CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO

US, 1941, 61 minutes, Black-and-white.
Sidney Toler, Mary Beth Hughes, Cobina Wright, Ted North, Victor Jory, Harold Huber, Send Young, Richard Derr, Jacqueline Dalya, Kay Linaker.
Directed by Harry Lachmann.

By the time this film was released, the Charlie Chan films had had 10 years of existence, first with Warner Oland, almost the archetypal Charlie Chan, but succeeded for another 10 years and far more films by Sidney Toler.

The film is set in Rio though filmed in Hollywood – with Latin American music, dancing of the samba to give Brazilian flavour. There is even a song composed by Mack David and Harry Warren.

Charlie Chan is already in Rio at the beginning of the film, along with his second son, Jimmy, enthusing about the samba. Chan is about to arrest a singer on a charge of murder in Honolulu. After her show at the Cabaret she visits an alleged mind reader who records her while she is in a trance and confesses the murder. She has been planning to elope with her fiance, returns home to pack and is then found dead in her room.

Charlie Chan then becomes involved in the investigation, assisted by the local chief, played by Harold Huber (who played police chiefs of varying nationalities in others of the Charlie Chan films). Needless to say, Jimmy has instant theories which are disproved, becomes involved in the case, is attracted to the Chinese maid.

There is quite a line-up of suspects, two jealous women, husband, the mind reader, the butler. It was the butler who stole the jewels but did not do the murder, and he is then murdered.

The film hinges on the case of the death in Hawaii with the revelation that the murdered man who resisted the singer and was killed, had a wife who was prepared to avenge his death, becoming the maid-companion of the singer and killing her.

Situation established. Murder solved. And always enjoyable with Charlie Chan and the intrusions of Jimmy. Of interest, Victor Jory plays the alleged mind reader.



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.