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Charlie Chan at the Olympics
USA 1937
produced by 20th Century Fox
directed by H. Bruce Humberstone
starring Warner Oland, Katherine DeMille, Pauline Moore, Allan Lane, Keye Luke, C. Henry Gordon, John Eldredge, Layne Tom jr, Jonathan Hale, Morgan Wallace, Frederick Vogeding, Andrew Tombes, Arno Frey, Howard C.Hickman, David Horsley, Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian, Caroline Rankin
story by Paul Burger, screenplay by Robert Ellis, Helen Logan, based on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers, music by Samuel Kaylin
Charlie Chan, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland), Number One Son Lee Chan, Charlie Chan at Fox
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The robot, an invention that makes remote controlling of
(war-)planes possible is stolen from right under the noses of its
inventors Hopkins (Jonathan Hale) and Cartwright (John Eldredge) during a
test flight, and when none other than Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and his
young number two son (Layne Tom jr) find the wreck of the testplane, they
also find the pilot and prime suspect (Oscar 'Dutch' Hendrian) dead. Chan
starts to investigate immediately, and finds out that all the suspects -
femme fatale Yvonne Roland (Katherine DeMille), crooked arms dealer Hughes
(C.Henry Gordon) and test pilot Masters (Allan Lane) are on a boat to the
Berlin Olympics, as is Chan's own son Lee (Keye Luke) as part of the swim
team ... and thus, Chan and Hopkins and Cartwright rush to Berlin by
Zepelin to overtake the boat - but when they have the boat searched, the
robot is missing. Eventually, it's found in the luggage of an American
athlete (Pauline Moore), and it soon becomes clear Yvonne Roland has
smuggled it in there to get it into Germany, and while she eludes the
authorities, Chan manages to somehow get hold of the thing while everyone
else suspects it in a box of sweets. Ultimately, Charles Zaraka (Morgan
Wallace), head of an international spy ring, makes himself known to
Charlie Chan, and he kidnaps Lee to force Chan to give up the device.
Charlie brings the robot, that he has also equipped with a tracking device
for the poice of course, and finds out that Yvonne Roland and inventor
Hopkins are actually in league with him - but Hopkins doesn't give
Charlie's tracking device away, interestingly. As soon as Charlie has
exchanged the robot for his son though, the place is raided by crooked
arms dealer Hughes, who obviously controls a rival spy ring, before the
place is raided by the German police. All the baddies are apprehended,
only Hopkins is shot by Cartwright - and now Charlie reveals that it
wasn't Hopkins who was in cahoots with Zaraka but Cartwright, who tried to
sell the robot to him behind Hopkins' back. Of course, he's arrested as
well, and Lee Chan is freed just in time to compete at the Olympics. Now
there's a politically odd story: A secret weapon is smuggled from the USA
into Germany in 1936, when the movie takes place and when Hitler was
already in power, and the German police help the Americans to retrieve it
... Apart from these political curiosities (at least from todaya's point
of view), Charlie Chan at the Olympics is pretty much an average
entry into the series, combining a totally far-fetched plot and
less-than-believable plottwists with a light-footed approach and a bit of
comedy. The film is pretty much good entertainment as long as it lasts,
but nothing that you will remember for too long.
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