Castle in the Desert

Castle in the Desert (1942) was the last Charlie Chan movie produced by 20th Century Fox. This one starred Sidney Toler as the man himself and Sen Yung as number 2 son.

Charlie is invited to a desert castle to see Mrs. Manderley, a descendant of the Borgias, and her husband Paul, who wears a handkerchief over one side of his face because of a horrible accident. The castle has no phone or electricity because Paul is a historian and tries to replicate the conditions of the men he is studying.

A death has occurred, but in order for Manderley to hold onto his $20 million fortune, he cannot be attached to any scandal. He persuades a doctor to allow the man to be moved to a hotel where he will be found, and nothing will attach to the Manderley or the castle.

Soon Jimmy Chan arrives with a sculptor (Henry Daniell) he met at the station who also needed a ride; there is also an eccentric astrologer (Ethel Griffiths) who claims the man who died is not dead, and neither is Mrs. Manderley's stepbrother, who presumably died in the war.

There is another death and a murder, and Charlie soon uncovers not one, but two conspiracies that are designed to get control of the Manderley money.

This was a good movie, but confusing. I still can't figure out what the deal was with the stepbrother. All they did was talk about him being alive, and I think Charlie said he was in the house. I swear I never saw him. Anyway, I wasn't satisfied at all with the ending. They should have stuck with one conspiracy.

Anyway, Toler and Sen Yung are good, and the cast is high quality, with Douglas Dembrille as Manderley, Henry Daniell, Richard Derr, and Arlene Whelan. The quality of the series is about to go down -- this is the last one of any quality.

My opinion is this is one of the best in the Chan series. It has a good story that is written well. The cast is great with some wonderful character actors. I think the production quality is a little better than other Chan films. One thing that stands out are lighting and camera angles. They create an ambiance of suspense.

This being the final entry in the Charlie Chan mystery series to be produced by 20th Century-Fox. Chan (Sidney Toler) finds himself summoned to a medieval-style castle built in the middle of the desert in the western U.S. It belongs to eccentric researcher Paul Manderlay (Douglass Dumbrille) and his wife Lucy (Lenita Lane) who happens to be a descendant of the infamous Borgias. They have a house full of guests, one or more of whom seems intent on killing them all.

This is an odd installment of the series, with a lot of comedy and an "old dark house" setting. The characters are all strange enough to hold one's interest, and Toler and Sen Yung's interplay is still fun. Fox decided to end the series with this one, stating a desire to cut back on film production during the war, but many feel it was also due to the Asian lead character, who, despite being Chinese-American, would still be resented by those with anti-Japanese sentiments due to the war. Toler himself would eventually buy the rights and take them to the poverty row Monogram company, where a new batch of Chan films started in 1944 with Charlie Chan in the Secret Service.

I caught this movie on the FOX MOVIE CHANNEL which had pulled it's CHARLIE CHAN month long marathon due to protests from Asian Americans. FMC resumed showing the Chan movies in September, bookending the movies with discussions by prominent Asian-Americans inluding George (Mr. Sulu)Takei who explored the racial issues of the movies.

I respect the discomfort and resentment the CHARLIE CHAN movies cause Asian Americans and there are some blatantly racial comments in this movie. There's a part where Charlie enters a hotel to await a car and the hotel manager takes one look at him and says; "Chop Suey salesman, eh? I hate the stuff!" that frankly made me cringe. But these movies have a historical value beyond simple entertainment. They remind us of how we once acted and thought of other races and other people. Even though Charlie Chan is a respected and internationally famous detective, he is still based on his appearance and skin color. Maybe we haven't come so far since this movie was made.

Taken strictly as entertainment, though, CASTLE IN THE DESERT is a nifty murder mystery with an eccentric cast of characters trapped in a remote location with a murderer running around loose. One character is a descendant of Lucrezia Borgia. Another is a fortune teller whose predictions actually DO come true. Charlie Chan and Number 2 son do a great job of finding the true murderer and putting things aright. The plot is perhaps more complicated than it needs to be but that's the great thing about those 30's/40's murder mysteries: it wasn't that easy to guess who was the killer. Despite the unplesant racial remarks, CASTLE IN THE DESERT is a fine entry in the CHARLIE CHAN series. I enjoyed it a lot. Lots of humor and sharp, witty dialog and great atmospheric sets.

While I admit that the Chan films of Warner Oland are, as a group, superior to those of Sidney Toler, that doesn't mean that some of the Toler films aren't rock solid and as good individually as anything Oland made. Three that immediately come to mind are Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum, and this film, Castle in the Desert. (By the way, why isn't the title Charlie Chan and the Castle in the Desert? It would have made sense to me.) In Castle in the Desert, Charlie is summoned to a strange, isolated castle in the middle of the Mojave Desert. But no one in the house will admit to having sent of Chan. His presence is, however, quickly needed when in no time at all Charlie finds himself up to his elbows in murder, poison, deadly arrows, red herrings, and suspects galore. What could be more fun!

I've seen someone use this phrase before to describe a Charlie Chan film and I think it fits Castle in the Desert – "It's a crackling good mystery". As I've indicated, all of the necessary ingredients for a fun outing with Chan are here. In fact, Castle in the Desert is really more like two mysteries in one. While the solution to the first is fairly obvious, it's still a lot of fun and just an appetizer for the more difficult and dangerous mystery to come. This was Toler's last Chan film for Fox and, by the time this one was made, Toler could have played the role in his sleep. He seems so at ease with the character. The rest of the cast is enjoyable with Henry Daniell and, one of my favorites, Douglass Dumbrille standing out in support. Another bonus for Castle in the Desert is that Victor Sen Yung as #2 son Jimmy Chan isn't anywhere near as annoying as he is in some of the other Chan films.

Overall, Castle in the Desert is a nice finale to the Chan films at Fox. Nothing that would come later at Monogram is anywhere close to matching it. I've got no problem rating this one a strong 7/10 verging on an 8/10.