Charlie Chan in Shanghai essentially fused the unbendable Charlie Chan mystery/detective formula into a thriller movie, with good results. It was freer and more exciting than most Chan pictures. Charlie Chan’s Secret (this title means basically nothing) accomplishes something very similar horror fusion, with possibly even better results.
Now, hasn’t the Chan series already broached horror movies? Indeed they have, with Charlie Chan in Egypt. Of course that was a different subgenre of horror (mummies!), and any potential mummy goodness was hampered by a lot of unrelated awful elements (racism!). Charlie Chan’s Secret employs the haunted house standard, and does a much better job of taking advantage of those elements, seeing how Charlie Chan himself would act in such a situation.
Things start out very quickly, with Chan (Swedish, omnipresent Warner Oland) in action on the high seas, supervising the recovery of a sunken ship. Of interest to Chan is passenger Allen Colby, recent surprise heir to the long-standing Lowell family estate, now revealed eight years after the fact. Amongst both the survivors and recovered bodies, Allen is nowhere to be found, so Chan is off to San Francisco to visit the Lowell family themselves – to discover the would-be killer intent upon keeping Allen from usurping their fortune. Chan’s cross-continental series of international mysteries (1935) is never referenced here, meaning the franchise has gladly settled into a series of self-contained entries – easiest for B-movie filmgoers to enjoy.
By now, the Chan movies have become far more visual and far less dialogue-dependent than their early sound era predecessors were. Moviemakers were clearly becoming more comfortable with their sound technology, fusing it into a style that is more naturally cinematic. Hence, Chan’s arrival in San Francisco (his favorite of all haunts, apart from Honolulu) is a striking and interesting moment – and includes unique footage of the Bay Bridge still under construction.
We get to know our cast of eventual suspects before Chan has an opportunity to do so – perhaps slower members of the audience need more time to sum these people up than the clever Chan does. Let’s get the least interesting characters out of the way first – lovebirds Alice Lowell (Rosina Lawrence) and paramour reporter Dick Williams (Charles Quigley). The movie is actually as disinterested in this duo as I am, so they only make token appearances from now on. I heartily endorse that!
Of much greater interest is the vaguely Margaret Dumond-esque matriarch Henrietta Lowell (Henrietta Crosman), who is also a sort of proto Nancy Reagan with her nutbar obsession with Ouija boards, psychics and whatnot. There is her lawyer, Mr. Phelps (Jonathan Hale, familiar to me as Mr. Dithers in the Blondie movies). There is also couple Fred Gage (Edward Trevor) and Janice Gage nee Lowell (Astrid Allwyn), a sort of dark, Bizarro World mirror of the typical lovebirds, and far more interesting for that reason. We know in particular that Fred is evil, because he has a mustache. Boo! Hiss! And each of these people has an instantly understandable motive re: the estate, which is far more effective than the usual goofiness.
There is also British butler stereotype Baxter (Herbert Mundin), serving the usual comic relief function in this film. He is our stand in for Keye Luke, who seems sadly content to sit out every other film. And yes, comic relief figures have no real impact on the mystery, so I am assured right off the bat that the butler will not have done it in this one. I think by 1936 audiences were well beyond that trope, as they were clearly learning to outguess murder mysteries on a regular basis. And seeing as Charlie Chan’s Secret invokes spirits and spooks and mediums, Baxter serves the seemingly essential purpose in all ancient ghost stories – being “comically” terrified of ghosties. This is the exact same damn non-joke as seen in Blondie Has Servant Trouble and Charlie Chan in Egypt (Stepin Fetchit – brrr!). The difference here is that for once the terrified manservant is not black, therefore removing all uncomfortable racial implications from the matter – though maybe preserving some woeful class commentary. So now it’s just a lame and tiresome joke, instead of a lame and tiresome joke that is actively offensive.
