Charlie Chan at the Olympics *** (1937, Warner Oland, Katherine DeMille, Pauline Moore) – Classic Movie Review 9037

All the team are on top form in director H Bruce Humberstone’s droll 1937 episode Charlie Chan at the Olympics, set in pre-World War Two Berlin and including newsreel shots of the 1936 Olympic Games, as foreign agents steal a new aerial guidance system and abduct Charlie Chan’s Number One Son Lee Chan (Keye Luke), a US Olympic swim team alumnus.

Before solving the puzzle, Warner Oland’s Chan drops unusually bizarre pearls of wisdom: ‘Truth like football – receive many kicks before reaching goal’. Fortunately, this time Robert Ellis and Helen Logan’s original screenplay is on the strong side, with the help of a good original story by Paul Burger. So the entertainment value is high. Charlie Chan at the Olympics is fine mystery thriller stuff.

Also in the cast are Katherine DeMille, Pauline Moore, Allan Lane, C Henry Gordon, Jonathan Hale, Morgan Wallace, Layne Tom Jr, John Eldredge, Frederick Vogeding, Andrew Tombes and Howard Hickman.

Charlie Chan at the Olympics is followed by Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) and is followed by Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9037

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