Charlie Chan at the Olympics
Tags: mystery, murder

Plot synopsis:
When Chan's oldest son, Lee (Keye Luke), is chosen to compete in the Olympics, Chan is proud as can be. Meanwhile, over the skies of Chan's Honolulu, the "Hopkins plane" is demonstrating an improvement of remote radio control to the US military. However, the aircraft is hijacked by a concealed stowaway, the device stolen, and the test pilot murdered. When Chan, followed by his astute second son, Charlie Jr. (Layne Tom Jr.), tracks down the stowaway, he finds only the man's body.
On the passenger list of the only aircraft to leave Honolulu for the mainland after the incident are Richard Masters (Allan Lane) and Yvonne Roland (Katherine DeMille). Masters was the intended test pilot, only he injured his shoulder and had to be replaced. It turns out, however, he left on the Pan Am Clipper to travel to the Olympics himself as a competitor. Perusing the list, Hopkins (Jonathan Hale) recognizes the name of arms dealer Arthur Hughes (C. Henry Gordon). Several of the suspects head for Germany by steamship. Chan, Hughes and the inventor Cartwright manage to arrive ahead of them by taking the Zeppelin Hindenburg.
Aboard the ship Manhattan, Lee Chan suspects Roland of being an "adventuress". He spots her putting a piece of paper in her book, and Hughes taking it. He confides in fellow Olympian Betty Adams (Pauline Moore), Masters' girlfriend.
When the ship docks, German Inspector Strasser, Chan and Hopkins go to question Roland, only to find her gone and her cabin rifled. Chan is reunited with his son Lee when the latter sneaks into the cabin through a porthole to play detective.
On the train trip to Berlin, Chan learns that Lee saw Roland borrow a camera from Adams. Hughes overhears the pair speculate that the invention was smuggled off the ship in it. Hughes advises Chan to stop investigating, then spots a gun barrel in a passing car and pushes the pair to safety. A shot strikes their compartment window. Later, Hughes arranges for Adams' camera to be stolen, but finds nothing inside.
A hotel maid tries to steal the invention, hidden in Adams' candy box, but is foiled by Chan and Strasser. When she runs to the window to warn her accomplices, Charlie substitutes a book for the device without being noticed. Hopkins insists on keeping the candy box in his hotel suite, where he is visited by Hughes. Chan and a policeman break in when they hear gunfire. They find Cartwright on the floor. He claims Hughes accused Hopkins of taking the device to double-cross the stockholders of his company, then after Hughes left, Hopkins took the invention at gunpoint and slugged him.
Roland takes the candy box to her employer, diplomat the Honorable Charles Zaraka (Morgan Wallace). When they discover the substitution, Roland surmises that Chan has the device. Zaraka sends Chan a ticket to the opening ceremony. While Chan verbally spars with him and Roland, Lee is kidnapped.
Chan allows himself to be taken to Zaraka to exchange the device for his son. Hopkins is brought in to verify it is the invention; he does (even though it is an imitation with a radio beacon inside). Satisfied, Zaraka orders his men to dispose of the Chans when Hughes and his men burst in. Hughes threatens to kill Lee if Chan does not produce the real equipment, but the police arrive just in time to rescue the detective. Hopkins is found unconscious from a gunshot in another room. Cartwright accuses Hughes of the shooting, but Chan proves that Cartwright was responsible for that and also the murder of his accomplice back in Honolulu. Afterward, Lee wins the 100 meter swim.

Review: Charlie has his youngest helper ever - or at least in any of the 20 Chan films I've seen - as 12-year-old Charlie Jr. joins Number One Son Lee as they both help dad solve a crime.Lee (Keye Luke) plays a member of the United States Olympic swimming team in this adventure.
Layne Tom Jr. plays Charlie Junior.The Chan movie is more of an adventure than the normal whodunit as Charlie and the cops travel to the Olympics in Munich, Germany in search of a missing radar-plane "black box." Lee is kidnapped at the games and his dad does everything he can to get his kidnapped son back while not jeopardizing the United States in the process.
Another well-directed Warner Oland Chan filmmaking full use of stock footage from 1936 Berlin Olympics and the dirigible Hindenburg.
Chan is on trail of stolen aircraft autopilot and killers who will make an attempt on his life and again kidnap No. 1 son Lee. Keye Luke is allowed to play his part without disguise and too much oriental racial humor.
The suspects of being the sinister power behind the theft are headed towards Berlin, not only to watch the Olympics, but to sell the remote control unit.
Charlie takes the Hindenburg to Berlin and is joined by son Lee (who is entered in the 100m swimming relay) to track down Yvonne Rowland, who was seen in Miller's apartment, and who has contacted Baron Zaraka, dignitary for a warring nation.
