The Black Camel

Plot synopsis:
Shelah Fane, an actor shooting a movie in Hawaii, asks for time off, and goes to meet the man she is dating. Her friend Julie comes to her dressing room and shows Shelah a newspaper article about a psychic named Tarnaverro coming to town. Shelah says she has sent for him to decide if she should marry the leading man, Alan Jaynes. Later, as Sheila and Jaynes are out driving, she promises to give him an answer that evening.At the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Charlie Chan goes undercover to meet Tarnaverro. Tarnaverro calls Chan out as a policeman. Chan wants to know if he has information about the murder of Denny Mayo in Hollywood three years ago.Shelah arrives at the hotel for a psychic reading. Over a crystal ball, Tarnaverro tells her that he sees something in her past, and describes the murder Chan mentioned. She admits to being in the house the night of the murder.Later, Shelah is in tears after deciding not to marry Jaynes. Anna, a maid, comes in to deliver some flowers, but on seeing a torn photograph, drops them. The flowers are from Robert Fyfe, and Shelah sets up a meeting with him.Jessop, a butler, finds Anna distraught. He tells her that he loves her and would do anything to help her.Later, Jaynes confronts Tarnaverro, asking him why he advised her not to marry him. Chan intervenes before a fight ensues. Jaynes stalks off, and Tarnaverro tells Chan he may be able to show him a murderer that day.The cast meets for a party, but Shelah hasn't shown up. Julie and her friend Jimmy go to find her, and discover her body. Julie insists on taking a ring from her finger before anyone can see.Chan meets Tarnaverro and asks him to ride with him to the murder scene. Tarnaverro says she was murdered because she knew who killed Denny Mayo. At the scene, Sheila has been stabbed through the heart, with flowers torn from her dress and crushed. Her wristwatch is smashed, possibly giving the time of the murder. Footprints are found at the scene.While interviewing the witnesses, a note is delivered to Tarnaverro. Chan takes it from him, but lights are turned out and part of the note is ripped away from him. Jessop says Shelah was crying over a man's photograph that morning. A woman says she saw a man running from the pavilion but she is not believed.Chan questions Julie about the jewelry she wore, but she does not admit to the existence of the ring, until Anna points out that Shelah was wearing it. All of the actors were also present at the murder of Denny Mayo. Chan's assistant finds the remains of the photograph, but one of the men manages to pocket a crucial part of it. Later, the man who ran from the pavilion appears - it is Robert Fyfe, Shelah's ex-husband. He tells Chan they had met at 8:00 and he had left at 8:04 to return to the theater.Chan's assistant brings in the man who had left footprints. He is a painter named Smith. He tells Chan he doesn't know what time he was on the beach, but he did hear voices on the pavilion, a man's and a woman's. He saw Shelah and Fyfe. Fyfe then cuts off the painter's explanation and confesses to the crime. However, Chan points out that she was alive at 8:12 when she had spoken with the cook. He then lets everyone leave.Chan then finds the torn-away part of the note under the carpet. It is from Shelah to Tarnaverro, telling him to ignore everything she had said that afternoon.Smith tells his girlfriend that he will sell a painting to someone, or else he will tell. Meeting Robert Fyfe, he asks for $500, but Fyfe can only afford $100 and $200 later. As Smith leaves the rendezvous, he is shot, but survives.Chan goes to the library to go over newspaper articles concerning the Mayo case, but every picture in them has been cut out. The librarian tells him a woman had been the last to look at them, and identifies Julie as the woman. Julie denies cutting out the pictures, but gives Chan an anonymous note she had received telling her to do it. On Jimmy's urging, she also tells him that she had taken the ring, which had Mayo's name inscribed inside of it.Chan identifies the typewriter as one in the hotel. He then checks an alibi for Tarnaverro, and finds that he had changed his name from Arthur Mayo many years ago. He and Denny were brothers, and the pictures had been removed to stop Chan from realizing it.Smith's girlfriend accuses Fyfe of shooting him. At Smith's bedside, Smith reveals that Shelah had