Charlie Chan at the Opera **** (1936, Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, Keye Luke) – Classic Movie Review 5614

‘A fiendish killer lurks at the opera! Weird! Thrilling! The Master Minds of Crime Match Wits Against Each Other!’ Sounds good, doesn’t it?

And director H Bruce Humberstone’s 1936 thriller is one of the best of all the 47 Charlie Chan films, thanks to its ingenious story, the clever use of opera house atmosphere and the memorable presence of Boris Karloff – stalking the stage as Gravelle, a lunatic baritone, believed dead after an opera house fire, but actually in a mental institution with a bad case of amnesia.

Gravelle escapes when sees a news story about his former wife appearing at the opera house (‘She thinks I’m mad! Everybody thinks I’m mad!’) and seeks murderous revenge for the failed attempt on his life years earlier.

Warner Oland may seem odd casting as a Swedish Chan, but nevertheless he gives an ideal performance. Real Chinese actor Keye Luke, plays number one son Lee Chan, who helps him investigate.

It is great, lip-smacking vintage mystery stuff.

Also in the cast are Charlotte Henry as Mlle Kitty, Thomas Beck, Margaret Irving, Gregory Gaye, Nedda Harrigan, Frank Conroy, William Demarest, Tom McGuire, Maurice Cass, Guy Usher, John Bleifer, Stanley Blystone, Benson Fong, Harrison Greene, Selmer Jackson, Gladden James, Fred Kelsey, Lee Shumway (sanatarium guard), Hilda Vaughn, Emmett Vogan and Joan Woodbury.

Oscar Levant wrote the cod-opera Carnival especially for the movie, which is shot on 20th Century Fox’s sets from Café Metropole (1937) with Tyrone Power and Loretta Young.

In an odd twist of fate, Karloff was to play a rival Oriental detective Mr Wong in series of five films, and when he retired as Wong, Keye Luke took over for the sixth film, Phantom of Chinatown (1940).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5614

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