Charlie Chan on Broadway
Tags: mystery, murder

Plot synopsis:
While Charlie Chan and his number one son, Lee, are aboard a New York-bound transatlantic liner returning from Germany in their previous adventure (Charlie Chan at the Olympics), they have a run-in with a mysterious woman, named Billie Bronson, who secretes a package in the trunk of the Chans. After the liner docks, Chan and Lee are met at the pier by Inspector Nelson and two rival reporters, Joan Wendall and Speed Patton. Bille, having left the country hurriedly a year ago when sought as a material witness in a political scandal, has returned to "blow the lid off the town." She follows the Chans to their hotel and attempts to regain her package from the trunk, only to be interrupted by Lee. She then goes to the "Hottentot Club", where "candid-camera night" is in full progress, followed by Lee. Already present are Joan and Speed. Billie is mysteriously murdered and Charlie is summoned from a police banquet in his honor. Present in the room with the body are club manager Johnny Burke; club dancer and Burke's girl-friend Marie Collins and the two reporters. While seeking a motive for the murder, a second killing is discovered in Charlie's hotel room, the package is missing from Charlie's trunk and it is realized that it must have contained her diary. Charlie neatly puts together a few scattered clues and then springs a trap to confirm the identity of the killer.

Review: This time out, Charlie and #1 son, played as affably as ever by Keye Luke, are aboard a ship soon to dock in New York.
A woman aboard stows something in #1's luggage and tries getting it later in Chan hotel room.
Anyway, you get the usual good stuff you would find in most Chan films: a good mystery(I didn't figure this one out), some nice comedic touches with Chan's sayings and his by-play with his son, solid character acting from the likes of Luke, Donald Woods, Joan Marsh, etc..., and a look back at what New York was like in the late 30's.
Another really well done, atmospheric, Warner Oland/20th Century Fox Chan film.
Then in New York, the Hottentot Club is the main setting along with the hotel Chan and other notables stay at.
Edward Bromberg, Harold Huber in his best Chan role, Leon Ames, Marc Lawrence, Donald Woods, Louise Henry and Joan Marsh.
Much of the action takes place in the Hottentot Club and the only dance is of a tropical variety that is more reminiscent of Charlie Chan in Rio or Panama.Warner Oland is at the top of his game playing the famous Chinese detective.
Harold Huber does a fine job as Inspector Nelson and proves less silly than we'd see in future films.This must be considered one of the best..
Snappy Warner Oland as Charlie Chan murder mystery set at sea and in New York.
Oland's slowness in this film is complemented by good direction from an old hand, a total of five writers, and a great supporting cast.
I suppose that Joan Woodbury's dancing was all the rage at the time.Plot involves diary that if published will cause a great deal of harm to a lot of people: `No poison more deadly than ink.' Lots of misdirection with an obvious suspect and another who it appears will be actually guilty: `Murder case like revolving door, when one side close another side open.' In the end, the police and Chan trap the killer but not until Chan reveals clues that the viewer cannot have been aware.
Racial slurs against Orientals remain in the series with the New York Police Band playing `Chinatown' in honor of Chan's arrival.
Charlie Chan gets to work investigating all the suspects with (mostly unwanted) help from "Number One Son" Lee. This is a fun entry in the series helped by a great cast.
Edward Bromberg, Joan Marsh, Leon Ames, Marc Lawrence, and Douglas Fowley all offer good support.
The Good & Bad Of 'Charlie Chan On Broadway'.
The title of this Charlie Chan flick is a misnomer because Broadway doesn't play a part in this film.
Yes, we are in New York City for part of the story, but the scene isn't Broadway but "The Hottentot Club."This Chan story has the normal assortment of interesting characters.
It didn't think Charlie's proverbs were up to snuff in this one but his repartee with Number One Son (Keye Luke) was fun to hear, as always.Louise Henry, a woman who has a diary that everyone is after in this murder-mystery, has one of the prettiest faces I've seen in a Chan movie.
However, on the opposite side, Harold Huber as "Inspector Nelson" is one of the more annoying ones I've seen.Overall: good, and another in the series that I am still hoping to see on DVD..
Billie Bronson returns to New York from Europe to blackmail Johnny Burke (a former flame) with her diary with contains information that the police would love to have in order to put Burke in the slammer.
Billie hid the diary in Charlie's luggage and also plans to try to sell the diary to newspaper editor Murdock, while two reporters at Murdock's paper, reporter Speed Patten and photographer Joan Wendell, try to score an exclusive piece with Billie at Burke's nightclub, but after a meeting with Burke and girlfriend Marie Collins, Billie is found murdered in Burke's office.
Charlie and Inspector Nelson rush to solve the case (with Lee also trying to work the case much to his father's enjoyment) where they find out that the person who also murdered Billie also stole the diary.
Nelson arrests Burke on the circumstantial evidence, but has to turn him free when it doesn't pan out, but Charlie brings all the suspects in to present the murderer.
This Chan entry seemed a lot better when thinking about it some time later, maybe one reason why is Huber's character (as well as the actor himself) is annoying as hell.
The script plays more like it came from Warner Brothers with the nightclub and gangster motif, but it is good for its genre and film series.
A young woman, Billie, puts a package in a trunk belonging to Charlie Chan.
