Tuesday's Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film: CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940) starring Sidney Toler and Victor Sen Yung

Though Warner Oland is my preferred Charlie Chan of choice, I still harbor a not-so-secret liking for Sidney Toler in the part. Toler plays Chan in a several of my favorite movies in the series so it's hard for me to discount him (as some do), so I won't. But Keye Luke will always be my very favorite son of Chan. Okay, okay, Victor Sen Yung is a close second.

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940) is a film directed by Lynn Shores and written by John Larkin (original screenplay) based on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers. It stars the aforementioned Sidney Toler as the brilliant detective Charlie Chan and Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan, the great detective's not-so-brilliant son.

This time out, as usual, the plot makes little sense, but hey, as I like to say: if you want sense then these are not the movies for you. It's only if we want comfort-food entertainment that we turn to these old familiar chestnuts. (Though maybe no so familiar to some of you. Tsk. Tsk.) I never get tired of watching my favorites in the Charlie Chan series so I am speaking to you as an enthusiastic fan and will brook no opposition. Ha!

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM begins in a courtroom where nasty, hatchet-faced convicted killer Steve McBirney (the always reliably evil Marc Lawrence) is about to be sentenced to the electric chair. Charlie Chan was the chief contributor to McBirney's conviction and he is in the courtroom as well and earns a threat from the unrepentant McBirney who vows to get his revenge. Uh-oh.

Sure enough, as McBirney is being led out of the courtroom a gun battle ensues and McBirney escapes with the help of his cohort and henchman, the usual weasely, brainless type that these guys always seem to have in reserve.

Despite a city-wide hunt for the escaped cop-killer, McBirney later turns up (after closing hours) at Dr. Cream's Wax Museum of Crime downtown near the docks - a museum filled with scary exhibits of famous criminals and their crimes. There McBirney will receive plastic surgery (to make him unrecognizable) performed by the sinister Dr. Cream (C. Henry Gordon) who is apparently well-known in crime circles for providing this service, conveniently, in the secret basement surgery of his museum.

McBirney (wrapped in bandages) will then hide out at the museum until his face heals much to the consternation of the good Dr. Cream and his hench-woman, Lily (Joan Valerie) who would rather not be dealing with the crazed McBirney at all. But crime makes for strange bedfellows and so...

In the meantime, Chan is goaded into taking part in a hammy true crime radio performance which each week outlines a famous crime from the past. That particular week the show is being broadcast from....wait for it, wait for it - Dr. Cream's Wax Museum of Crime. Neat how these things come together.

It is on a dark and stormy night (naturally) in which all these elements have fused to make for murder most foul at the wax museum. The program for the evening is the long ago locked room murder which resulted in the conviction and execution of Joe Rocke, an innocent man. Rocke was tried and convicted for a crime rightly committed by a killer who Chan suspects had his face 'changed' by Dr. Cream (uh-oh) and who might, even now, be lurking at the museum in the guise of...well, anyone.

As the radio crew sets up the broadcast which includes among the guests, a famed German criminologist (a braggart whose faulty evidence convicted Joe Rocke to begin with) and an eager lady-reporter of the 1940's type and uninvited, a smart-mouthed lawyer who later gets to ask the reporter for a date. Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) shows up, of course, also uninvited, but ready to lend his famous father a not-always-so-helping-hand. At any rate, lo and behold, in the middle of the broadcast the criminologist is electrocuted by a handy-dandy little wire hook-up - a trap originally meant for Chan.

Thereafter a couple of other murders ensue and what with all the doors locked and the telephone lines down, the lights going on and off, and oh yes, a terrible thunderstorm, it all makes for a nicely lurid murder mystery with lots of creeping about among the dark shadows and even, lurking among the exhibits, the rather odd widow of Joe Rocke who shows up just as the museum is closing for the night.

An entertaining way to spend an evening if you're in the mind for a nicely comfortable murder and mayhem story with a dandy ending and a very familiar cast of characters all doing their shtick. Most especially the wonderfully mean-faced Marc Lawrence, a terrific character actor who specialized in playing hoods his entire career and was one of those actors (a very select group) who practically lived forever, passing away at the age of 95 in Palm Springs, California just a few years ago.

Last but not least, do not forget to check in at Todd Mason's blog, Sweet Freedom, to see what other overlooked or forgotten films and/or other visuals, other bloggers are talking about today. It's a mouthful, I know, but never mind, just do it - you will be rewarded.

Forgotten (or Overlooked) Films Tuesday: Charlie Chan in MURDER OVER NEW YORK starring Sidney Toler

Charlie Chan in MURDER OVER NEW YORK (1940), a film directed by Harry Lachman, is my entry in today's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Films, a weekly meme hosted by Todd Mason at his blog, SWEET FREEDOM. Don't forget to check in later and pick up the links to today's participating bloggers, there are bound to be some intriguing films and/or audio visuals listed.

