Charlie Chan at the Olympics

Charlie has his youngest helper ever - or at least in any of the 20 Chan films I've seen - as 12-year-old Charlie Jr. joins Number One Son Lee as they both help dad solve a crime.

Lee (Keye Luke) plays a member of the United States Olympic swimming team in this adventure. The repartee between Chan (Warner Oland) and his two sons in here is terrific. Layne Tom Jr. plays Charlie Junior.

The Chan movie is more of an adventure than the normal whodunit as Charlie and the cops travel to the Olympics in Munich, Germany in search of a missing radar-plane "black box." Lee is kidnapped at the games and his dad does everything he can to get his kidnapped son back while not jeopardizing the United States in the process.

This is one of the better Chan films and will be available on DVD in December, 2006, as part of another Charlie Chan DVD package of four movies.

An experimental plane's guidance system is stolen and Charlie Chan's on the case. He follows the clues to Berlin, where the 1936 Olympic Games are being held. Amusingly, "Number One Son" Lee Chan is a member of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team. He even wins! As usual, Warner Oland is a perfect Charlie Chan. In addition to Keye Luke's Lee, this time we get Charlie Chan, Jr. He's played by Layne Tom, Jr. and is all kinds of adorable. I wonder why he wasn't made a permanent part of the series because he's a lot of fun. Also includes one of the loveliest actresses to appear in the entire Chan series, Katherine DeMille. Hubba-hubba! She was the adopted daughter of Cecil B. DeMille and future wife of Anthony Quinn. There's also some nice support from reliable character actors C. Henry Gordon, John Eldredge, and Jonathan Hale. Good cast in this one.

This entry in the series is most notable for it taking place during the 1936 Olympics, with footage from the games including Jesse Owens. Plus Charlie travels to Berlin on the Hindenburg. It also features pre-WWII German police portrayed in a much more sympathetic light than they would be just a few years later. Although, it should be noted Inspector Strasser (Frederik Vogeding) of the German police is kind of a boob ("Things like this cannot happen in Berlin!"). An excellent entry in the Charlie Chan series with high entertainment value and some added historical curiosity. Fans should love it.

Charlie discovers the body of a pilot who was missing for days following a test flight using a remote control navigation system, which is missing from the plane. Charlie discovers that the killer, Miller, worked at an airplane factory in Honolulu, but is found murdered in his apartment before he can be questioned. The suspects of being the sinister power behind the theft are headed towards Berlin, not only to watch the Olympics, but to sell the remote control unit. Charlie takes the Hindenburg to Berlin and is joined by son Lee (who is entered in the 100m swimming relay) to track down Yvonne Rowland, who was seen in Miller's apartment, and who has contacted Baron Zaraka, dignitary for a warring nation. Knowing that Chan is on the case, Zaraka has Lee kidnapped and will turn him over to Charlie in exchange for the remote control device. Charlie tries to dupe the spies, even though he knows that his son is at their mercy. Very good Chan film that places the emphasis on foreign intrigue rather than mystery (and is able to succeed). Oland does turn in one of his best performances as the character, due to the character's development from the genial detective to the worried parent. The Olympics angle does give an interesting aspect of the film towards today's audiences giving an idea of the athletes back then (and the subtraction of the Nazi influence over the games). The climax to the mystery (which is suspenseful) and the revelation of the killer's motive seems to suggest that the film was trying to bloat the mystery angle of the film more. Rating, based on B mysteries, 7.

... that being that the film is set at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

A plane is doing a test flight with a brand new invention vital to the defense of the United States when the plane disappears. The audience can see inside the cockpit that someone hiding inside the plane overpowers the actual pilot, but the cast is denied this knowledge. Charlie Chan finds the plane with the body of the pilot nearby while on a fishing trip with one of his younger sons. A careful investigation leads suspicions to somebody who is part of the American Olympic team, and thus he has left Hawaii for Berlin. Therefore Chan goes to Berlin himself to continue the investigation. A further complcation is that oldest Chan son Lee is a competitor in the games there.

Set in 1936, there is quite a bit of stock footage of the 1936 Olympic games. There is one shot with the torch bearer running down the stairs with people in the crowd on either side of him clearly performing the Nazi salute. The Berlin police are portrayed as pedantic stumble bums whose hearts are in the right place and who act and dress like the Kaiser is still alive versus the rather lethal group that they had become by 1936 - not a group you'd want to tangle with.

What is really ironic is that Charlie postulates that the radio control device will be sold in Germany to some unnamed group of international terrorists because they feel "safe" in Germany during the games because of the presence of so many people from many nations. It's so interesting to see how the United States and the rest of the world did not take Hitler's Germany seriously until it was almost too late.

In the scene on board the Hindenburg involving CC and 2 other men, look closely at the title of the article in the magazine that the seated man is reading. It's "Think fast, Mr. Moto"!!!

I enjoyed this CC movie for its locations. Opening in Hawaii w/#2 son. On board the ship with #1 son. CC flying in the Hindenburg. And finally the Olympic Stadium. Jonathan Hale, as usual, is just suspicious enough to be a legitimate villain/red herring...(???) The arms dealer, foreign diplomat and the lady w/the white fox fur all add intrigue and deception to the plot.

We also get to check out Warner Oland's physical condition as he jogs with his shirt off for his physical at the movie's beginning.