While all these jerks are lounging around the well-appointed Lowell House, an unidentified man sneaks into the musty, “haunted” Colby House. This is not the typical old Gothic manse as in the other hundred or so haunted house movies from the 30s (from The Old Dark House onward); rather, it better reflects Californian architecture, and its Bay Area location puts me in mind of the Winchester House – one of the damn strangest places I’ve ever been to. This mystery man creeps around the James Whale-inspired interiors, with all the secret passages and one-way mirrors you would expect from such a setting. Then a painting panel opens up, and the killer hurls a knife into the man’s back. Behold, first murder! But of whom?
Later on, the entire cast meets up with Chan at the very same Colby House (unsurprisingly, the main setting of this entry). This is to satisfy Henrietta’s need to force her entire extended family into extended, regular séances in this abandoned mansion. This woman is batshit enough to keep a duo of psychics in her will, funding their questionable enterprise in lieu of, you know, a charitable cause. Meet “Professor” Bowan (Arthur Edmund Carewe) and his medium Carlotta (Gloria Roy, in a medium-sized role), suspects so obvious that we instantly discount them. Chan reveals the reason for Arthur’s sudden reemergence (he was a POW), and everyone gets underway for a fun little séance – the sort of scene where the Chan films get closest to embracing the supernatural. Carlotta “chan”-nels (heh heh) the dead spirit of Allen, at which point Allen’s real corpse emerges from the darkness in the manner of a spirit. It turns out he was the guy killed.
The police assemble, and Chan’s investigation is under way! A little degree of clue collecting takes place, but the gimmick clues from early entries have somewhat stepped aside for something closer to a gimmick investigation. That is, Chan resolves to spend the night in a haunted house, to investigate the home’s ins and outs and what-have-yous. A lot of strands to keep in old Chan’s head, man. Baxter is to stay with Chan as an aide (that is, as comic relief). Charlie Chan’s Secret is nicely contained in setting and timeframe, rather like the psychic-happy Black Camel. This overnight stay is a significant percentage of the movie, coasting entirely on Oland’s ever more acceptable “yellowface” performance, and the house’s neat-o details.
Chan examines the séance room when Henrietta breaks in to oversee his investigation. Hmm, the detective, the matriarch and the butler – I wouldn’t have guessed these would be the characters we’d spend our time with. I’m not at all complaining, of course, because usually the insipid lovebirds would enjoy this position. Clues are discovered that reveal fraud in the psychics’ séances, to Henrietta’s immense disgust. Chan inspects a one-way UV mirror (!) when he sees a trademark Looming Gun. Chan shoves intended victim Henrietta out of the way (thus sparing her from the increasingly-rare second murder right when it would normally happen), then pulls out a piece of his own to return fire at the vanished gunman. Considering there have been at least twelve violent attempts on Chan’s life in the past few years, it’s about time he carries a gun.
Our trio then discovers they are locked in to the mansion. Next character to show up is the killer! I thought this before Fred shows up conveniently, and (spoiler) I was dead right! Whoo, I won a Charlie Chan movie! Of course, I did this through predicting genre conventions, for the real reveal of Fred’s guilt doesn’t happen until the final minute.
Chan remains at the Colby House the following day to discover a few more facets. He learns that caretaker Ulrich maintains a massive radio setup, which is an important detail I haven’t the energy to recount entirely here. Chan also passes through the house’s bowels to discover the killer’s secret passageway routes. This holds little meaning to the overall plot, apart from providing explanations, but the mood and effect this sequence creates is far more important.
Perhaps I shall note a particular trait of Chan’s detection method, a trait which does a lot to justify his often regressive Asian characterization. You see, Chan obfuscates. He feigns simplicity or naivety, all the while manipulating events secretly to his own end. If this guy ever decides to become a genre murderer himself, God help us all!
