Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo ** (1937, Warner Oland, Keye Luke, Virginia Field) – Classic Movie Review 8689

Alas, director Eugene Forde’s 1938 thriller Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo is Warner Oland’s last Chan adventure, and it is hard to get excited about its plot concerning missing metallurgic bonds while Chan is on a gambling vacation in Monte Carlo.

But Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo still has its charms. Chan is soon called on to solve two murders – those of a casino messenger on his way to Paris with a million dollars’ worth of the bonds and of a small-time Chicago gangster who was tending bar in a Monte Carlo hotel. The murders add spice, and the foreign atmosphere and Number One Son (Keye Luke)’s tussles with the French language are amusing enough.

Sadly, Swedish-born Oland had to quit as his physical and mental health was in decline. It was his last movie, and his last eight films were all Chan adventures.

In January 1938 Charlie Chan at the Ringside began production with an increasingly erratic Oland. After a few days’ shooting, he walked out and never returned. He decided to return to his mother’s home in Sweden and he died there of bronchial pneumonia on 6 August 1938, aged 58.

Also in the cast are Virginia Field, Sidney Blackmer, Harold Huber, Kay Linaker, Robert Kent, George Renavent, John Bleifer, George Davis, Louis Mercier, George Lynn and Edward Raquello.

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo is directed by Eugene Forde, runs 71 minutes, is made and released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Charles Belden and Jerry [Jerome] Cady, from an original story by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan, based on the character Charlie Chan created by Earl Derr Biggers, is shot in black and white by Daniel C Clarke, is produced by John Stone and Samuel Kaylin.

Oland appeared 16 Charlie Chan feature films from 1931 to 1937, starting with Charlie Chan Carries On and the sequel, The Black Camel (1931). Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) is probably the best of the series.

The series continued at 20th Century Fox for another 11 entries with Sidney Toler, who was signed by production chief Darryl F Zanuck in mid-October 1938.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8689

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