The Black Camel

I must forewarn, one and all, I love murder mysteries. I am also a huge fan of the Earl der Biggers character, Charlie Chan. They are rather formulaic with their always being a young lovebirds involved in each case. The handsome young man in this one...was Robert Young's first starring role. The cast included Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye, apparently they had become a tagteam of sorts. Their movie Dracula had come out earlier that year. Bela played a famous mind reader that was in Hawaii on business. We meet Warner Oland, my personal favorite Charlie Chan, casing the mind reader, trying to disguise himself as a Chinese business man. Of course, Bela sees right through the charade and deduces that Charlie is really a policeman...Charlie warns Bela that they don't care for ripoff artists on the islands. Bela tells Charlie that they are both mystics...Chan investigates the past, while he investigates the future. The movie was full of plot twists and red herrings. The direction was crisp and the acting first rate. Though, in today's world of political correctness, the Asian stereotypes would be and are inappropriate...if one can overlook accepted bias' from eons ago...you can enjoy one of the first Charlie Chan's ever made. I believe Charlie Chan Carries On is the first episode of Charlie Chan, portrayed by Warner Oland...this is the second episode and one well worth your time to watch.

One of the very best of the early Charlie Chan films,'The Black Camel' features Warner Oland in his second outing as the Honolulu detective.With actual filming on Hawaiian locations(one of the few that did)the oriental sleuth tries to solve the murder of an unpleasant and very unpopular young actress,sifting through the usual baffling clues,and investigating one of the finest casts of suspects ever assembled for the series:Murray Kinnell,Victor Varconi,Robert Young,Richard Tucker and(fresh from their triumph in 'Dracula')Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi!Viewers will also enjoy a look at Charlie's domestic life and huge family.In these earlier Chan films much of the basic plotlines followed the stories of Earl Derr Biggers' novels.

The 2nd real Charlie Chan film, the earliest to survive of the 38 that Warner Oland and then Sidney Toler churned out over the next 16 years for Fox and Monogram. Pretty faithful to Earl Derr Bigger's book, this only suffers mildly from the echoey staginess associated with early talkies, with some erratic acting but also some lovely smoky visuals of "Honolulu".

A woman with a dark past is stabbed to death at a hotel - of course all of the guests along with the butler and maid are involved for Charlie to sort through and mull over. Unravelling the threads of the mystery Charlie proved his eyes had microscopic capabilities (wonder how much DNA fingerprinting would've slowed him down?) - and that he was one of those "very clever men able to bite pie without breaking crust". There's a beautiful scene with the entire Chan Clan at the breakfast table that's worth a look on it's own. It all runs delightfully true to form, the excellent polished cast playing up well, especially young Robert Young and Bela Lugosi.

I can't speak for everyone else of course but I still cherish the hope films 1/3/4/5 will one day be found for the additional 5 hours pleasure.

Hollywood star Shelah Fane is filming her latest movie in Honolulu, while keeping her name in the papers with her whirlwind romance to Alan Jaynes, traveling playboy. Shelah decides to send for her psychic consultant, Tarneverro, to advise her if marrying Jaynes is the right thing for her to do, but while consulting with him, Shelah hints of a murder she committed a few years earlier, one Denny Mayo. Later she is found dead by her friend Julie, and the case is turned over to Inspector Charlie Chan, who has to figure out the Denny Mayo connection to both Shelah and the murder suspect. Nice entry in the Chan series, helped immensely by the on location shooting in Hawaii. Even with Lugosi as Tarneverro (a suspect no doubt) the suspects do not really give any sinister or worth-a-closer-look performances here. Yamaoka is really annoying as Chan's bumbling assistant (the latter word used loosely) Kashimo. The main problem with the film is too many characters with their own story in a movie that can't quite crack the B movie mold. Later remade as Charlie Chan in Rio. Rating, based on B mysteries, 4.

This is the earliest surviving Charlie Chan film to star Warner Oland as the detective (not counting 1929's BEHIND THAT CURTAIN, which only briefly featured Chan), an entertaining mystery nicely directed with stylish shooting and locations for such an early talkie. Chan is in Honolulu investigating the murder of a young movie actress and tries to untangle the relation between her death and a prior killing of another actor she used to know. Bela Lugosi, fresh after "Dracula" and riding its successes for a brief time in his career, is very good as a mystic involved in the mystery. A real treat of the picture comes whenever watching Lugosi and Oland interacting together. Dwight Frye, Bela's sidekick "Renfield" from "Dracula", also has a part as a butler. A very young Robert Young (of FATHER KNOWS BEST fame) is also on hand albeit in a rather insignificant part. This was the only time Chan was assisted by his bumbling sidekick Kashimo, and it's for the best, as this character is extremely irritating. *** out of ****