Dead Men Tell

"Dead Men Tell" is an enjoyable Charlie Chan mystery from 1941.

People gather for a treasure hunt via ship to an island, based on a map an elderly woman, Patience Nodbury, inherited from her ancestor, a pirate named Black Hook. Since someone has attempted to steal the map, she's divided it into four pieces and gives three pieces to three passengers.

Patience says that Black Hook visits each relative before they die, and Black Hook visits her, all right, but in this case, he kills her.

Charlie and Jimmy want to solve her murder, and they have plenty of suspects. There's a man posing as a reporter, Bill Lydig (George Reeves), a neurotic man, Gene LaFarge, who has a psychiatrist with him, and the captain, Captain Kane, whose ex-partner left him to do on a deserted island.

Dark, atmospheric film with Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in trouble most of the time. Toler has an authoritative presence as Charlie. He's less whimsical than Warner Oland, and his gruff voice gives his line readings a nice sarcasm. He tells Jimmy "Save alibi for your autobiography."

One thing I noticed is, though these films have been criticized for not being politically correct, in the bar scene, no one calls Jimmy derogatory names. They make fun of him, but no one acts as if he looks different.

In fact, I have never picked up anything like that in any film, directed at Charlie or one of his children. It seems to me that these are films of their time, which make them un-p.c. By today's enlightened standards, but the writers never meant to be deliberately insulting.

Just an interesting thought, as the days of casting someone Chinese as Chinese were a long way off.

An agreeable entry in the Charlie Chan series, this is an extremely well-made little movie, directed by Harry Lachman, and featuring some striking shots of an old pirate vessel in port and a tough waterfront dive. It's all cliches, nicely cobbled together, and served up with good humor by actors who don't seem to be taking themselves too seriously. Sidney Toler makes an agreeably phlegmatic and dignified Chan; while Sen Yung's Number Two Son gets into his usual hot water,--in this case actually sea water--as he tries to bail his old man out. Ethel Griffies is splendid as the haunted (and hunted) Mrs. Nodbury, Truman Bradley sinister as a pipe-smoking captain, George Reeves breezy as a suspect. I especially liked the quietly neurasethenic performance of Milton Parsons as a Boston Brahmin on vacation, trying to overcome a recent nervous breakdown. He picked one hell of a vacation spot! Highly recommended for fans of maritime mysteries, treasure maps, talking parrots and nocturnal strolls around creaking, fogbound wharves.

Patience Nodbury has a treasure map worth $60,000,000 that has been handed down from her pirate ancestor `Black Hook.' Someone has already tried to steal it and she cuts it into four, sending three pieces to other members of the Cocoas Island Treasure Hunt Cruise. As Charlie Chan arrives on the sailing ship Suva Star, Patience meets her long-departed ancestor (complete with peg leg and hook for a hand) and she succumbs from a weak heart. `Trouble like first love, teach many lessons.'

Most of the rest of the film is set aboard the Suva Star (in port) where Charlie and his `favorite son' Jimmy set about to discover who would frighten a little old lady to death. The set is well constructed and presents an eerie location. Good camera work with lots of spooky shadows.

A good array of possible suspects includes George Reeves (later Superman on TV) and since the old sailing ship used to be a pirate museum, it provides an interesting array of props. Jimmy Chan provides good comic relief and spends a good deal of the film in the harbor having even walked the plank. When Jimmy offers to help guard and wants Charlie's gun, Pop responds with `Bullet from killer much easier to take than bullet from #2 son.' Milton Parsons skulks around as an interesting character that is trying to over come psychoses. A talking parrot `Gerdy' helps Chan unravel part of the mystery.

There are plenty of clues and they come fast, but this is the first Chan film that I have seen where the detective does not neatly wrap it up at the end and tell you what you should have seen or at least what he knew that you did not know. Unless the version I saw was cut (it might have been), Chan does not reveal how he knew the identity of the killer at the summation. But, there is one good clue and you might catch it. Fair but I liked this one better when I saw it as a kid.

If many of the other 'Charlie Chan' movies are real gems, some smaller, some quite big (like "The Black Camel" or "Charlie Chan's Secret"), this much lesser known film is perhaps the 'Golden Jubilee' among them all - and among mystery movies in general. With moderate, but immensely effective means, this mixture between a scary ghost story and a solid whodunit goes way beyond the general line of the 'Charlie Chan' series: there are elements of horror that can compete with any horror classic of the time, while the atmosphere is overall Noirish, with everything from the characteristic lighting effects to the feeling of doom that seems to hang over the protagonists as much as the fog on deck...

Strange, but very determined elderly Miss Nodbury, the ancestor of a notorious pirate who was hanged for murder, has organized a 'treasure hunt' on the island where the pirate's treasure is hidden - worth 60,000,000 dollars! But she wants to call off the trip on board the old pirate ship 'Suva Star' the last minute, because the night before somebody tried to steal the pirate's map that was in her possession - but the old lady is clever: she has divided the map into four parts and kept only one part to herself, while she sent the other three to members of the expedition. Still, somebody obviously is craving for ALL of the pieces, and so, on the same night, pirate captain "Black Hook" himself, in whose ghost Miss Nodbury has always believed, seems to come in order to claim them and summon Miss Nodbury to her ancestors...

Now don't believe that this is just another whodunit with only a little bit of 'ghost hokum' in it - there are moments when the strange, melancholy melody that 'means death', as Miss Nodbury insisted, and the sound of the pirate's wooden leg approaching ACTUALLY make not only the expedition members, but also us think our conviction that there ARE no ghosts over again...

But then, of course, there's a VERY real murder to solve; because while you COULD explain Miss Nodbury's death as a natural one, due to her heart problems and her strong belief in ghosts - you certainly can't put the blame for the suffocation of a man in an old diving bell on supernatural powers! And there's a really illustrious group of suspects on board, from a numismatist who doesn't seem to know his occupation's scientific name to a neurotic and his woman psychiatrist to the hardened, taciturn captain himself...

This movie is indeed perfect in EVERY way: the eerie atmosphere the direction creates with all means from the settings to the sound effects to the shadows and the fog is completed by a marvelous cast - in particular Ethel Griffies as the pirate's heiress is simply MAGNIFICENT. In order not to scare the wits out of the audience completely, of course some humor is added as always (with Jimmy falling into the harbor basin with every opportunity) - but all ye who are about to watch this movie for the first time, be prepared for some VERY creepy moments!

But speaking seriously now, as a long-time fanatic of classic B movies: to my knowledge and in my opinion, this is about the MOST underrated B mystery movie of all times.

"Number Two Son" Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) sneaks aboard a ship about to embark on a treasure hunt. Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) comes looking for him and finds a murder to investigate with a boatload of suspects.

Exemplary entry in the Toler Chan series. Eerie, moody atmosphere with some of the best cinematography and direction of any of the Chan films. Lots of close-ups. Nice cast includes George Reeves, Milton Parsons, and pretty Kay Aldridge. Jimmy Chan is on screen a lot in this one, so if you're not a fan be prepared. I happen to like Jimmy and I didn't think his comic relief here was too much, as some have said. Treasure maps, pirates, talking parrots, and even a future Superman -- what's not to love?