Charlie Chan em Honolulu

This has to be the wildest of the Charlie Chan movies I've seen. It was Sidney Toler's first effort in the lead role, replacing Warner Oland, and it featured more comedy than any other Chan film to that point.

In this film, Chan and his number two son Tommy, his number five son Charlie Jr., and others including a doctor who keeps a live brain in his suitcase, all provide laughs. Along the way is a funny-faced lunatic animal keeper and a lion on the loose. They provide a lot of laughs.

As far as suspects go, there is a strange psychiatrist (the one with the portable brain), two pretty women, two ship's captains, a guy disguised as a cop and his suspect. I told you it was wild. It's too difficult to figure out "whodunnit," so you just sit back and enjoy the wild action and humor.

Yeah, it's silly.....but it''s tremendously enjoyable.

"Charlie Chan in Honolulu" is Sidney Toler's first Charlie Chan, and the difference between him in this and in his last films is very noticeable. Here he is much more lively.

As this story unfolds, Charlie's daughter is about to give birth, and while he and his wife are at the hospital, the police call Charlie at home and ask him to go to a ship where someone has been murdered. Aspiring detective Jimmy Chan (Sen Yung, Bonanza's Hop Sing) intercepts the call, and he and #5 son Tommy (Layne Tom Jr. Who in real life became a distinguished architect) decide to take on the case.

Tommy immediately gets stuck in an area where wild animals are being kept for importation to the zoo; chaos ensues. This takes up some footage at the beginning.

Charlie finally arrives and tries to sort out the mess, but there's another murder, and a missing and reappearing $10,000, a mysterious doctor (George Zucco) who pretends to be deaf and has an interesting science experiment on board, a fast-talking detective and his charge -- meanwhile, Charlie keeps getting calls from his son-in-law.

They really threw the book at this one, complete with very dramatic music, as Toler's debut. He's delightful.

One of the crazier Chan films, but it's nice to see Toler so energetic, and the Chan family is fun.

Upon Warner Roland's death, it was SIDNEY TOLER's turn to play the Chinese detective with the huge family. This time his son is played by Victor Sen Yung, who would go on to play the role of Jimmy Chan in many future Chan films.

This time the plot involves $300,000 of stolen money and a slew of passengers aboard a freighter, several of which are suspicious enough to be questioned by Chan about their associations. RICHARD LANE, MARC LAWRENCE, PHYLLIS BROOKS, EDDIE COLLINS and ROBERT BARRAT are the chief suspects but it's GEORGE ZUCCO, a mad doctor with thick glasses carrying a live brain in a suitcase, who makes the most vivid impression and, at one point, actually seems to be the killer when a couple of murders occur.

Not the best of the series, but it does make a good start for Sidney Toler who would go on to keep playing Chan until the mid-'40s. The comic relief from Eddie Collins is sometimes painful and Chan's quotations are a bit much, as usual. He gathers the passengers together for the final scene and stages a bit of detective work that gives the story a nice finish.

Summing up: As usual, the viewer is given almost no way to solve the crime.

A fun opening scene: a dinner table crowded with Chans of all sizes. Charlie (Sidney Toler) tries briefly to quiet down his offspring and enforce some manners; they listen politely to his proverb and then go right back to grabbing food and yelling.

Lots of family involvement in this Charlie Chan picture, especially in the first half. A Chan daughter is about to deliver a first grandchild, to the excitement of all. Number two son Jimmy (Sen Yung) wants to be a detective and has even made business cards: "I bet I could be the best in the islands," he tells his pop, "with your help." 10-year-old Tommy Chan (the hilarious Layne Tom, Jr.) has the same detecting bug as Jimmy.

With Charlie off at the maternity hospital, a case inevitably develops—it's a murder on a ship just arrived in port. Jimmy and Tommy ill-advisedly start the investigation on their own; soon enough, Jimmy nearly gets himself thrown overboard for impersonating an officer. Of course, Charlie arrives on board just in time to rescue him: "Young squirt merely chip masquerading as block."

Eventually, the picture does settle down into a nice study of several suspects. The great George Zucco is suspicious-looking Dr. Cardigan; Phyllis Brooks is a woman travelling with $300,000 in cash and is the only witness to the murder; Richard Lane and Marc Lawrence are a cop and prisoner on their way home to the States; Claire Dodd is a mysterious female who may be keeping some secrets; and Robert Barrat is the ship's captain who can't wait to get his cargo back out to sea. Eddie Collins is comic relief as a scaredy-cat animal trainer in charge of a lower hold full of zoo animals.

It's a pretty good mystery and throws suspicion back and forth quite well; although I've seen this one before, I couldn't remember who did it and I couldn't guess, either!

While this is the first film in the series for both Sidney Toler and Sen Yung, both seem so familiar in their roles that it's hard to evaluate them as newcomers—apparently that's a good indication that both stepped in and became instantly at home.

More humor than most Chan pictures, but solid all the way around.

Fairly good blend of comedy and mystery. There's been a murder aboard ship in Honolulu and Charlie must leave his clan and expectant daughter-in-law to investigate. Highlight for me is George Zucco doing his mad scientist routine with usual straight face. Here he collects human brains in bottles, and when he grabs Jimmy Chan (Sen Yung) to measure his head, it's funnier than all the other antics combined. Fine cast, including fast-talking Dick Lane, sinister Marc Lawrence, Kewpie-doll Phyllis Brooks, and the much-underrated Claire Dodd with a force to her that's good enough for A-pictures. Also, it's a sprightly Sydney Toler in his first turn as the Chinese detective. For me, the rotund rubber-faced Eddie Collins is a matter of taste, but he does have his moments with the pet lion (likely left over from another production). Anyway, it's a good fast 60 minutes with a well-developed array of suspects and a number of chuckles.