confessed to Tarnaverro that she had murdered Denny Mayo. Then Fyfe, who had known of that murder, tells Chan that Mayo had had a wife already and Shelah had shot him in a jealous rage. Smith also cops to stealing a tiara from Shelah and gives Chan the bullet with which he had been shot. Chan arrests Fyfe.Chan's chief of police wants to arrest Tarnaverro right away, but Chan suggests that the the heel that had crushed the orchids might provide a vital clue. At Shelah's house, they find a knife and scratches under a chair that show that the pin from the orchids had stuck in the murderer's shoe and then the murderer had sat in the chair.Chan convenes the suspects to reconstruct the crime. Tarnaverro sits in the chair, but still Chan thinks there is a mistake. He questions Jessop, who admits that he and Anna had rested in the chairs after the party. The telltale pin is found in Anna's shoe.Anna confesses to being Mrs. Denny Mayo. Tarnaverro had placed Anna, his sister-in-law, as a maid to Shelah to try to find evidence of her killing Denny Mayo. She killed Shelah in a rage after Shelah had torn up Denny's picture.As Chan attempts to place her under arrest, Jessop pulls a gun to try to free her. He is quickly subdued, but the gun turns out to be the one used to shoot Smith in an attempt to keep him quiet.

Tags: paranormal, revenge, murder

Review:
The 2nd real Charlie Chan film, the earliest to survive of the 38 that Warner Oland and then Sidney Toler churned out over the next 16 years for Fox and Monogram.
Pretty faithful to Earl Derr Bigger's book, this only suffers mildly from the echoey staginess associated with early talkies, with some erratic acting but also some lovely smoky visuals of "Honolulu".A woman with a dark past is stabbed to death at a hotel - of course all of the guests along with the butler and maid are involved for Charlie to sort through and mull over.
It all runs delightfully true to form, the excellent polished cast playing up well, especially young Robert Young and Bela Lugosi.I can't speak for everyone else of course but I still cherish the hope films 1/3/4/5 will one day be found for the additional 5 hours pleasure..
This is one of the greatest films in the Charlie Chan series with Warner Oland  of the later films that exist only "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (ironically with another horror icon, Boris Karloff, in its cast) matches it  thanks to Hamilton MacFadden's dark, atmospheric direction; a script that sticks closely to Earl Derr Biggers' source novel (except for omitting the long prologue on the ship that takes the principal characters to Hawai'i); superb art direction by Ben Carré and a marvelous cast, including Bela Lugosi playing an unusual range of emotions for him (the scene in which he confronts Dorothy Revier early on is especially impressive and not at all what we think of as Lugosi's usual acting style); a welcome reunion between him and his "Dracula" cast-mate Dwight Frye; Robert Young looking like he just graduated from high school as the suitor of Shelah Fane's personal assistant (Sally Eilers); and excellent cinematography by Joseph August and Daniel Clark, more prestigious cameramen than usually worked on the Chan films.
It's nice to see Chan's family used the way they were in the Biggers novels (Biggers frequently wrote scenes in which the Chans sit down to dinner and Charlie brings them  and us  up to speed on the latest developments in his case), and another welcome touch in this film is the artful use of "source" Hawai'ian music in lieu of orchestral underscoring.
Later she is found dead by her friend Julie, and the case is turned over to Inspector Charlie Chan, who has to figure out the Denny Mayo connection to both Shelah and the murder suspect.
Starring various actors and filmed as individual pieces, none of the films can be described as entries in the series, but in 1931 Fox Studios cast Warner Oland in Charlie Chan Carries On--and with its success Fox Studios discovered a money spinner.
The earliest Chan film of the series that still exists is The Black Camel, which is based on the 1929 Diggers novel.
She accordingly sends for psychic Tarneverro (Bela Lugosi), who warns her not to marry--but no sooner does she refuse the marriage than she is found dead, stabbed, in her beachfront home.Like most of the later Chan films, The Black Camel has a remarkable cast that includes an unexpected number of notables.
