Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise ** (1940, Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill, Robert Lowery, Don Beddoe, Leo G Carroll) – Classic Movie Review 9040

Director Eugene Forde’s 1940 thriller Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise offers yet another murder aboard ship for Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) to investigate, this time of a London Bobby, as Chan cruises around the world from Honolulu to San Francisco. There is plenty of time aboard for a quartet of further sudden deaths before Chan reveals the truth and puts a stop to all the homicide.

A rich haul of excellent character actors helps to overcome the plot’s air of staleness and a series in decline.

Also in the cast are Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan, Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill, Robert Lowery, Don Beddoe, Leo G Carroll, Cora Witherspoon, Kay Linaker, Harlan Briggs, Charles Middleton, Layne Tom Jr as Willie Chan, C Montague Shaw as Inspector Duff, Richard Keane, James Burke, Leonard Mudie, Claire Du Brey, Wade Boteler, Cliff Clark, Paul McVey, John Dilson, Harry Strang and Emmett Vogan.

The 24th of 47 Charlie Chan movies, it is a remake of Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), loosely adapted from Earl Derr Biggers’s fifth Charlie Chan novel, Charlie Chan Carries On, in which Chan appears after half way through the story, joining Inspector Duff’s investigation. Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise starts with Chan, so most of Duff’s role is switched to Chan.

It follows Charlie Chan in Panama (1940) and is followed by Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940).

Though Tom Layne Jr is Willie Chan here, he played Charlie Chan Jr in Charlie Chan at the Olympics in 1937 and Tommy Chan in Charlie Chan in Honolulu in 1938.

Alas, Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) is apparently missing, so we can no longer see it, along with three other lost movies – Charlie Chan’s Chance (1932), and Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case (1933) and Charlie Chan’s Courage (1934), all Fox films with Warner Oland.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9040

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