Knowing that Chan is on the case, Zaraka has Lee kidnapped and will turn him over to Charlie in exchange for the remote control device.
Very good Chan film that places the emphasis on foreign intrigue rather than mystery (and is able to succeed).
The Olympics angle does give an interesting aspect of the film towards today's audiences giving an idea of the athletes back then (and the subtraction of the Nazi influence over the games).
Some unnamed source at IMDb alleges that CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS, a film capitalizing on the then recent 1936 Berlin Olympics (taking place in Germany under Chancellor Hitler) and released on May 21, 1937, in the U.S and in the early fall of that year in Europe, was "pulled from circulation shortly after its release because it takes place in Nazi Germany." Could someone please define "shortly after its release"?
The film, while sympathetically portraying the civilian police force in Berlin (interestingly played for irony and possibly surprise or subtext by frequent film villain Frederik Vogeding), pointedly incorporated actual newsreel footage of Jessie Owens' Olympic triumph which was so upsetting to the Herr Hitler.
Most U.S. or British films of the period would have been more blatant in assuming the national guilty party, but Germany was still a major market for U.S. motion pictures (even if the Chan character himself must have been an anathema to Nazi Party leadership).Even with the unsettling Anschlus in Austria and the Munich Crisis over the dismembering of Czechoslovakia; with the invasion of Poland and the formal start of European hostilities in World War II still a little more than a year away (U.S. entry into the conflict more than four years away!), America and much of the rest of the world was doing its best to ignore distressing realities within the Reich.
A specific DATE of the withdrawal would be appreciated.While the film over all may be one of the lesser Chan efforts, it has moments (the initial set-up in the U.S., the travelogue race to Berlin, the scenes in the Olympic Stadium and the final confrontation with the killers) which are as good as any in the canon.
While Charlie's multi-talented son Lee is traveling by ship to Europe as a member of the US Olympics team, his father searches at home for a newly invented remote control device for planes which is probably on its way to be sold to some obscure foreign power (the political tensions all over the world are already perceptible three years before the beginning of WW II, but the movie doesn't show any affiliation or enmity yet) - and happens to be on the same ship with Lee and his friends, guarded by a 'femme fatale' (Cecil B.
DeMille's adoptive daughter Katherine in her probably best role) who arouses the dislike of the young athletes only because she keeps flirting with one of them although he's got a steady girlfriend...Charlie, in the meantime, has found out the 'traveling route' of the device, and 'overtakes' it, first by plane and then aboard the famous zeppelin 'Hindenburg' (which would crash only a year later).
But from the moment on that the athletes (one of whom 'smuggled' it into the country without even knowing it), the spies and the police mingle, there is constant confusion, until Charlie seems to have it safely in the hands of the German police authorities - BUT the spies have got Lee...From this moment, we really FEEL the agony of Charlie as a father, and his dilemma of handing the important invention over to the spies or risking his son's life - certainly a very earnest and dramatic entry in the 'Charlie Chan' movies, but not without its lighter moments; and besides that, we get a glimpse of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin - a real time document..
Amusingly, "Number One Son" Lee Chan is a member of the U.S. Olympic Swim Team.
In addition to Keye Luke's Lee, this time we get Charlie Chan, Jr. He's played by Layne Tom, Jr. and is all kinds of adorable.
Good cast in this one.This entry in the series is most notable for it taking place during the 1936 Olympics, with footage from the games including Jesse Owens.
At first he's helped by little Cheeky Chan, but when he gets to Berlin no.2 son Lee takes over who is participating at the Games as a swimmer.
Favourite bits: the footage of the Hindenburg (and its unperturbed passengers) beating the ocean liner's passengers to Germany; Charlie's touching faltering concern for the kidnapped Lee; the denouement; Lee continually trying to spout killer aphorisms like his Pop - or something like that!Overall imho a good entry in the series with a slightly different format to those preceding, and I'd rather watch this than the real Olympics - no contest..
This Chan film is of interest for its historical setting--the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and the air ship Hindenburg.
"Charlie Chan at the Olympics" starring Warner Oland was made in 1937, with a backdrop of the 1937 Olympics which were held in Berlin, Germany.Charlie is going to see Lee Chan compete in swimming when a device for airplanes, that allow them to work without a pilot, is stolen during a test run and the pilot is killed.
Charlie sets out to help recover the device for the U.S. Lee meanwhile is on a ship with other Olympic hopefuls and a couple of suspects in the robbery.Once in Germany, Charlie works with the Berlin police to help track down the thieves.Never in your life have you seen more helpful Nazis.
