Charlie Chan al museo delle cere

A convicted murderer (Marc Lawrence) escapes and vows revenge on Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). He receives help from an unscrupulous doctor who lures Charlie to his wax museum for a radio show on criminal cases. I realize that sentence doesn't make a lot of sense but trust me it works out okay. "Number Two Son" Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) is especially high-strung in this one. Chan series vet C. Henry Gordon plays humorously-named villain Dr. Cream. Joan Valerie and Marguerite Chapman provide the pretty. Spooky wax museum backdrop is a plus. This one's got lots of suspects and atmosphere to spare. There are also quite a few implausibilities so be prepared to suspend disbelief more than usual. Still, it's good fun.

This may be the highest ranked Charlie Chan film on this entire website. I feel bad for not being as captured by it as most people do. When you have a movie series with literally dozens of entries, it's easy to see them becoming episodic. It seems like less a movie and more like just a long episode of a TV show. In fact, "Columbo", another detective series actually did have episodes that were this long. That being said, this is still a good movie. I am starting to get more familiar with the characters, especially Charlie Chan's son, Jimmy.

I really do like how they mixed up the formula a bit here. This wasn't really a simple murder mystery. It was interesting to see Charlie find new light shed on an old case. Was there another movie about that? There's so many characters that have distinct roles it's hard to keep up. There's just so much going on with which character was supposed to die, which one was manipulated, and how someone even died. It's not a mystery to the audience as much, but more to the characters. I still like this dynamic and would recommend this. Uh, sorry I couldn't keep up with the plot that well! ***

Dangerous McBirney, who's just been sentenced to death on the evidence Charlie Chan gave, escapes and heads directly for an old acquaintance, Dr. Cream, once a famous facial surgeon (with his 'best' clients being from the underworld), to get a 'new' face from him; but Dr. Cream has gone into another business now: he's the owner of a wax museum of crime - and exactly from there a radio reporter decides to make a broadcast on the infamous Rocke case, where an innocent man was executed, as Charlie had always pointed out; and of course, he invites Charlie as well as his 'antagonist' Dr. Von Brom, who insists that Rocke was guilty.

Now can you imagine a more appropriate setting for a creepy, mysterious murder mystery with more and more complications coming up and confusing us as well as Charlie (and Jimmy, who as usual finds his way in through some rear window) than a 'Crime Museum', full of dummies portraying murderers with guns and daggers in their hands, jail cells, gallows, executioner's axes and electric chairs...? And the ruthless killers, who are after Charlie because he helped convict McBirney, intend to use the latter in a VERY diabolical way...

There are so many different murder cases intertwined here that in the end we really don't know anymore who's who (especially since there's someone here who can 'change' faces) and who's after whom; and so we all (especially Jimmy...) witness some REALLY frightening scenes in this eerie 'House of Wax' - a movie which provides us with absolutely GREAT crime entertainment, a 'must' for every fan of the genre!

Excellent series entry and one of Sidney Toler's best Chan films. New direction by Lynn Shores gives this series a new look and feel. The most significant feature of this film is the mixing of suspicious characters with very realistic wax figures in the dark dungeon-like Dr. Cream's Chamber of Horrors on the New York waterfront (admission 25¢) Naturally it is raining outside most of the time (thunder and lightening to boot) and the lights keep going out.

Witty dialog add to the enjoyment. Chan provides his usual pearls of wisdom: `Knowledge only gained through curiosity,' `Mice only play when cat supposed to be in bed,' and `Sometimes better to see and not tell…' We can thank writer John Larkin who also penned a few other good Chan films including `Charlie Chan at Treasure Island.'

The story unfolds quickly and the comic relief provided by Jimmy Chan is more subtle than it other entries. Plenty of suspects, lots of misdirection, more than enough clues, and in the end Chan reveals what he knew that could not be known by the viewer; i.e. you can only guess who is the killer. Nevertheless, just sit back and enjoy this one. My wife even liked it. Highly recommended.

Of all the Chans that I know, this is both the best and the most interesting.

The setting is really cool. Its a wax museum where contemporary crimes are displayed, using personalities that are alive and are among the statues of themselves. It is also a plastic surgery where crooks get their faces changed. And thirdly it is the site of a broadcast radio show where unsolved crimes are re-enacted on-air.

It sounds complicated, and it is. But it is all done very matter of factly, so that these three very clever notions overlap and sometimes merge. Regular readers of my comments know that I love this sort of stuff, stuff I call "folding." Folding is stuff that plays with the notions of representation, and the fun is in how the movieness can play with itself, presenting to us and at the same time noodling with what it means to present.

Detecting in folds has always been a way of discovering narrative. Charlie Chan mysteries aren't the most cerebral of things along these lines. And the actual mystery here is impossible for the audience to anticipate. Its just revealed.

But in just the form of the thing, its great fun. It even has a chess-playing machine, a pretty savvy reference to a fourth fold. (One of the earliest

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.