Review of Charlie Chan in London (1934) by Matthew H — 08 Oct 2013

Charlie Chan has three days to save a man from the gallows by finding the real killer at an English country estate. This time he has no sons in tow and there is therefore a little less comic relief. This is a relatively early Warner Oland entry and the Chan character doesn't seem to have jelled (or maybe I've watched too many Sidney Toler entries in the interim) -- he seems a bit slower in his way of speaking and more likely to play up the cultural miscommunicatiion angle in his interactions with the suspects (kind of like a Chinese Colombo perhaps).

More alarming is the other characters' continued alarm at seeing a heavy-set Chinese man -- these over-reactions themselves seem almost racist and force one to remember that Oland is in fact Swedish (Ohlund) not Chinese.

But these little concerns aside, this is another solid entry and the setting and cast of characters are better defined and the mystery yields some true suspense (even if the conclusion is again impossible to solve on one's own).

Ray Milland makes an early appearance.