The Charlie Chan franchise (or Chan-chise, just to get that stupidly itchy pun off my chest) was well under way by 1935. The formula was good and established, and absolute freedom had been gained from the original, out-of-date novels. And the popularity was just starting to pick up; Charlie Chan in Paris was the first of three entries in 1935, the first time this franchise has seen such rapid turnaround. The wheels were in place, with Chan as a B-movie series (in the classical sense) now able to self-perpetuate indefinitely – right around the time such a B-movie specimen could first be imagined. Furthermore, the popularity was there to completely justify continuing the series, with period critical assessments (astoundingly easy to find online) equating Charlie Chan’s popularity to A-pictures.
After Charlie Chan in London, Paris makes perfect sense as the next setting – for a quick examination of series titles indicates setting change defines major entry differences. Though one could imagine the “pure” whodunit formula outlined in Charlie Chan in London simply reapplied to French specifics (replace the privileged upper class on one Western European nation for another, even foppier upper class), it seems Charlie Chan in Paris actually makes a good faith effort to shake up series formula. But we shall get to that in good time.
Following the standard opening credits (of the Washington Monument?), we rejoin rotund Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan (Warner Oland, as always) landing at a Paris aerodrome. He is instantly hassled by a blind, crippled war veteran named Xavier. Note how I list Xavier’s name but not an actor – this shall prove significant.
It seems Chan is in Paris at the request of various London businessmen. Hey, check that out, continuity! For while Chan was merely vacationing (or “on holiday”) in London, this is now the second European mystery he’s been press ganged into – at this rate, the poor man’s never going to get back to Hawaii. And the murder mystery this time is – Oh wait, it ain’t a murder mystery this time! Nope, Chan is in gay Paris to investigate banking fraud involving forged bearer bonds. See what I said about switching up formula? But relax, dear blood-thirsty reader, for we’ll have our formula-dictated murders soon enough.
But before that, Chan must meet with the mass of bank fraud suspects, soon to be our murder suspects. There is a certain difficulty I have had with all the Charlie Chan movies, one which comes to a serious head (or tête) here in Paris – namely, I honestly cannot tell most of the cast apart! We’re talking about six to twelve be-suited twittish fop gentlemen, with the same basic haircut and body type and clothing. Casting can help to differentiate characters, only a B-movie relying upon the regularly rotating roll of indentured studio players doesn’t quite have that ability. Add to that the delayed, rare and irregular use of proper names, and I have great difficulty of telling you whom is on screen at any given time.
At any rate, for what it’s worth, here is our cast of “French” suspects: Victor Descartes (Thomas Beck), Albert Dufresne (John Miljan), Max Corday (Erik Rhodes), Henri Latouche (Murray Kinnell), and Paul Lamartine (Henry Kolker). And I have now provided more differentiation than the movie has, because I’ve used their damned names early on. Chan stands out, of course, because he’s a grotesque caricature. There are also a couple of females, who I can tell apart, since there’s only two, and because Hollywood actresses of the 30s were hired to look distinct. So there is Yvette Lamartine (Mary Brian), vessel for the romantic blah blah blah with Descartes that barely figures into this movie. Thank one or more deities! There is also Nardi (Dorothy Appleby, a very minor actress). To give you an idea of how bland and disposable these casts are, here’s the first Google image that turns up for “Dorothy Appleby” (she’s the second from the right, far behind the Stooge):
Hey, look at this!
Wait…what was that?! That surely wasn’t Dorothy Appleby or Shemp Howard. No, that was a sketch of Charlie Chan, a grotesque caricature of a grotesque caricature, which somehow sends it right around the horn back to “slightly realistic.” This is the handiwork of Corday and – That’s it?! That’s his distinguishing characteristic, the fact that he does something unique once, then goes back to being bland?! Oy! I only bring this drawing up because it entertains me. (I’m not one to take screen caps of exemplary cinematography or anything, but this sort of crap interests me somehow.)
