The Feathered Serpent * (1948, Roland Winters, Keye Luke, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, Carol Forman) – Classic Movie Review 9062

The surprise return of Keye Luke as Number One son Lee Chan (alongside Victor Sen Young as Number Two son Tommy Chan) is the main pleasure of director William Beaudine’s minor, feeble, late Charlie Chan entry, The Feathered Serpent (1948). It stars Roland Winters for his fifth film as Charlie Chan, and Mantan Moreland returns too as Birmingham Brown.

So that makes it notable as the only entry in the entire series in which both Number One and Number Two sons appear together. Keye Luke returns to the series after an absence of 11 years. His previous last Chan entry was Warner Oland’s last, Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937), though he also played Lee Chan in 1938’s Mr Moto’s Gamble), but by now he was older than Roland Winters who plays his father. Victor Sen Yung ends his run in the series with this film, after 18 episodes playing Number Two son.

Unfortunately, there is slack handling of a dull mystery, set against a background of Mexican pyramids, as Charlie Chan (Winters) and his two eldest sons join the hunt for one of those valuable statues thriller writers are so fond of, in this case a fabled Aztec treasure. A professor and his gang of killers have kidnapped an archaeologist to help them search for the treasure.

The second-hand screenplay is written by Oliver Drake, whose plot is taken from his original story for the 1937 Three Mesquiteers Western Riders of the Whistling Skull. The dreary proceedings come complete with a particularly poor poverty row production and another weak performance by Winters.

Also in the cast are Carol Forman, Robert Livingston, Nils Asther, Beverly Jones, Martin Garralaga, George J Lewis, Charles Stevens, Leslie Denison, Erville Alderson and Jay Silverheels.

The Feathered Serpent is directed by William Beaudine, runs 61 minutes, is made and released by Monogram Pictures, is written by Oliver Drake, is shot in black and white by William Sickner, is produced by James S Burkett, scored by Edward J Kay (musical director), and designed by Dave Milton (art director). It is shot at Monogram Studios and the Monogram Ranch, 24715 Oak Creek Avenue, Newhall, California.

The Aztecs called the Feathered Serpent deity Quetzalcoatl, the Yucatec Maya called him Kukulkan and the K’iche’ Maya called him Q’uq’umatz.

The 46th of 47 Charlie Chan movies, it follows The Golden Eye (1948) and is followed finally by The Sky Dragon (1949). Just one more to go!

Roland Winters made his debut as Charlie Chan in The Chinese Ring (1947), starring in six movies. He took over as Charlie Chan after cancer-stricken Sidney Toler’s final film, The Trap (1946).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9062

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