Charlie Chan in London
Directed by Eugene Ford
1934/USA
Fox Film Corporation
First Viewing
Charlie Chan: If you want wild bird to sing do not put him in cage.
A woman is convinced that her brother, who has been sentenced to death, is innocent of murdering the Secretary of the Hunt at a mansion where he was staying. Charlie Chan (Werner Oland) is called in on the case only three days before the hanging. Will he be able to discover the true killer on the grounds of the British country house? Need you ask? Also with Ray Milland as the condemned man’s attorney and Alan Mowbray as the owner of the mansion.
This is a pretty good entry in the Charlie Chan series. Charlie does without the assistance of Number One Son here. The DVD comes with a featurette in which various people argue that the Charlie Chan character, despite some stereotyping, was a positive development for the image of Chinese Americans in films. Up to then, Chinese were generally portrayed as either servants or evil doers. Charlie Chan was always the smartest guy in the room. It’s unfortunate that the times allowed him to be portrayed by a Swede, however talented.
