Review of Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981) by Ralph B — 11 Nov 2014

The film is quite racist in casting Peter Ustinov, but I'd dismissed that as a parody of old Charlie Chan films (this is a comedy after all) where the Chinese detective was always played by a white guy so it wasn't a problem.

But the real problem is that it was never played for laughs. Nor was anything really. The slapstick was very clumsy and watching Apollo ham it up for the camera as his grandson was tough. The plot is supposed to revolve around a murder mystery but it never actually does anything with it.

Instead we're treated to the cast of boring characters wandering through their daily lives in ways that are supposed to be funny. And they're just not.