What is also interesting is the footage of the Olympics, including some of Jesse Owens.I found this film somewhat distracting - a bunch of suspects, a bit confusing as to plot, probably because I was too busy looking at Olympic footage.
I love Keye Luke but Lee here is a bit annoying as he kept misquoting his father and adding, "or something like that." Of course that was the script, but it was too much.America was really trying to stay out of any potential conflict in Europe, as you will be able to tell from this film..
This is a fine mystery, one of the best of the Charlie Chan series, but the viewer must be prepared for some embarrassing moments.
These mostly center around the able assistance provided to Charlie Chan by the Berlin police in helping to track down the culprit.
It was not particularly controversial at the time, but one world war later it is a little uncomfortable to listen to the great detective praising the efficiency of the German polizei, and hear the head of that organization declaring of some mishap, "Ziss cannot happen in BERLIN!"  Apart from that, it is an enjoyable film..
This film is one of the best of the series, proving that Warner Oland was the only actor who played Charlie Chan with great humor and dignity..
As it turns out number 1 son Lee Chan played by Keye Luke is a member of the US swimming team and is in the relay events.
Henry Gordon and Katharine DeMille are on the boat as well.Oland recovers the device, but then the bad guys kidnap Keye Luke and he has to think as a father as well as a detective to get his son back.
The way Chan and Vodaging work together you would hardly believe that this is a place believing in Aryan supremacy.Newsreel footage of the 1936 Olympics including Jesse Owens broad jump is blended in with the film.
"Charlie Chan at the Olympics" opens with the Oriental Detective in his Honolulu office receiving a physical, and with a clean bill of health he's ready to begin another case!
Layne Tom Jr. portrays #2 Son Charlie Jr. in the film, and appearing to be about twelve years old at most, he is much too young relative to #1 Son Lee (Keye Luke).
"Charlie Chan at the Circus" offered a glimpse of the entire Chan clan on a family outing with older siblings, and future Chan films offered Victor Sen Yung as #2 Son Jimmy (also seen as #2 Son Tommy in the later Monogram pictures).If you're intrigued by this sort of trivia as I am, then you'll also be interested in the appearance of actor Allan Lane in the film, portraying Olympic athlete Richard Masters.
With the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany as the backdrop, Chan gets involved in a case that begins in Honolulu with the test flight of an airplane outfitted with a newly developed radio control device.
It's a HUGE coincidence when Miss Roland eavesdrops on a short wave radio conversation between the San Francisco PD and Honolulu regarding suspect Hughes, who missed the boat in New York, but is boarding some time later.It's no less a coincidence also for #1 Son Lee to bump into "Pop" Charlie aboard the steamship Manhattan, making his way feet first through a porthole no less.
Having recovered the remote control device earlier, Charlie has set himself up for danger - "Our game is with the Oriental now." Indeed, Lee is kidnapped and held hostage, with Chan's patriotism and allegiance about to be tested.Ultimately, when the mystery of the stolen remote control device is revealed, it comes as somewhat of a letdown.
All of the international intrigue and mystery provided by the colorful cast of characters turns out to be the usual bucket of red herrings for which the Chan films are noted."Charlie Chan at the Olympics" is not as tightly developed as some of Warner Oland's prior Chan films, such as "London", "At the Racetrack", or "At the Opera", nevertheless it still plays entertainingly well.
If you're a serious Chan fan, you'll have to overlook some of the inconsistencies and coincidences mentioned earlier though, and concentrate instead on the Olympic backdrop and the relationship between "Pop" and son Lee..
One of the best Charlie Chan films.
This stop is in Germany where Chan is visiting his son who is on the US Olympic team during the infamous Berlin Games.
***SPOILERS*** Chinese/American PI Charlie Chan, Walter Oland, and his #1 son Lee, Keye Luke, are off to the 1936 Berlin Olympics for two different missions.
Charlie to find a stolen air guidance system device that can control pilot-less air planes, much like the drones of today, in any future combat missions.
As for Lee he's a member of the USA Olympic swimming team looking to win a gold medal for the good o'l USA in the 100 meters dash swimming race.
Something that can have Captain Strasser thrown behind bars for disloyalty to his country if his superiors in the Nazi Gestapo ever found out about it.Charlie gets to the bottom to who stole the guidance device back in Honolulu to a foreign agent of an unmanned country as well as international arms dealer named "The Honorable", as Charlie Chan referees to him, Charles Zaraka, Morgan Wallace.
Just three weeks before the movie "Charlie Chan at the Olympics" was released to the movie going public..
