The Trap

When one of the showgirls in a troupe staying at a beach house is killed, novice showgirl Barbara Jean Wong, calls on that famous detective, Jimmy Chan. Fortunately, his father, Charlie Chan, shows up in the person of Sidney Toler.

Under the direction of Howard Bretherton, this is the strongest of of the Monogram Charlie Chans, due a good mystery script and Bretherton's superior ability to direct the comedy sequences on which the series now relied. Mantan Moreland, as Oland's other assistant, gets a lot more and better comedy in his role, and Victor Sen Yung flourishes. The ladies in the troupe include Rita Quigley and Anne Nagel, and Kirk Nagel, Minerva Urecal, and Larry Blake perform their more serious roles well.

Alas, it was the end for Toler. He had been playing the role for almost a decade by this point, but he was dying of cancer. He would died on February 12, 1947 at the age of 72, after sixty-five years in show business.

"The Trap" has an OK mystery plot and an unusual Chan locale- the beach, literally on the beach itself. And there is some fine photography of the California coast.

Toler is noticeably tired in this, his last film. In fact at least one scene is performed by Mr. Toler while sitting down, most likely due to fatigue and illness; otherwise he is almost entirely stationary and standing. However, he somehow manages to carry his acting weight in his scenes.

I believe that this is one of the best of Sen Yung's efforts in Chan films, most likely because he is allowed to just act for the most part except for one extended (but plot enhancing) sequence of buffoonery. Tanis Chandler is very French and very attractive, and her performance is competent. Barbara Jean Wong is cute and gives a good performance. But Rita Quigley's performance is...well...the best word to describe it is "terrible". Ms. Quigley gives a career-destroying bad performance that hurts the film, but you could regard it as laughable and maybe find it endurable on that basis.

Since we get a little gem of a Minerva Urecal performance, fine seacoast photography and a decent mystery plot I will give this a "6" rating but you certainly should not expect a classic, traditional Chan film.

Can we agree that Sidney Toler was ill at the time of this movie, and stop talking about it. This isn't' film class - you don't have to tell us all you know about the back-story of the series. Toler does a perfectly good job in this episode of the series - Charlie Chan wasn't exactly Shakespeare, and didn't require great acting. Having several female characters in a Chan mystery was rare, and it's a nice change to me. The son role isn't overplayed in this movie, and while it's not Mantan Moreland's best role, he gives just enough comic relief to the film. Based on the reviews here, you'd think that a prize was being given for nastiest review. Lighten up - the Chan series was meant as light entertainment - not film school criticism fodder. You get action, suspense, comedy, and even a bit of romance all in an hour. Over the years, I saw this 3-4 times before I knew anything about the making of the Chan films, and I always thought it was every bit as good as most of the others in the series. IF you can't just sit back and enjoy this Chan, that's a YOU problem, not a problem with the movie.

Sadly, this is one of the weakest Charlie Chan movies (though even at that, it provides good, average B movie entertainment) - and even much more sadly, it was the last film that Sidney Toler could finish before he died. There are moments where it's obvious that he struggles with his fatal disease; which makes the whole thing even more sad, but also increases enormously our respect for this great actor who gave everything literally until the end.

The story is somewhat confused, the movie seems like it's been done hastily (perhaps because Sidney Toler didn't have much time left?); and the hysterical crowd of 'bathing beauties' certainly tends to go on the audience's nerves, even though they display the latest and most daring bikini fashion of the time. There's a variety troupe on holiday at the seaside, and it becomes clear very soon that the 'star' of the group is SO unsympathetic that sooner or later she WILL be killed... But first it's one of the other girls' turn, whom shrew Marcia blackmails into stealing papers from another girl's trunk (threatening that she'll reveal that the girl is under age), so that she can blackmail the other one, too, whose husband seems to have a dark past. The little girl is strangled, and her Chinese colleague San Toy (one of the few nice girls of the troupe) calls on her friend Jimmy Chan for help - in somewhat of a confusion, so that Birmingham, who picks up the phone, is under the impression that Jimmy has been murdered!

So he and Charlie haste to the beach house, where they soon catch an intruder: Jimmy, who found the paper with the address on Birmingham's desk! No need to say that Charlie is immensely relieved; but now he's in the middle of a murder case, of course - and, as was to be expected, the next day on the beach the body of hated Marcia is found... Now everybody starts accusing each other, some of the girls get fits of hysteria - and Charlie, together with his two assistants, tries to make head or tail of the whole muddled case.

As I said before, this movie certainly isn't among the better Charlie Chans - but it's our last opportunity to see our beloved trio Sidney Toler - Sen Yung - Mantan Moreland together; so let's just enjoy the jokes and the suspense, and laugh and let's be entertained by them once more...

This was Sidney Toler's last film as detective Charlie Chan, the last in a series of twenty-two, produced between 1938 and 1946.

The physical fragility of the actor is visible, as he appears in fewer scenes, moves slowly and even demonstrates a relative verbal economy that is not characteristic of the character. There is, for example, not a single "correction please" in Toler's farewell to the character. A film where we have more "number 2 Son" and Birmingham than Chan.

The plot is what you would expect from a banal television police series and the value of this work is above all historical and sentimental, for fans of the character.