One of the very best of the early Charlie Chan films,'The Black Camel' features Warner Oland in his second outing as the Honolulu detective.With actual filming on Hawaiian locations(one of the few that did)the oriental sleuth tries to solve the murder of an unpleasant and very unpopular young actress,sifting through the usual baffling clues,and investigating one of the finest casts of suspects ever assembled for the series:Murray Kinnell,Victor Varconi,Robert Young,Richard Tucker and(fresh from their triumph in 'Dracula')Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi!Viewers will also enjoy a look at Charlie's domestic life and huge family.In these earlier Chan films much of the basic plotlines followed the stories of Earl Derr Biggers' novels..
We can see the early Chan only through this film, and we see a very human Chan, rather than the more restrained Chan in the later films.It also features a near tour-de-force scene by Bela Lugosi in which he, as the fortune teller to the stars Tarnaverro, forces a confession from Shela Fane, a movie star making a film in Honolulu.
Primitive but fairly engaging Charlie Chan mystery, the first surviving film featuring Warner Oland as the genial Oriental detective: its major draws are the Hawaiian backdrop, the murder investigation centering around Hollywood elite and the interesting cast (including Bela Lugosi as a phony mystic, Dwight Frye as an impulsive butler named Jessup, and a pre-stardom Robert Young forming half of the bland romantic interest).
By the way, the film's title  as explained by Chan  is a metaphor for death when it arrives unexpectedly.P.S. As was the case recently with HORROR ISLAND (1941), my second attempt at watching THE BLACK CAMEL proved more successful than the first  where the playback had frozen completely three-quarters of the way inand left me curious about the eventual solution of the case!.
As an avid Charlie Chan film buff..i,ve managed over the years toobtain all of the "feature films"..The Black Camel is the earliest of all of the surviving films with Warner Oland portraying the great oriental slueth.
This particular film was shot on location in Honolulu and is very entertaining..It also features Bela Lugosi as the fortune teller..Tarneverro..A fast moving story and a great cast of characters make this a "must have" for classic film buffs!.
I've read this is the earliest surviving Charlie Chan film.This one has plenty of comical moments to keep the viewer laughing and enough mystery to keep you involved in the interesting story.Kashimo, Chan's sidekick, is a blast to watch - very funny together.
Kashimo is one of my favorite characters in this one.If you are a fan of the other Charlie Chan film or of Warner Oland then you should really get a kick out of this one.
The Black Camel (1931) *** (out of 4) Hollywood actress Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier) is in Hawaii filming a new movie and she's also been asked by a man for her hand in marriage.
Not long afterwards the actress is found dead in her room and Inspector Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is soon on the case, which contains a number of possible suspects.This here was Oland's second time playing Chan but sadly the first film CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON is now lost.
THE BLACK CAMEL is the earliest surviving film from Oland's series and it's also a terrific way for one to be introduced to the character, the actor and the series.
Horror fans will also enjoy seeing Dwight Frye in a good supporting role.THE BLACK CAMEL has some flaws including the incredibly annoying assistant Kashimo but this here doesn't take away too much of the film's charm.
The quality of the film isn't the best, the acting is stilted and over the top, but 1931's "The Black Camel," the earliest extant Charlie Chan featuring Warner Oland, makes for fun viewing.
Charlie is on his home court of Hawaii, where an actress, Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier) is found murdered after consulting a psychic (Bela Lugosi) about whether or not she should marry someone she has fallen in love with.This is only the first murder; another one follows.
On investigation, Charlie discovers a connection to the case with a previous Hollywood murder, which went unsolved.It's an absolute riot to see Bela Lugosi as a psychic named Tarneverro whose real name is Arthur Mayo.
Can't you find some other place?" Son: "They were all taken." This particular entry into the series is steeped in cinematic history: it is the only surviving film out of five films starring Warner Oland that were based on the novels of Earl Derr Biggers; and it was shot in Honolulu in 1931.
Also, Earl Derr Biggers visited the set in Honolulu with a copy of his 1929 novel and gave it to Chang Apana, the real-life Charlie Chan.Definitely worth seeing, and a neat mystery.