I’m making it a point to emphasize the most astoundingly insensitive bit of Chinese stereotyping in each entry. Here is the winner from Charlie Chan in Paris, something Chan says in regards to Corday’s sketch: “Most crever exerrent rikeness of lotund Chinee.” Just a reminder: Chan is played by a Swede.
Okay…I’ve gotten sidetracked, and I’m delaying…
I demand murder!
The movie obliges my need by killing off…Nardi. Oh great, one of the few characters I can positively identify. The act is done in a crowded café, following Nardi’s participation in one of those characteristically violent 1930s dance routines that resembles a Tony Jaa fight scene as much as anything else – I guess Dorothy Appleby was “talented.” And, to my great surprise, we get a perfectly clear view of the murderer. It is Xavier, the blind cripple…well, maybe not that blind or crippled, really.
You’d think knowing the killer would undercut the murder mystery element somewhat. It does not, because the movie tosses us a curveball of sorts. One of the many central fops – I’ll hazard a guess that it’s Dufresne – receives a call from someone else about keeping the conspiracy under wraps. Conspiracy? Yes! Chan is up against a cabal of villains! That ups the suspense considerably, even if we think we already know the killer.
Chan (who is so humbled in this gay land of Caucasians that he actually bows to a cuckoo clock) then proceeds to investigate – bond fraud. Um, guy, a corpse just died in your arms. Whatever, Chan reports to the Banque Lamartine and interviews all those various males I cannot keep straight. (I think they have a hard time keeping straight too – Hi-yo!) These bank meetings are the closest thing Charlie Chan in Paris has to the usual “Assess the Asses,” so nicely averse to series formula is it.
So we’re actually starting to feel pretty scared for Chan, ethnic stereotyping and all, when he returns to his hotel and a darkened, mysterious figure stalks him. Then Chan turns on the lights to reveal – an Asian man! Aaaah! Actually, since this is Lee Chan, Charlie’s “Number One Son” (one of roughly a dozen). Lee is played by Keye Luke, soon to be a Charlie Chan regular, and – How ‘bout that! A Chinese actor playing a Chinese character! It’s 1935 now and, believe it or not, racial attitudes have actually improved since the early days of this franchise. Now audiences are forgiving of seeing someone of Cantonese descent up on screen. How charitable! And to Luke’s infinite credit, he plays Lee as a normal human being, avoiding the relative grotesquery of his Swedish “father,” as well as the truly sickening buffoonery of Kashimo in The Black Camel. Of course this just shows up Warner Oland’s performance as the brittle façade it is, but I like Lee.
And Lee’s purpose, from here on out in the series, will be to serve as Chan’s accomplice – we’re far enough into the franchise that the hero needs a sidekick, that perpetual bane of the Batman movies. Lee is capable of driving (thus dispelling another Asian stereotype), and is capable of tailing suspects. He tails Yvette, the female lead we’re supposed to be worried about by dint of her romantic subplot. Yvette reports up to Dufresne’s apartment (dialogue long after the fact verifies it is Dufresne), to find him packing up his conspiracy documents in preparation for a quick jaunt over to Switzerland. As they talk, murderer Xavier sneaks into the apartment and shoots Dufresne dead. Yes, the second formulaic murder is right on time! Then Yvette does the moronic thing and caresses the murder weapon as a crowd forms. Yvette is promptly arrested, getting her out of this movie and mercifully killing that romantic subplot in its cradle.
Chan is on the case! He meets with…one of the foppish popinjays (Paul, I think, and I realize the series constantly reuses name “Paul”). Here Chan employs wise fortune cookie metaphor to equate murder with donut holes (okay…), and resolves to go and plug Corday’s hole. Ew!
