Vuelo de muerte

Roland Winters is Charlie Chan in "The Sky Dragon" from 1949.

Chan and his son Lee board a plane to go to San Francisco. Lee is very excited, as he's been taking flying lessons from the pilot. If Lee looks a little older here, it's because he's 45, and his father is the same age.

Coffee is passed around, and Lee spills his coffee on his dad. The coffee was drugged; so fortunately, Lee doesn't get much. He finds the detective hired to guard $250,000 that was on board plane dead, the pilots drugged, and the money gone.

Charlie figures the money was thrown out of the plane via parachute. And there are a lot of suspects - like everyone. The hostesses, played by Noel Neill (of Superman fame) and Elena Verdugo (of Marcus Welby fame) are suspects, as are the pilot (Milburn Stone of Gunsmoke), the copilot (Joel Marston), a burlesque queen (Iris Adrian) and her brother-in-law (Lyle Talbot), and a Mayor (Paul Maxey of The People's Choice). A baby-boomer movie for sure.

This was the last Chan film, with Winters a rather staid, formal Charlie spouting his words of wisdom. "Innocent act without thinking, guilty always make plans." Humor is added by Mantan Moreland as Birmingham, who aids Lee in an investigation, breaking into the burlesque house.

Enjoyable with some interesting camera work - everyone in the plane turning and facing the camera while Charlie is talking.

Though it's seen as un-pc today, this was a fun series.

Charlie Chan and number one son Lee doze on a plane trip. Lee wakes up and discovers that the passengers and crew are all out cold. Everyone has been drugged (except for him and his pop, who didn't drink their coffee). A dead body is lying up near the cockpit and a large packet of cash has vanished.

The Chans investigate, of course, and suspects include a pilot and his stewardess girlfriend, a pair of suspicious-looking passengers who appear to be stalking a different stewardess, and a security guard in charge of transporting the now missing money. Back on the ground, the action flows from a nightclub to the Chan home and finally back to the airplane, where Mr. Chan gets everybody back on board to explain his deductions and draw out the killer....

Roland Winters and Keye Luke are just fine as the Chan father-son team. Unfortunately the script doesn't offer them much in the way of clever dialog, but they dutifully investigate the case and manage to keep it fairly lively. Mantan Moreland offers support as chauffeur Birmingham Brown. Tim Ryan as a detective and Milburn Stone as the airline pilot are among the other vaguely familiar faces in the cast.

It's not particularly exciting or surprising but at least the plot makes sense. So it's no classic--but heck, it is kind of fun.

The Charlie Chan series at Monogram comes to an end with this picture. The plot sees Charlie (Roland Winters) and "Number One Son" Lee (Keye Luke) on an airplane where all the passengers are drugged. While they're out, a man is murdered and a quarter-million dollars stolen. Also appearing in this one is bug-eyed comic sidekick Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). The rest of the cast includes Milburn Stone (Doc from Gunsmoke), Noel Neill (Lois Lane from Adventures of Superman), and Lyle Talbot (movie star extraordinaire). Winters is weak as usual but the plot is surprisingly fresh for Monogram. Keye Luke is fun and the supporting cast is decent. It's ironic that the Winters series ended after its two strongest films. But it was a case of too little too late, I think.

The last Chan film made by Monogram and Roland Winters is a sad final bow for the great detective and great film series. The supporting cast is good for a Monogram picture. The best thing about it is that Keye Luke is back as Lee Chan. Great title. Poor picture! Sorry Charlie!

After almost four dozen films, this was the final installment in the Charlie Chan series from Twentieth Century Fox and Monogram Pictures. Like the final six, this one starred Roland Winters as the detective...and his version of Chan was far weaker than the one played by Warner Oland as well as Sidney Toler.

The story begins on an airliner. Chan and #1 son, Lee (Keye Luke), are aboard and things seem pretty normal. After all, Charlie had just finished a case and they're heading home. However, something evil is afoot....and Lee realizes it when he awakens to find everyone either asleep or dead! One of the pilots was stabbed and someone obviously knocked everyone else out by lacing the drinks with something....and a fortune in money being transported in the plane is gone!

Like all the later Charlie Chan films, this one is weak...but still watchable. Roland Winters simply isn't as fun as Sidney Toler and the solution to all this was telegraphed. When baddies all 'accidentally' get shot and killed by the same person, it doesn't take Charlie Chan to figure out they are evil! Fair...at best.