Since "Charlie Chan Carries On" seems to be lost, for us today "The Black Camel" is the beginning of the magnificent, hugely popular and uniquely long-running film series about the gentle, polite, sometimes funny but also VERY clever Chinese detective, played by three different actors at two different studios.
The first one, of course, was Warner Oland, who for many fans until today remains THE 'screen' Charlie Chan, utterly faithful to the character created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1923.And "The Black Camel", the first 'surviving' movie of the series, certainly is among the very best.
It tells us a very intricate story about the murder of a famous actress, which seems somehow connected to the murder of another Hollywood actor a few years before; there's a mysterious 'fortune teller' in whom the actress used to confide all her secrets, and whom she'd summoned to Hawaii, where the film shooting takes place, especially to ask him whether or not she should marry a rich young playboy she'd fallen in love with; there's her ex-husband, who 'happens' to be in Honolulu as well; there's an impoverished painter who lives nearby and obviously knows too much - and so on...And Charlie Chan handles the case with the utmost delicacy, humble and courteous, and philosophical: 'Death is a black camel that kneels unbidden at every door', he cites one of his many old Asiatic sayings - hence the title...
But when it comes to finding out who the murderer is, he becomes tough and unrelenting - seemingly...Charlie Chan is a REALLY special case in the history of crime movies: he was not only one of the few REALLY intelligent and capable cops (who used to be presented as plain flat-heads most of the time), but he was also the first Asian protagonist in Hollywood to be depicted in a VERY positive and sympathetic light (in contrast to the 'yellow danger' represented by 'Dr. Fu Manchu' and others at the time) - and until this day remains to us, no matter what color we are, the most amiable of all classic Hollywood police detectives!
But back to "The Black Camel" seen purely as a movie, a murder mystery: the beautiful Hawaiian background is wonderfully photographed, in contrast to the very suspenseful nightly scenes, with menacing shadows masterfully used to send shivers up our spines.
The cast is absolutely great - with none less than Bela Lugosi as guest star, playing the mysterious 'Tarneverro', and giving one of his best and most moving performances.
Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) investigates a movie star's murder and how it connects to an unsolved murder from three years earlier.
The suspects include Bela Lugosi as a psychic, Dwight Frye as a butler, and Robert Young, in his film debut, as an annoying guy who keeps coming up with lame slogans.Interesting early non-horror work from Lugosi.
This is the earliest surviving Charlie Chan film to star Warner Oland as the detective (not counting 1929's BEHIND THAT CURTAIN, which only briefly featured Chan), an entertaining mystery nicely directed with stylish shooting and locations for such an early talkie.
Chan is in Honolulu investigating the murder of a young movie actress and tries to untangle the relation between her death and a prior killing of another actor she used to know.
It was filmed on location in Charlie Chan's home base of Honolulu and uses the scenery to great effect.
It is cryptically called The Black Camel.Fresh off the horror of the year, Dracula, you have two cast members in fine fettle: Dwight Frye and Bela Lugosi.
We do see Charlie's family at a large dinner table in one scene, but the cheap sets and low budget formula would come in the next few films.Warner Oland is masterful, as always, and it is quite a mangled English that we hear from both Oland and Lugosi in their conversations, that are witty.There are a half-dozen quite credible suspects, and they are indeed all gathered in the drawing room (and dining room) for the big reveal.This wonderful early mystery is a surprise and delight on every level..
The atmosphere, filming on location at Hawaii, is captured very well, Chan delivers his one-liners with delight, Lugosi creates a perfect 'usual suspect' and the movie is fun from the beginning to the end.
For his second appearance as Charlie Chan, Warner Oland is actually working and solving a case as a member of the Honolulu PD homicide squad and not retained as a private detective.
