Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)

A nightclub singer with a diary full of other peoples' secrets gets bumped off and her diary is stolen. Charlie Chan gets to work investigating all the suspects with (mostly unwanted) help from "Number One Son" Lee. This is a fun entry in the series helped by a great cast. Keye Luke is a treat, especially in his scenes with the lovely Toshia Mori. Each of the Chan films he was in is better just by his presence. Harold Huber plays the obligatory baffled police inspector. Donald Woods, J. Edward Bromberg, Joan Marsh, Leon Ames, Marc Lawrence, and Douglas Fowley all offer good support. Lon Chaney, Jr. has a quick cameo. Avoid reading too much about this one before you see it or the identity of the killer might be spoiled for you. I was taken by surprise!

This is fast, zippy, full of wisecracking reporters and cops, in the midst of whom Charlie Chan is a model of thoughtful decorum. The same can't be said for Number One Son who peeks through keyholes and rushes about frantically. It's the kind of movie in which New Yorkers get into tuxedos and evening dress and go to night spots with names like The Hottentot Club to watch a flamboyantly overdressed women with the dancing skills of a dog trained to stand on its hind legs prance around the floor to an avalanche of applause. Get a load of her, Boss! Say, she's a swell dish! I just made up those two remarks because the screenwriters were absent-minded enough to leave them out.A brassy woman knows too much about Mister Big but returns to New York and winds up dead, along with one or two others formerly living human beings. The plot has something to do with smuggling, too, and mixed-up hotel rooms. Oh, and theft -- if swiping a towel from a hotel is a crime, in which case you are all under arrest. I guess I am too because it occurs to me I have a towel from the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia hidden away with the rest of my loot.I haven't gotten to the climax yet so I don't know if Charlie Chan and Enumerated Son get to Broadway to see a show or not. It's half an hour before a serious infraction takes place but it's very busy before then anyway. It's hard to imagine that it gets much busier afterward.

The title of this Charlie Chan flick is a misnomer because Broadway doesn't play a part in this film. Yes, we are in New York City for part of the story, but the scene isn't Broadway but "The Hottentot Club."This Chan story has the normal assortment of interesting characters. It didn't think Charlie's proverbs were up to snuff in this one but his repartee with Number One Son (Keye Luke) was fun to hear, as always.Louise Henry, a woman who has a diary that everyone is after in this murder-mystery, has one of the prettiest faces I've seen in a Chan movie. However, on the opposite side, Harold Huber as "Inspector Nelson" is one of the more annoying ones I've seen.Overall: good, and another in the series that I am still hoping to see on DVD.

Warner Oland, the Swedish-born actor famous for his Asian portrayals and in particular his portrayal of the famous Charlie Chan, gives a fine performance as Chan in this, one of his last screen performances before his untimely death. This time out, Charlie and #1 son, played as affably as ever by Keye Luke, are aboard a ship soon to dock in New York. A woman aboard stows something in #1's luggage and tries getting it later in Chan hotel room. Woman who mess with Charlie like fly that play in spider's web. OK, enough of that. Anyway, you get the usual good stuff you would find in most Chan films: a good mystery(I didn't figure this one out), some nice comedic touches with Chan's sayings and his by-play with his son, solid character acting from the likes of Luke, Donald Woods, Joan Marsh, etc..., and a look back at what New York was like in the late 30's. I enjoyed the film a good deal. It doesn't creak either like some of the earlier Chan films. It has a lively pace throughout.