Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)

The story begins with Charlie Chan giving a lesson is blood stain pattern to the Honolulu police, but that is interrupted by news of a horse race which excites everybody, and the policemen all place their bets. Unfortunately the favored horse loses. But that horse, along with their fellow racehorses, are taken aboard a ship from Australia to Honolulu, and en route the favored horse's owner is murdered, supposedly by being kicked by a horse. Chan is called in and quickly proves otherwise, but this is only the beginning.The ship goes to the U. S. mainland where the horses are to race, but there are some gambling racketeers behind the scenes-what do they plan to do, and can Chan foil them? Again the story keeps you guessing, and comic relief aplenty is provided by Number One Son and his antics. There is another stereotypical high-strung black person who plays a minor role in this movie. (The problem is less that such characters exist than the fact that black people never seem to be cast in any other roles in that era.)

Charlie Chan gets involved in this case when a good friend is killed. He moves into the horse racing world. In so doing, he becomes the target of a crime syndicate that is involved in illegal betting. Avalanche, the horse that is the favorite, acts erratically. All sorts of shenanigans take place on board the steamship bring the horses to Los Angeles. There are a number of possible suspects and this offering makes it hard for the viewer to figure things out. The one thing that is hard to swallow is that the two favorites are disguised and switched. I would be that anyone close to a race horse could tell merely from its gait that it is a particular horse. This stretches things quite a bit. Unfortunately, we once again have a black man acting in the stereotypical Stepin Fetchitt mode. His name is Streamline and he has a monkey. While the monkey is important to the plot, this man is made to look subservient and foolish.

Avalanche (a race horse owned by Major Gordon Kent is given to George Chester as a wedding gift for marrying his daughter, Catherine) is racing in the Melbourne Sweepstakes when he is disqualified after his jockey, Tip Collins, fouls another horse. Kent suspects that Collins was part of a gambling ring, and plans to press charges and go after the ring's higher-ups upon return to the US, but is found dead in Avalanche's stall during the voyage. Charlie believes that Avalanche is not the murder when he finds a piece of the ship's winch. Since Avalanche is entered in Santa Juanita Handicap (in Los Angeles), Charlie (along with son, Lee) decide to complete the ocean voyage hoping to get the killer, who has been sending threatening notes to persons involved in the case (Chester, sportsman Fenton, gambler Barton, and Rogers- Kent's assistant). The killer also starts a small fire in the stable, proving that he could kill Avalanche when he wanted to, and when the ship docks, Avalanche appears to be acting strange- is this a plan of the killer, the gambling ring, or both? Okay entry in the series hampered by the number of characters and suspects which are hard to keep track of since they come and go so quickly which out introduced well or contributing to the plot. The script also seemed so-so, with little emphasis on the mystery or suspense element of the movie as compared to the previous entries, and also had difficulty bridging the scenes together. Rating, 5.

This is one of my favorites of the Chan series! Keye Luke as Lee Chan gave his funniest performance, in my opinion. His blabbering in Chinese when being led out of Charlie's stateroom; his antics while the fireworks are going off; notice how hard he hits one of the bad guys over the head with the bottle prop - really whacks him! Although I didn't care for the way the "Streamline" character was treated by some of the other cast members, this entry is entertaining! One of Charlie's great quotes - "Frequent spanking when young make rear view very familiar!"