The Plot:

For reasons that are never adequately explained, Charlie Chan is on his way from Hawaii to New York to attend a police convention - something he does with amazing regularity over the course of several films. (Do they even have those things anymore? I mean, a trip from Hawaii to NYC in the 1940's was a heck of a trek.) And of course, murder always ensues. Usually the victim is a policeman friend from Scotland Yard. (The Yard is slowly but surely being plucked of its inspectors - at least those who are friendly with Charlie Chan.)


It's no different in this particular film as Charlie meets up with former Scotland Yard and now Intelligence agent, Hugh Drake (Frederick Worlock). Of course the minute they meet on the plane, it's uh-oh. You know the poor guy is doomed. It's too bad because Frederick Worlock can be (and is in this film) a very charming actor. You'll probably recognize him from the Sherlock Holmes films with Basil Rathbone.

While on the plane, Drake and Charlie get to talking and Drake reveals that he's on the hunt for a saboteur. You wouldn't think this is the sort of thing that would be discussed out in the open for anyone to overhear, but apparently that's not an issue in these films. Maybe all the other passengers had cotton in their ears. After all, we need to find out immediately (and quickly) what Drake is up to since we know he's not long for this world.

Turns out Drake has chased the elusive saboteur (a master of disguises) from pillar to post, well, from England to India then all over the east until finally settling on the saboteur's wife (who ran away from her nasty brute of a husband and has since been traveling incognito, on her own, doing odd jobs all over the world - yeah, I know, SO far-fetched). The wife apparently knows next to nothing about anything - she's played in a typically vacant manner by the exceedingly vacuous Marjorie Weaver, a staple in several of the Charlie Chan films.

Anyway, everyone winds up in NYC and presumably the master saboteur is there as well, disguised so well that even his own wife doesn't recognize him. She is useless as a witness.

A favorite character in the film is George Kirby (Ricardo Cortez) - you know my crush on Ricardo. I watch this film all the time just to reacquaint myself with his smoldering good looks. Unfortunately he gets bumped off later in the film and we never really know whether he was good or bad - his constantly shifty eyes made me think he was guilty of something, for sure.

Kirby meets the plane in NYC (literally, since in those days you could walk out on the tarmac and up to the plane). It turns out he's giving a dinner party for Hugh Drake that night with a guest list suggested by Drake.

Also at the airport, unexpectedly, is Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) who has driven cross country with a friend to attend the World's Fair (if memory serves) of which we hear nothing further in the rest of the film.

Later that same night, Drake is found dead in a room Kirby had turned over to him as an office. Oh, meant to mention, George Kirby is president of an aircraft company which has recently been hit by saboteurs. Coincidence? I think not. Though he seems remarkably unconcerned.

Among the guests for dinner at Kirby's are Ralph Percy, an engineer at Kirby's company, played by the gorgeous and resolute Kane Richmond. Richmond was a fixture in mysteries, noir films and serials of the 40's.

No reason to show this pix of Kane Richmond other than the fact that he's a hottie.

Back to the plot:

It's a relatively small dinner party with those in attendance presumably having something or other to do with the saboteur case, though Chan and the police are unsure just how they're all connected since the man who might have told them is dead. Hugh Drake was apparently killed by poison gas released from a glass pellet. The type of gas, 'tetragine' is somehow deduced by Jimmy Chan who has, apparently, been studying untraceable poison gasses at college. (!?)

It's obvious that the elusive saboteur is one of the men in attendance - but who? Suspicion falls on Kirby's butler, Boggs (Leyland Hodgson - yet another refugee from the Sherlock Holmes films). The butler did it? Nah. Don't you believe it.

The next twist comes when the saboteur's wife Patricia Shaw (Marjorie Weaver) is tracked down by Charlie Chan. The rather boring Robert Lowery in his usual role of romantic interest plays Shaw's boyfriend. He's a chemist. Get it? Chemist. Explosives. He's been working on his own, developing a new type of.......all together now: explosive! - of course.


Charlie Chan, with Jimmy in tow, must now chase around New York looking for clues. They are shot at prompting Jimmy to say, without any trace of irony, "This is the last time I go on a case without a gat." Oh Jimmy, Jimmy, get hold of yourself.

The two break into an antiques shop in the Village being used as a front for poison gas manufacturing (!?) and Charlie eventually brings all the suspects together for an unexpected flight on a new experimental plane designed by the deceased Kirby's company.

As usual, it's all preposterous (the plot really makes little sense) but tons of fun. If you like early 40's mysteries, you'll love this one. I do. But then, as many of you know, I'm a Charlie Chan fan-girl.