Well, so far all the incidental evidence points towards the psychics, so I guess they’re gonna be falsely arrested at the start of the Third Act. This event is quickly becoming an essential element of the Chan formula. Bowan’s guilt is such a foregone conclusion to the SFPD, we can be guaranteed of his innocence. No one but Chan can act with competence, for you cannot undercut the franchise’s hero. Charlie Chan’s Secret goes perhaps furthest in making us question Chan’s competence, though, since the police instantly blame him for unintentionally affecting Bowan’s escape. As far as they’re concerned, it is Chan’s fault (for getting electrocuted by horrifically archaic radio equipment) that a murderer is still on the loose.
Their opinion of Chan isn’t going to improve any time soon, for soon enough poor Henrietta is shot clean through the head, directly the result of Chan’s actions. This brings to a head, as it were, that niggling fact that nearly half of the murders Chan investigates happen while he is investigating a murder. Surely he has some moral culpability for all that. By now, the audience itself is actively questioning Chan’s actions, for Henrietta, unlike basically any other victim in these films, is likeable, for all her dottiness.
Chan goes to work investigating Henrietta’s death, employing a very roundabout method to ultimately discover she was sniped from a distant bell tower. This delayed discovery is necessary, since audiences of the 30s wouldn’t instantly assume this possibility quite as readily as we do. (It also affords increasingly tiresome shenanigans from Baxter the butler.) Ultimately, Chan makes his way up to the church steeple, bland hero Dick in tow solely because this is the point in the story where Chan gets help from the bland hero. Don’t worry, they couldn’t give jack about Dick, and he’s soon enough off my TV screen.
That sniper rifle is still in the bell tower (lazy murder), but there is a reason for it: the murder wasn’t there when it fired! Indeed, it was triggered remotely, timed to fire at the strike of the hourly bell – just how the killer could be assured Henrietta would be seated where she was at that time is never fully justified. And Chan, once again having discovered evidence the police are unaware of, chooses to reveal this to them by arranging the rifle to fire again on the next hour, nearly killing Baxter and several others in the process. Nice one, Chan!
Chan really is mostly fumbling at this point, even though he maintains airs of eternal confidence. And when Chan is unable to actually identify the killer, he has only one option – assemble all the suspects around a table to draw the killer out. This is one of those beloved formula elements of all mystery stories, one which had been (lamentably) absent from the past few Chan entries. In a way, they’re going back to increased formula here, but when it’s this interesting, it’s not a bad thing. For Chan’s little finale assembly is arranged around a repeat séance, making events far more entertaining than usual. We get the same spooky lightshow, climaxing with the ghost of Henrietta physically appearing over the table, ready to ID her killer.
Bam! An ornamental knife hurtles into Henrietta’s image, shattering a mirror. The lights come up, and Chan discovers freshly-applied knife grease on Fred’s hands – nailed it! And oh, he knew the killer would use a nearby ornamental knife for reasons I’d neglected to outline prior.
It turns out Henrietta is alive, part of a lengthy Chan gambit. So it seems not only could the killer predict where Henrietta would be seated at a certain time, but Chan could predict this bizarre series of events too, and arranged for a Henrietta dummy to take the shot. (How police forensics never realized they’d bagged up a mannequin, I cannot say – The plot holes seem much more glaring in hindsight.) So Fred is arrested, the family is reunited, and we are reassured of Chan’s competence in light of Henrietta’s “death” – other than that second firing of the rifle.
The movie ends with a close-up shot of Charlie Chan himself, the practically-nonexistent lovebirds nowhere to be seen. I think it’s safe to say now that audience sympathies have permanently allied with Chan from here on out; we no longer need bland, attractive people to string us through these movies.
My major critique of the previous film is consistently rectified by the next, as though I can divine this series’ development. The only thing I blamed Charlie Chan in Shanghai of was being slightly boring. Guess what, they’ve improved upon that nebulous criticism! This is the most fun Chan yet, one that felt a lot quicker than even its merciful 72 minute running time. Of course there are problems with this one, mostly concerning plot holes and Chan’s own actions, which I now fully expect the upcoming Charlie Chan at the Circus to resolve.
For these same reasons, I expect Keye Luke to return.
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. 10 Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)
• No. 11 Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
• No. 12 Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
• 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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