CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS

US, 1935, 71 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Oland, Mary Brian, Thomas Beck, Erik Rhodes, John Miljon, Minor Watson, John Qualen, Keye Luke, Dorothy Appleby.
Directed by Lewis Seiler.

This is a very entertaining Charlie Chan adventure. Charlie Chan arrives in Paris, allegedly on holiday, but actually sent to investigate some accounting difficulties in bonds in a respectable bank. His son, Lee, suddenly turns up on his way to exhibit one of his artworks in Paris but the two are delayed, especially when an Apache dancer (interesting to look back on this performance which seems to be rather chauvinist, to say the least) who has information for Charlie is murdered at the nightclub after her performance.
The plot is fairly complicated. The daughter of the banker is implicated in the murder. There is also an artist, with good sketches, who is in the party of friends entertaining Charlie.

There are more complications when there are further murders – the artist coming under suspicion, and a mysterious veteran of World War I who crops up frequently, straggly hair, oversize hat, begging in the street, causing a rumpus at the bank, seen at the club.

The investigation, father and son and the French locals, leads eventually to an address, a trapdoor, going to the sewers of Paris where there is a pursuit. There is also the discovery of a forgery centre for the bonds and the bank documents.

The twist and ending is more complicated than anticipated, the artist and the bank assistant taking it in turns to be the eccentric character, giving each other an alibi for the different murders.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.