Charlie Chan in Rio

With performers like Carmen Miranda and Cesar Romero on its roster, and with Don Ameche, Linda Darnell, and Tyrone Power looking as if they could be from South America, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, etc., Fox did lots of films purportedly set in these exotic locales. "Charlie Chan in Rio" from 1941 is one of these, though a lot of stock footage is used to give the illusion of actually being in Rio.

Charlie and son Jimmy are in Rio and go to a nightclub with the police chief to arrest a nightclub singer, Lola Dean. Dean is suspected of killing her married lover in Honolulu. Charlie decides it would be better to arrest her at home. However, she is found dead, and her jewels have been stolen.

As usual, there are too many suspects, among them a man (Victor Jory) who does prognostics, a sort of mystical mind-reading, Lola's wealthy fiancée, a woman in love with said fiancée, a no-nonsense friend (Mary Beth Hughes) and her boyfriend, Lola's ex-husband, and a butler.

It falls to Charlie to sort all this out, but along the way he and the police chief have a little fun with Jimmy, questioning under the mystic's potion, which puts his subject under hypnosis. Why did he fail math? It was too early to get up in the morning for class.

It seems not only Lola had a secret in her past -- there's plenty else to be learned.

Good fun, with a cute ending.

As others have pointed out, this is a remake of The Black Camel, which itself was one of the original Chan stories by Biggers. If you've seen the earlier film, then of course you know the twist by which this one is solved - which of course is very disappointing. Were people really not paying attention between the two versions of this story? Harold Huber gets to play a policeman straight this time, which is a big improvement over the usual clowning he was required to do in other Chans. Son Jimmy intrudes on the story too much for me, as usual, but doesn't express the worst of his pop-eyed hammyness in this one. There's not much Rio here, as others have complained, but this is a B movie, not a travelogue. The ladies are lovely, there's a musical number, and Jimmy gets an action scene near the end. All in all, quite good.

This film is a remake of the Warner Oland film, "The Black Camel". This is a short, at one hour, fun film. But it doesn't compare to the original. We do get to see Jimmy Chan dance in a night club in the opening. Victor Jory has the role played by Bela Lugosi in the original. Harold Huber is another police detective. It's good. But see "The Black Camel" first.

Although 20th Century Fox even gave Harry Warren and Mack Gordon an opportunity for an original song in Charlie Chan In Reno, the plot is recycled from The Black Camel the second film of the Charlie Chan series that starred Warner Oland ten years earlier. The plot has Charlie and son Victor Sen Yung in Rio DeJaneiro on an extradition charge to arrest and bring Jacqueline Dalya back to Honolulu to face a murder rap.

Dalya is a singer in a Rio nightclub and Sidney Toler and Brazilian police inspector Harold Huber decide to let her finish her act and arrest her at her home. But when they get there she's already been stabbed to death with several guests already there for a dinner party.

Which gives Toler a whole house full of suspects of both sexes. Apparently Dalya played around a lot and she's got some jealous women and men whom they're jealous over.

I won't say who did it, but it does go back to the case that Toler is in Rio on.

This was the next to last film in the Charlie Chan series that 20th Century Fox did and clearly they were running out of ideas and interest in the series. Charlie after one more picture would be doing his sleuthing for Monogram with much reduced production values even from a B picture at a major studio.

Still this one should satisfy Charlie's fans.

Good mystery film about the famous detective Charlie Chan. He's in Rio to put under arrest Lola. But she's murdered before he can arrest her. Interesting murder case follows and like other Charlie Chan's movies, an array of suspects are in the room. Everybody seems to have a perfect alibi.

Good performance by Victor Sen Yung who plays Number Two Son. Toler is once again good in the role of Charlie Chan. Funny remarks here and there punctuate the script. Like this one: «This is very exciting». The lady to answer: «So is parachute jumping, but I don't like it».

Like other films in the series, lights go out for a second or two and there's one dead person!

Out of 100, I gave it 77. That's **½ on a four stars rating system.

Seen at home in Welland on VHS. Marko Roy - May 13th, 2001.