Charlie Chan at the Opera

Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Runtime: 68 minutes

Directed by: H. Bruce Humberstone

Starring: Warner Oland, Boris Karloff, William Demarest, Keye Luke, Charlotte Henry

From: 20^th Century Fox

Featuring the 1930’s version of the fax machine.

After a much-needed day off from watching motion pictures on Tuesday, last night was spent on YouTube viewing a channel’s stream of a custom-made double feature of this film plus Charlie Chan on Broadway; only the former was seen by me. In 2014 I saw In London and In Paris then in ’22 was at the Olympics—those are my only Charlie Chan pictures. One day I need to check out the entries starring another white guy cosplaying as a Chinaman in Sidney Toler. The three movies I just mentioned were all fine as light mysteries filled with stereotypical yet cute “Eastern sayings” and decent supporting casts.

This is a notch above those, and not just for the bonus of having Boris Karloff as a “madman” w/ amnesia who escapes a sanitarium and makes his way to the titular opera. It was an interesting case that was more complex than it first appears-there’s other drama at the opera house. This includes a love triangle and a mother who refuses to acknowledge her own daughter. There’s even a racist cop who is present at the opera—he loves calling Chan “Chop Suey” and “Egg Foo Young”; in a Blazing Saddles sort of fashion, this cop is humiliated and embarrassed due to his prejudices as Charlie constantly shows him up.

For a random B-movie, 20th Century Fox somewhat surprisingly shelled out the cash for famed composer Oscar Levant to create an entire opera for the movie. For those that like that sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they’ll like. Seeing operatic singing come out of the mouth of Karloff was in fact rather wild. Although, the wildest to me was witnessing the 1930’s version of the fax machine. An explanation was thankfully given for how a photo of Karloff was put on a cylinder that spun real fast & via electrical impulses, was transmitted from Chicago. A bonus to learn something new this week, it was.

Interesting characters plus a compelling mystery made me comprehend why experts say this was the best movie that featured Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.