The Feathered Serpent

As most of you probably know, throughout the Warner Oland Charlie Chan films at Fox, his sidekick was "Number One Son" Lee, played by Keye Luke. Lee was the best of all the Chan children and sidekicks. He was charming and funny but you could also take him seriously as a potential detective, unlike son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung), who was pretty much always played for laughs. After Oland died, Luke left the series and returned here many years later. But the Charlie Chan series was in the sewer by this time. The series was at Monogram and on its last legs with the worst of all Charlie Chans, Roland Winters, as the star. Since Monogram's answer to every problem with the Charlie Chan series was to add more sidekicks, that's exactly what they do here. Welcome back, Lee Chan.

The plot sees Charlie and his sons Lee and Tommy investigating a kidnapping in Mexico. There's also some stuff about an Aztec treasure but that never goes anywhere interesting. This is the penultimate Charlie Chan film at Monogram. It's crap, of course, as all of the Winters Chans were. It seems likely to me they took some sort of jungle adventure script and shoehorned Chan into it to make it a mystery. Still, it's probably the best of the Winters Chan films because of the return of Keye Luke as well as seeing him team up with Victor Sen Yung as the erroneously-named Tommy. Unfortunately, there's also Roland Winters and Mantan Moreland. You take the good, you take the bad I guess.

Yeah, it's bad but the fact that both Keye Luke and Victor Sen Young appear as No. 1 and No. 2 Sons make it worthwhile. I like the outdoor atmosphere and the wind howling at night. It's like Charlie Chan goes camping.

"The Feathered Serpent" is the only Charlie Chan film featuring both Keye Luke and Victor Sen Yung together as Charlie's sons. Charlie here is portrayed by Roland Winters. He does a very good job, but I prefer Warner Oland in the role. He was also so warm and cheerful. Toler was very good, but more sardonic and sarcastic.

In this film, Charlie and two of his sons are asked to investigate a gang who has kidnapped an archaeologist to force him to search for a treasure in Mexico.

Mantan Moreland plays Charlie's chauffeur, Birmingham. I know his characterization is not politically correct today, but what a funny and talented man he was. I always enjoy him in these films.

By this time, Charlie Chan films were being made at a poverty role studio. As offensive as they are today, I take them for what they were and like them. We cannot view everything from today's viewpoints.

This Charlie Chan film is unique in that both Victor Sen Yung and Keye Luke appear in it together. During the climax with the bad guys they handle the rough stuff to bring the culprits to justice and Roland Winters is going to need both of them despite them constantly coming to the wrong conclusions.

Charlie and the boys and chauffeur Mantan Moreland are on a holiday in Mexico when they hear of the disappearance of an old friend of the Chan family, an archeology professor who has disappeared while looking for Aztec treasure, the equivalent of King Tut's tomb in the western hemisphere. They find a colleague of his friend out on the desert, but no sooner do they rescue him than he's murdered. Another murder follows and the the Chan family leads a search party out on the Mexican desert.

This film is more of manhunt than a mystery at least to us because the brains behind all the villainy is revealed just about halfway through the film. Why that was done who knows because it robbed us of any suspense.

That's a pity because for Monogram Charlie Chan feature it's not a bad one.

The 'Feathered Serpent' from the title is a reference to Quetzelcoatl, the Aztec reptile god. This is appropriate since the film is set in Mexico and is about evil doers who are trying to steal Aztec treasure.

As usual, Charlie Chan and his entourage (including #1 and 2 sons as well as Birmingham Brown) is on vacation when murders start taking place around him. First, they find Professor Scott dying and they rescue him...only to soon have an unseen hand bury a dagger into Scott! Considering Scott is a member of a missing expedition who was investigating a lost temple, it's a good bet this and further mayhem are the work of some folks trying to steal the treasure for themselves. However, instead of just making deductions, this one ends with Chan and his party catching the baddies in this temple...baddies who seem willing to stop at nothing to get rich.

The film has two huge problems against it. First, Roland Winters is the third and least interesting actor to regularly play Chan (there was a guy who played him in one early film). Second, after dozens of Chan films, the stories are getting a bit old and familiar. Not a bad film....just not up the usual higher standards of the franchise...though it is nice to have #1 AND #2 sons (Keye Luke and Victor Sen Yung) on hand for this one instead of the usual single son assisting their father.