Charlie Chan in Rio

With performers like Carmen Miranda and Cesar Romero on its roster, and with Don Ameche, Linda Darnell, and Tyrone Power looking as if they could be from South America, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, etc., Fox did lots of films purportedly set in these exotic locales. "Charlie Chan in Rio" from 1941 is one of these, though a lot of stock footage is used to give the illusion of actually being in Rio.

Charlie and son Jimmy are in Rio and go to a nightclub with the police chief to arrest a nightclub singer, Lola Dean. Dean is suspected of killing her married lover in Honolulu. Charlie decides it would be better to arrest her at home. However, she is found dead, and her jewels have been stolen.

As usual, there are too many suspects, among them a man (Victor Jory) who does prognostics, a sort of mystical mind-reading, Lola's wealthy fiancée, a woman in love with said fiancée, a no-nonsense friend (Mary Beth Hughes) and her boyfriend, Lola's ex-husband, and a butler.

It falls to Charlie to sort all this out, but along the way he and the police chief have a little fun with Jimmy, questioning under the mystic's potion, which puts his subject under hypnosis. Why did he fail math? It was too early to get up in the morning for class.

It seems not only Lola had a secret in her past -- there's plenty else to be learned.

Good fun, with a cute ending.

Although 20th Century Fox even gave Harry Warren and Mack Gordon an opportunity for an original song in Charlie Chan In Reno, the plot is recycled from The Black Camel the second film of the Charlie Chan series that starred Warner Oland ten years earlier. The plot has Charlie and son Victor Sen Yung in Rio DeJaneiro on an extradition charge to arrest and bring Jacqueline Dalya back to Honolulu to face a murder rap.

Dalya is a singer in a Rio nightclub and Sidney Toler and Brazilian police inspector Harold Huber decide to let her finish her act and arrest her at her home. But when they get there she's already been stabbed to death with several guests already there for a dinner party.

Which gives Toler a whole house full of suspects of both sexes. Apparently Dalya played around a lot and she's got some jealous women and men whom they're jealous over.

I won't say who did it, but it does go back to the case that Toler is in Rio on.

This was the next to last film in the Charlie Chan series that 20th Century Fox did and clearly they were running out of ideas and interest in the series. Charlie after one more picture would be doing his sleuthing for Monogram with much reduced production values even from a B picture at a major studio.

Still this one should satisfy Charlie's fans.

Despite my summary, I DID like this film. It's just that despite its title, the film looked like they stuck in some stock footage and everyone in the film spoke English. Plus, oddly, the Brazilian police inspector spoke MUCH better English than Charlie--he remembered to use all his definite articles (such as 'the')! This isn't a major problem about the film, but it is kind of funny.

The plot involves the murder of a woman who is already wanted for murder. The rest of the film is just about what you'd expect from a Charlie Chan film made by FOX--Charlie's son (in this case #2) is a bumbling and obnoxious assistant, there are twists and turns and many different suspects, and in the end, Chan catches the murderer. No major surprises, but it was a bit odd seeing the wonderful magic potion developed by the psychic--just smoke one of his special cigarettes, drink a bit of coffee and you almost instantly fall asleep and tell the truth! If only this were true--imagine the fun you could have with your friends! This is a completely average outing for the series--not bad, nor especially compelling. For fans, it is pretty much what they'd expect and for the non-Chan fans out there, probably not enough to make them love the series.

"Gee, Pop," Jimmy Chan says, "She doesn't look like a murderess." Number two son and his famous father share a table with the local police captain in a Rio nightclub, watching Lola Dean sing and dance—and waiting to arrest her for a murder back in Honolulu.

–Alas, Lola herself is murdered before they get the chance, and the Chans begin sorting through the usual suspects—a couple of romantic rivals, a secretary, a fiancé, a psychic who gives his clients spell-inducing cigarettes and also owns a recording machine….

A solid supporting cast fill their roles nicely, particularly Victor Jory as Marana, the psychic who offers his clients a "psychognosis" and is certainly up to something fishy. Kay Linaker also stands out as the purposeful personal secretary.

Sidney Toler and Sen Yung are excellent as usual as Charlie Chan and son Jimmy. The local policeman is played, as in multiple other Chan films, by Harold Huber—more restrained this time around, he's an actual detective rather than simple comic relief.

Iris Wong is cute as Lola's maid, Lili. Of course, Jimmy tries to impress her with his detective skills—"The case is in the bag. It's a cinch!"—and they have a little romance.

A memorable climax involves Mr. Chan volunteering to undergo Marana's coffee-and-cigarette hypnosis: Chan puffs and puffs, that little smile on his face, nothing happening, while the gathered suspects wait and wait….

No wasted motion in this one—short and sweet. The plot is unexceptional but the production and performances are absolutely solid: for simple entertainment value, this is one of the series' best.

As others have pointed out, this is a remake of The Black Camel, which itself was one of the original Chan stories by Biggers. If you've seen the earlier film, then of course you know the twist by which this one is solved - which of course is very disappointing. Were people really not paying attention between the two versions of this story? Harold Huber gets to play a policeman straight this time, which is a big improvement over the usual clowning he was required to do in other Chans. Son Jimmy intrudes on the story too much for me, as usual, but doesn't express the worst of his pop-eyed hammyness in this one. There's not much Rio here, as others have complained, but this is a B movie, not a travelogue. The ladies are lovely, there's a musical number, and Jimmy gets an action scene near the end. All in all, quite good.