Charlie Chan à l'opéra

Of all the mystery detectives who made their mark on the big screen, the most easily recognizable was Charlie Chan. Originally created by Earl Derr Biggers, he went on to star in some thirty or forty episodes, Although Warner Oland appears in this film " Charlie Chan, at the Opera " this would become his last as Sidney Tolar would later replace him. Director H. Bruce Humberstone makes much of the great talent he assembles when the late great Boris Karloff plays Gravelle. Keye Luke from 'Kung Fu' fame plays Charlie Chan's son. The story has Karloff playing a dark sinister character who seems quite mad. Escaping from an Insane asylum Gravelle promises to get revenge of the individual who tried to kill him in a fire. Besides the magnificent operatic voices, there is dark drama and intrigue in the film as the audience enjoys Karloff at his best as he matches wits with the great Honnlulu detective when murder and mayhem visit the Opera House. William Demarest makes for an appearance as a police officer. All in all, this is but one of the many movies, which intrigues audiences in the 30 and 40's. Recommended. ****

According to my sources, there seems to be a slight disagreement on the singing in this movie. Denis Gifford's Karloff bio says that Karloff did his own singing (and he could have; he was a fair baritone and sang in the Dulwich College chorus). Oscar Levant's autobiography claims that Karloff was dubbed. Oscar Levant, however, seems to have been writing from an unreliable memory, as he gets other details wrong including the movie synopsis. There are three singing voices heard in the movie: soprano, tenor, and baritone. The tenor was never seen, but was heard onstage while Chan and Number One Son were backstage. Both actresses playing sopranos were synching to the same recording. Karloff may also have been synching to a recording, but it could well have been his own, both for the reason given above and because Levant's opera was written for the movie--no previous recordings existed at the time, and why would the studio have spent extra money on a second singer for a B-budget film when they already had someone on the film who could handle the baritone singing? (Even the Faust costume worn by both baritones onstage was secondhand--it was first worn by Lawrence Tibbett in "Metropolitan", filmed earlier in 1936!)

This entry in the long-running and hugely popular 'Charlie Chan' series takes us into the distinguished - and a bit decadent - world of grand opera: famous soprano singer Lilli Rochelle, eccentric and somewhat conceited, is on the brink of hysteria because she's received a death threat for the very same day - her opening night in Los Angeles, after being away for seven years. And on exactly the same day, an amnesiac breaks out of a mental asylum after seven years; because, as soon as he sees her picture in the papers, he seems to remember something...

Meanwhile, we learn that second soprano Anita Barelli is madly jealous of Lilli - not only because she's the star, but mainly because she's got an affair with her husband! And then there's a young couple hanging around backstage all the time, for some reason trying by all means to get to Lilli - but then the opera performance starts, and very soon a murderous drama REALLY worthy of any opera libretto begins to take its course...

Except for the comic relief provided by Lee Chan and the cops, this film is pretty earnest, at times dramatic, if not even melodramatic; but we must undoubtedly admit that Boris Karloff probably plays one of the BEST roles of his life here: mad, full of hatred, and then again pitiful and sympathetic... While in other movies he usually only showed parts of his full acting range at a time - here he demonstrates them all in one!

Fans of Charlie Chan, Boris Karloff or both should find little to dislike about Charlie Chan at the Opera. Count me as someone who likes Karloff a great deal and gets a fair amount of pleasure watching the Charlie Chan film series. The general consensus is that Charlie Chan at the Opera is one of the best of the series, and it is a consensus that I agree with wholeheartedly. If there is anything that didn't work very well, it was that that Boris Karloff's singing was dubbed very obviously with the sloppy lip synch and the singing voice sounds very little like Karloff when he speaks(Karloff probably did have some singing talent, but there is a lot of truth in what has been said already that he probably wouldn't have been an actor if he was THAT good). Tudor Williams does dub him brilliantly though, the dark velvety quality(that is fairly reminiscent of the great baritone Lawrence Tibbett) of his voice makes him captivating and thrilling to listen to. That aside, the film is very pleasing to look at, well shot with effectively used settings. The Mephistopheles costume was really striking and Karloff looks very imposing(he always did though) in it. The music is grandiose, playful and beautiful, the opera Carnival was composed especially and it is well-utilised and is one that you wish made appearances on the opera stage. Apart from the lip-synch, Karloff is still very good here, he is charismatic and formidable but clearly knows how to have a good time. Warner Oland is spot-on as a character that suits him to a tee, in particular he really relishes his hilariously droll lines and it shows in his sly delivery of them. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, Charlie Chan's lines are like little bon bons and you have to love the nod to Karloff and one of his most iconic roles. All the acting is very good though. The scenes with William Demarest are every bit as fun as those with Karloff and Oland. The mystery parts of the story are well-paced, have good amounts of suspense- not too obvious or predictable- and keeps your "little grey cells"(in the words of Agatha Christie and her immortal creation Hercule Poirot) working, complete with some great atmosphere. Overall, non-stop entertainment from start to finish. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Given that Boris Karloff is one of my favorite actors, it's no surprise this is my favorite Charlie Chan movie. Now, of course since Karloff is here, we have to start the movie with an atmosphere akin to that of a horror film. Karloff plays an amnesiac opera singer named Gravelle. He regains his memory and escapes from a sanitarium on a stormy night to go find his daughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a child. The police are desperate to catch Gravelle, so they call in Charlie Chan (Warner Oland).

Oland is pitch-perfect as always. Keye Luke as "Number One Son" Lee gets to have lots of fun running around in costume backstage at the opera, trying to help his father on the case. William Demarest plays a police sergeant jealous of Charlie who makes several bigoted remarks throughout the movie but comes to respect the superior detective by the end. Boris Karloff gives a terrific performance, which should come as a surprise to no one familiar with his work. He's the only actor in the entire series to be able to match Warner Oland's screen presence.

Fast pace, interesting setting, great performances, and a particularly nice atmosphere make this an exceptional entry in the always delightful Charlie Chan series. I'm not big on opera but the music written by Oscar Levant for this film is pretty good and adds to an overall excellent production. As I said before, this is my favorite Charlie Chan film and I see by many reviews here I'm not alone. It's definitely a highlight of the series, with a top-notch guest star (Karloff) and an exciting story, helped greatly by the opera backdrop and music.