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.

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 ****

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 was the second Chan film to star Warner Oland in the role. It is also the earliest film of the series proper to survive. (1929's Fox film "Behind That Curtain" is still extant, but has Chan in a very minor part and isn't a true Chan film). It was actually filmed in Honolulu and captures that city as it was in the early 30's. Two "Dracula" alumni appear: the great Bela Lugosi, and Dwight Frye who played Renfield in the horror classic and is a butler here. Based on the Earl Derr Bigger's novel, this was later remade as "Charlie Chan in Rio" with Sidney Toler in the lead. This one is better. Sadly, it appears available only on the collectors' film market. It is worth the search and the viewing. Beware of copies with scenes missing!

Primitive but fairly engaging Charlie Chan mystery, the first surviving film featuring Warner Oland as the genial Oriental detective: its major draws are the Hawaiian backdrop, the murder investigation centering around Hollywood elite and the interesting cast (including Bela Lugosi as a phony mystic, Dwight Frye as an impulsive butler named Jessup, and a pre-stardom Robert Young forming half of the bland romantic interest). Some of its greatest pleasure, then, derives from the interaction between Oland and Lugosi – but also the former's relentless amiable mocking of his earnest but dim-witted assistant. The surprising denouement is not entirely plausible (though seemingly anticipating Hitchcock's STAGE FRIGHT [1950]) – with a revelation concerning Lugosi's true identity, and where the presence of a second murderer is ultimately established. By the way, the film's title – as explained by Chan – is a metaphor for death when it arrives unexpectedly.

P.S. As was the case recently with HORROR ISLAND (1941), my second attempt at watching THE BLACK CAMEL proved more successful than the first – where the playback had frozen completely three-quarters of the way in…and left me curious about the eventual solution of the case!