Eram Treze

1931's "Eran Trece" (There Were Thirteen) still exists as the only foreign language version of a Charlie Chan feature, in this case Warner Oland's debut "Charlie Chan Carries On," one of four sadly lost titles among his first five (he completed 16 by the time of his 1938 death). All five of these early entries were adapted from recent publications by original Chan creator Earl Derr Biggers, Fox beginning their run of globetrotting originals in 1934 with "Charlie Chan in London," continuing all the way up until the 1942 release of "Castle in the Desert," the 11th outing for Oland's capable replacement, Sidney Toler. The problem with the Spanish "Eran Trece" is not just the absence of Warner Oland, Manuel Arbo cast as the Chinese detective living with his growing family on Punchbowl Hill, but its slavish adherence to the Biggers novel "Charlie Chan Carries On," the character kept off screen for the entire first half as a rather lazy investigation is conducted by Scotland Yard's Inspector Duff (Rafael Calvo). Murder strikes a London hotel during a world cruise organized by Dr. Lofton (Julio Villarreal), all the suspects allowed to continue to their final destination in San Francisco due to lack of evidence or even motive, though it later becomes clear that the killer is using a phony name to infiltrate the party to avenge himself on a wife who ran off with another man, both now marked for death. The largely unknown Spanish cast ensures that tedium results from so many interchangeable characters cluttering up a nonexistent storyline, which would have benefitted greatly with their English speaking counterparts, in particular Warren Hymer and Marjorie White as the comic relief Chicago couple. Only when a stopover in Honolulu finally introduces Chan is there a reprieve, Arbo at least a physical match for Oland, yet he is given little to do but wander from one place to another as the ship moves on to California, his only recourse to set a trap for the culprit because of the absolute lack of clues available (the 1929 "Behind That Curtain" would have fared even worse, as the studio practically wrote Chan out of the story until the very end). Manuel Arbo may not be an ideal replacement for Warner Oland, but he enjoyed a lengthy career with over 200 credits in Mexico, working right up to his 1973 death. While "Charlie Chan Carries On" remains a lost film, one can happily indulge in its 1940 remake, "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise," this time keeping Sidney Toler's Chan front and center while eliminating Inspector Duff in the opening reel, and including not one but two Chan sons for company, Lionel Atwill as the cruise director.

I've held out for a long time not seeing this in the hope that the original Warner Oland version would be unearthed somewhere … no such luck, as yet! So is this surviving simultaneous Spanish language version any good then? Well, it's OK in it's own right, a bit stagey but I still missed Oland in what would have been his first Chan effort. Films 3-5 also remain lost.

A man on a world tour with a group of shifty fellow travellers with fishy attitudes is murdered in a hotel room in London, and of course Scotland Yard hasn't got an answer to all of the clues presented. Two murders later and 41 minutes in we all get to Honolulu where Charlie Chan carries on where his British Inspector friend was forced to leave off. Manuel Arbo was passable as Charlie, with plenty of killer aphorisms up his sleeve – "Man not fool until he does something foolish" – but he appeared very melodramatic and I wearied a bit of his grimacing. The rest of the suspects, er cast were intense stereotypes – unwary people might wonder at the simplicity of it all, but isn't everybody and everything on the planet a stereotype? It followed the usual rules, so if you know your Charlie Chan format you can whittle the suspects down to a final two or three, or one if you're lucky. Charlie, as he did many times later cheated by applying subterfuge over deductive reasoning in his unmasking of the dastard but I could see that coming as well.

Overall well worth it to a Chan completist, OK for Golden Age aficionados, so I enjoyed it on both levels but I did warn you if you hate either genre.

"Eran Trece" has obvious novelty value - a Charlie Chan movie entirely in Spanish! - but beyond that, it's a pretty good little mystery on its own; it certainly looks good and moves well for a 1931 production. However, it goes on too long (for example, the entire "impressions at the party" sequence could have been cut), and - as in many later Chan pictures - the killer seems to be picked out of a lottery; there are no particular clues to indicate that it has to be person A instead of person B or person C. **1/2 out of 4.

A Spanish version of Charlie Chan 'Charlie Chan Carries on' survives. Made for the Latin American & Spain's audiences while the English version seem lost but who knows if it can be found. A group of American tourists travelling around the world & one of them is murdered & the suspect is among those tourists. Arbo, from Spain, is no Werner Oland but plays the hero detective quite convincing. Is good to mention the actress who plays the gangster's wife, one of the suspects, was from Puerto Rico & gives a sweet performance. But wonder who played Chan's wife, Japanese but for me an unknown actress.

This is the very rare Spanish language version of the lost original Charlie Chan film, "Charlie Chan Carries On". I believe that there is not a version that has English subtitles as I viewed the film with the help of a detailed synopsis I found in Cult Movies magazine #27.

The film has entirely different actors and a different crew from the American film, which was shot 7 months earlier. In fact, it was released after "The Black Camel" came out - the 2nd Warner Oland Chan film.

Eran Trece is an interesting film, though. It is particularly interesting to watch Manuel Arbo portray Chan in a very impish way, more physical than Oland or Toler. He moves around quite a bit in his limited screen time (Chan appears half way through the movie). He is very charming in his own original way and his tone is also warm. It's worth noting that at this time detectives in films were hard-boiled and/or intellectual and Chan, even in this early form stands out as very polite, and hard-working. Arbo gives a different take than Oland, but he is still very much Chan throughout.

As for the plot, it is complicated and without subtitles very difficult to follow the details. I was grateful to have the long synopsis, but if anyone is interested they should read the novel "Charlie Chan Carries On" by Earl Derr Biggers, or watch the remake with Sidney Toler, "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise". All in all, Eran Trece is a worthy Chan film.