In the 60s and 70s, broadcasters were still a tad worried about showing this film due to its being set mostly in Berlin and because, believe it or not, the Nazis help Chan solve a mystery and return a stolen aviation secret to America!
Now had the Nazis been behind the murder and theft, then it might have seemed more watchable in later years---but instead the Nazi police are thanked by Chan for their help and there is no mention of the evil of the regime they serve.Now I am not the most politically correct person out there and I am a history teacher, so I was thrilled when I discovered that Fox recently released this film on DVD.
That's because in addition to being one of the best Chan mysteries (though, I must admit the plot was a bit confusing), it featured the Hindenburg and clips of the Olympics in the film (including Jesse Owens leading the US team to victory in a relay).
It was also really weird seeing Lee Chan (#1 Son) on the Olympic team and racing to victory in the 100 meter freestyle.
These elements all made for a very fascinating and unusual film--one that can't help but be fascinating to anyone with an appreciation for history.By the way, the DVD also includes an extra featurette, TOM LAYNE, JR.: THE ADVENTURES OF CHARLIE CHAN, JR.
Charlie Chan attends Olympics..
Renown detective Charlie Chan(Warner Oland)has a fishing trip with young Charlie Jr.(Layne Tom Jr.)interrupted when a U.S. secret weapon that enables aircraft to be flown by remote control is stolen.
With vacation on hold Chan boards the dirigible Hindenburg to Berlin's 1936 Olympics; there Charlie is joined on the case by Number One Son Lee(Keye Luke),who happens to be competing in a swimming event at the games.
Chan's Number One son is a participant in the American swimming team during the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The very efficient German police are involved, but obviously foreign spies are after the device-who to trust?Historical note: In 1937, there was still uncertainty as to who Hitler was and what he intended, not everyone seeing him then as evil-he was even named Time magazine's Man Of The Year shortly before.
Also, Chan did ride the Hindenburg zeppelin, and you see a brief shot of it, swastika included, and Jesse Owens and his Olympic victory did get shown in the movie.
I am not even sure the movie was actually filmed in Berlin...it might have been stock footage with actual scenes shot in any studio...or did "n.1 son" win a gold medal swimming for the US team?!
The fact, however, that most comments wish fictional Charlie Chan had "taken a stand" against the then legitimate German government AND that care has been taken to edit swastikas from a minor movie like this that surely wasn't the AAA+ blockbuster of the year tells a long story about the intellectual level of both censors eager to please the powerful and of gullible peanuts still wanting to board the winner's wagon 70 years after the fact...making it impossible to conceive life in Nazi Germany as every day's and without horror stories and death chimneys going in the background.Besides, it is unlikely a serious matter of spy rings be dealt with by simple police in Nazi Germany.The film provides mild family entertainment in the typical Chan style.
The "n.1 son" bit works out much better than in most Chan movies.
Ah, watch out for a ten seconds fight scene near the end: that's how Bruce Lee learnt his moves.The film revolves around a high-tech device being stolen and smuggled abroad, then purloined several times.
"Charlie Chan At The Olympics" could have been a by-the-numbers, albeit well-produced, entry in the Charlie Chan series, but there is an emotional element that sets it a little apart from the others: Charlie shows genuine concern and anguish when his No. 1 son is kidnapped.
Charlie Chan is on the case and tracks the crooks from Honolulu to a ship carrying Olympic athletes to the games in Berlin.
Maybe not the absolute best, but Charlie Chan at the Olympics is a fun addition to the series.
And here, they combined newsreel footage from the Berlin Olympics with scenes they shot in as seamless a way I've seen in a movie from the 30s.
Next, The acting in Charlie Chan at the Olympics is fantastic.
I love it.If I have one negative to say about Charlie Chan at the Olympics it's that the movie is more spy/adventure than murder/mystery.
SYNOPSIS: Charlie Chan defeats spies Zaraka and Hughes at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.NOTES: Number 17 of the 48-picture Charlie Chan series.
Still, the Berlin Olympic Games is nothing if not a novel setting (needless to say the Germans are presented as "nice" people, despite the fact that the plot has to do with spies stealing the plans for a secret invention), though son Lee's entering - and winning - the Olympic swim event is stretching it a bit!OTHER VIEWS: A very good cast, adequate script, and brisk, no-nonsense direction by Bruce Humberstone add up to good entertainment here.
Charlie Chan working with Hitler's Berlin police!.
Yet, in this film, Hitler's Berlin police are praised for their efficiency, admired for their interest in protecting American military secrets, portrayed as being respectful toward a Chinese detective, and play a central role in capturing the evil foreign ambassador named Zaraka who seeks the military device in question.