Now this doesn't mean that Toler was exactly like Oland--there were definite differences in the characterizations. First, there were less of the wise Chinese sayings and more cranky comments (usually directed at #2 Son, Jimmy). Second, Toler seemed less passive and more like a real detective. Still, I missed Oland but must admit that Toler was the right man to fill in for him.

As for this film in particular, Toler and Jimmy are just fine and I have no complaints about their acting or characters. However, when it comes to the murder plot, this one was much more convoluted and tough to believe than most. When they find the actual murderer at the end, you are left feeling like they just picked that person at random--especially since the motivation this person had seemed tenuous at best. Still, not a bad film at all--enjoyable throughout.

Although this story got a bit confusing early on and was impossible to figure out with so many suspects, it still was very enjoyable to watch because of the humor.

Between Charlie's proverbs and just some humorous remarks - many by Charlie's Number Two Son "Jimmy" (Sen Yung) and "Sheriff Tombstone Fletcher" (Slim Summerville) - it's a very entertaining Chan episode. Summerville played a pretty funny lawman.

The movie also had a couple of very pretty women, most notably Phyllis Brooks.

Overall, here's another Chan mystery just crying out for DVD packaging. Hopefully, we'll get it soon.

After a poor start with "Charlie Chan in Honolulu", Sidney Toler made a good come back with this, his second Chan film. This one is set in the divorce mecca. It has a particularly effective, atmospheric sequence in a ghost town. Ricardo Cortez is good in a supporting role. And Sen Yung is fun as Jimmy. Toler was just warming up for his masterpiece, the next film in the series, "Charlie Chan at Treasure Island."