Corday lounges around gaily in his immaculate flat in a silken robe, smoking a thin clove cigarette – FOP! Chan arrives and is told a tale all about Xavier, the murderer. Then Chan leaves and Corday tips his villain hand (to us) by arranging to flee with his bearer bonds. This is when Chan returns to arrest him for the murder of Dufresne, placing him at Dufresne’s flat with a broken gold sovereign – DNA didn’t exist yet (that is, it couldn’t be used in mystery stories yet), so sure, broken coin halves will do just as well.
But wait…didn’t Xavier murder Dufresne? Well, read on. One might think Corday has simply been dressing up as Xavier to commit his crimes, except he was with Chan when Xavier appeared to kill Nardi (who was Chan’s French spy, it turns out). So Chan now sets out to discover her killer too.
Chan arranges the aide of Descartes (as Yvette’s lover, he is so obviously not the killer that they never even play with it). They track down Xavier’s filthy flat, creeping through the darkened, shadow-heavy alleyways of Paris. Ah, from here on out, the visuals shall be nicely moody and dank – I like this stuff. They eventually pass from Xavier’s flat through a trap door into the sewers of Paris. Stock footage aside, for a Paris-set movie (where everyone speaks unaccented English…Chan aside), this is the first example of something truly French. That’s how a racist film series sums up your rich heritage, frogs – a sewer! And yes, the sewers here are literally crawling with amphibian frogs…Was that intended?
Anyway, Chan and Descartes stumble upon Xavier’s darkest secret, a catacomb where he operates his bond-forging enterprise. And here comes Xavier now, sneaking up to kill off Chan and/or Descartes. Chan sets up one of his standard rouses to trick the villain into killing an inanimate object (a broom this time), allowing Descartes to capture Xavier. It turns out that “Xavier” is really just a costume, a hideous mask and fright wig that looks pretty convincing in black and white. Gasp, it’s old man Latouche!...Who? Eh, someone I mentioned in passing many paragraphs above. And he would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for that meddling Chinaman!
The time has come for explanations. You see, Latouche and Corday were both Xavier, ensuring each other alibis for one of the two murders. Hey!, I just described this arrangement in far fewer words than Chan himself – and without stammering or mangling my native language.
The movie simply ends there. There is no final reunion between insipid lovebirds, as was the formula. Yvette, poor, innocent girl in police custody for Dufresne’s murder, is completely forgotten. Good riddance!
So goes another Chan write-up. On paper, this may be the best one so far. The whole thing about conspiracies and multiple murderers is far more intriguing than a single killer stupidly bumping off the wealthy. And that sewer footage at the climax is really moody and effective, somewhat anticipating The Third Man (second time I’ve connected Charlie Chan to that movie). But the indistinguishable main cast is a major stumbling block, one I do not expect will be solved – this is the handicap of all B-movie series. So now I shall simply leave Charlie Chan in Paris behind me, and await the next identical, formula-driven entry.
Related posts:
• No. 3 Behind That Curtain (1929)
• No. 4 Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
• No. 5 The Black Camel (1931)
• No. 9 Charlie Chan in London (1934)
• No. 11 Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
• No. 12 Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
• No. 13 Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936)
• No. 14 Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)
• No. 15 Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
• No. 16 Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
• No. 17 Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
• No. 18 Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
• No. 19 Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1938)
• No. 20 Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938)
• No. 21 Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)
• No. 22 Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
• No. 23 City in Darkness (1939)
• No. 24 Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)
• No. 25 Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
• No. 26 Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940)
• No. 27 Murder Over New York (1940)
• No. 28 Dead Men tell (1941)
• No. 29 Charlie Chan in Rio (1941)
• No. 30 Castle in the Desert (1942)
• No. 31 Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
• No. 32 The Chinese Cat (1944)
• No. 33 Meeting at Midnight (1944)
• No. 34 The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
• No. 35 The Red Dragon (1945)
• No. 36 The Scarlet Clue (1945)
• No. 37 The Jade Mask (1945)
• No. 38 Dark Alibi (1946)
• No. 40 Dangerous Money (1946)
• No. 41 The Trap (1946)
• No. 42 The Chinese Ring (1947)
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