It's rare that films from the early 1930's show us actual location films shot in Hawaii, and this fascinating early Chan mystery is loaded with glimpses of the local beaches as well as the lobby and veranda of the Royal Hawaiian hotel--in addition to a print that leaps off the screen in dynamic black and white seldom seen in such clarity.Technique and location aside, this is also a baffling mystery--sometimes slow-paced, to be sure, in comparison with the later "cheapie Chans," but jammed with appearances by some memorable character actors--Bela Lugosi in a turban, for instance, a year after he made Dracula his signature role, or an impossibly juvenile Robert Young in his first film appearance--dig that striped bathing costume!
In so many ways, this is one of the very best Chan films, a treat for both fans of early talkie cinema, and certainly for followers of the intrepid Chinese detective as his character was beginning to jell..
The Black Camel was an entertaining early entry in the Charlie Chan series.
The actor playing Charlie, Warner Oland, does quite well with his part even this early in the series.
The two key scenes that reveal the killer's motive are pleasantly subtle.As a character, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is more direct and feisty, more angry, determined, and sharp edged than he is in later films.
In any event, it is one of the most amateurish productions of the entire series, which says a lot considering over half of the episodes were produced by Poverty-stricken Monogram Studios;  this one's a Fox Production.Chan (Warner Oland)gets to stay in his homebase in Hawaii instead of venturing to the mainland and is involved with an investigation of an actress slain in the midst of a film being made on the island.
Taken from an original story by mystery writer, Earl Derr Biggers, best known for his creation of the Charlie Chan character, THE BLACK CAMEL, offers Warner Oland a second opportunity to carry on in the role of the famed Oriental sleuth following his character introduction from CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON (Fox, 1931), which would lead to future "Chan" cinema mysteries to follow.Following an opening passage of men surfing on the waves to the underscoring of "On the Beaches of Waikiki," and front page spreads filling the screen of Honolulu welcoming Hollywood motion picture company, and of its leading lady, Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier) set to marry Alan Jaynes (William Post Jr.), a wealthy globe trotter she met on the boat and known for only a week.
Though rarely or hardly televised as part of the "Charlie Chan Festival" on the afternoon or late show broadcasts of decades ago, it's something to consider being the earliest known Oland/Chan mystery to exist and some actual location filming in Hawaii to hold enough interest during its fun-filled 71 minutes.
The Black Camel,made by the old FOX studios in 1931 is a cheaply made b-movie,typical of its time & period.All b-movies were shown either as part of a double bill or with some acts of vaudeville.This does not mean that it is a bad movie, It is enjoyable for what it is.Charlie Chan is portrayed by Warner Oland, The later Chan's are not as good as Mr.Oland was.In the cast is also Bela Lugosi ( whose next film was Dracula).
In later films, Oland would play Chan more confidently, but here it's interesting to watch him get his feet wet with the character.
"The Black Camel" is the only Charlie Chan film adapted from the original Esrl Derr Biggers books to survive.
"Charlie Chan Carries On" exists only in a Spanish version (which isn't bad) however, the other four, all starring Warner Oland have evidently been lost.The title by the way, refers to a symbol of death (a black camel) in that it is supposed to kneel at the door of a murdered victim.Shelah Fane is a movie star in Honolulu to film her latest feature.
Later Shelah is found murdered in her tent on location by young lovers Jimmy Bradshaw (Robert Young in his first film) and Julie O'Neil, Shelah's friend (Sally Eilers).Inspector Charlie Chan (Oland) is brought into the case.
(Of course, there is no black camel anywhere in the plot, but you can't have everything).COMMENT: This, the 5th movie in the Charlie Chan series is one of the best.
Filmed in 1931, "The Black Camel" sets the stage early for a long string of Charlie Chan films to follow, with it's large cast of characters and murder suspects, and more twists, turns and red herrings than you can shake a stick at.
Warner Oland does the honors here as the Oriental Detective operating on his home turf of Honolulu, with an opening scene of surfers testing the waves and offering an island flair to the proceedings.The cast is enhanced by the presence of Bela Lugosi, portraying a mystic named Tarneverro, who's real identity once revealed makes him a prime murder suspect in the stabbing death of actress Shelah Fane (Dorothy Revier).
The Black Camel is the only film that survives until 1934's Charlie Chan in London.