Nightclub singer Louise Henry returns to New York as it turns out with Warner Oland and number one son Keye Luke on the same boat.
Excellent reason for people wanting to do her harm.In addition to Warner Oland investigating to help Inspector Harold Huber of the NYPD, reporter and photographer Donald Woods and Joan Marsh are trying to scoop each other to please city editor J.
Edward Bromberg who has a big interest in this case.I'm kind of divided in terms of my feelings about Charlie Chan On Broadway.
But the casting will throw you off.Oland and Luke do some good work here helping clear up a pair of homicides of some people society won't miss unless you're a fan of Henry's singing..
Mae West said in one of her films: 'Keep a diary, and one day it'll keep you...' And that most CERTAINLY goes for the diary of a young lady, Billie Bronson, who's just arrived on the same steamer with Charlie and Lee Chan back in New York after a year - because she had to go in hiding when it was found out then that Billie, who's acquainted with almost all of Manhattan's big-time mob, had kept a very detailed diary about all the ongoings in New York's underworld, which of course, if revealed to the public, would mean the ruin of most of the city's gangsters...No need to say that she's got to hide the extremely explosive - and valuable - little book in a safe place; and since she'd been followed even back on the steamer by a guy who was obviously after it, and since she happened to get acquainted with famous Charlie Chan there as well...
what better place could there be than Charlie's hotel room in New York?
She manages to place it there - but she doesn't manage to escape her own fate: while obviously bargaining with some of the people mentioned in her diary for a very high price for the evidence, she herself pays the highest price: she is shot in the office of the manager of one of Broadway's famous-infamous nightclubs, the 'Hottentot Club'.Very soon, of course, we get to know a whole bunch of suspects: except for 'Hottentot Club' manager Johnny Burke and his girlfriend Marie, who, as it turns out, had taken Johnny away from Billie, and in addition is the wife of the mysterious guy on the ship, who also keeps on searching for the diary, but is soon murdered as well - in Charlie's hotel room!
Then there's newspaper editor Murdock, who also had his reasons for bargaining for the dangerous diary, and his ever-present employees, reporter 'Speed' Patten and photo reporter Joan, and shady Buzz Moran...And this time, after LOTS of dangerous adventures in the 'asphalt jungle', Charlie arranges a real 'classic' gathering of all the suspects in order to reveal the killer...Absolutely PERFECT in every aspect, from the formidable cast to the direction that catches marvelously the atmosphere of old Manhattan 'where the underworld can meet the elite' (like it says in "42nd Street") to the classic, ingenious 'whodunit' story, this is one of Charlie Chan's VERY best, and MOST entertaining cases!.
Charlie (Warner Oland) and Number One Son (Keye Luke) investigate a murder at NYC's Hottentot Club.
The murder investigation doesn't even begin until halfway into the film.The murder plot itself is only mildly interesting, and relates more to city mobsters than to anything having to do with "Broadway".
Production design, however, is quite good, at least by Charlie Chan standards.
And we have the usual Charlie Chan aphorisms.The identity of the murderer is not hard to figure out, owing to poor film direction.
Some of Charlie's logic about who the murderer is, is not consistent with the film's plot.
And there's very little suspense in this film.Except for the production design, especially at the Hottentot, I found this particular Charlie Chan mystery to be disappointing.
Warner Oland and Keye Luke star in "Charlie Chan on Broadway" in this 1937 film also featuring Donald Woods, Joan Marsh, Louise Henry and Harold Huber.
Chan (Oland) is on board ship with #1 son Lee (Luke).
Murders are the result, and Chan and Lee are on the case.There's not much of Broadway in this film except a couple of shots of Times Square, but it's fun nonetheless.
Oland is a good Chan; he's younger than Sidney Toler, another Charlie, and Keye Luke is very likable as Lee.These movies are politically incorrect today, but they're entertaining and a great reminder of what ethnic populations had to endure if they were involved in films or even watching them.
I can never get upset with a Charlie Chan film, they're all simply classics.
That being said, I already have a bias in favor of the Chan series so my review may be tainted.In this Chan outing, Charlie (Oland) and #1 son Lee (Keye Luke) find themselves hot on the trail of the murderer of an infamous ex-mob lady Billie Bronson (played by the sultry Louise Henry).
Added to the fray is her missing diary which contains secrets that could blow the lid off of New York's underworld.
We have the usual Chan formula, with a fast-paced, New York twist.
You have the usual suspects (who more often than not turn out to be not guilty) and the big surprise ending where we learn who the real killer is.
I can honestly say I didn't see it coming.The things which separate this film from others in the series are the hectic New York setting and a few very interesting characters.
But boy this movie sure is a wild ride and it ended up being one of the Chan films I like to watch over and over.Be sure to see this one soon and enjoy.
Charlie Chan and #1 son Lee get mixed up with a mysterious woman on board a ship bound for New York.
She hides a small package in Chan's luggage to make sure it gets to New York safely.
Shortly after arriving in New York, the woman is murdered in an office at the Hottentot Club.
Charlie Chan on Broadway is yet another very solid entry in the Chan series.
Warner Oland and Keye Luke are as good and entertaining as ever.
It completely caught me off guard.BIG TIME SPOILERS  If you've seen enough of the Charlie Chan movies (or any other detective type movies from the 30s and 40s), there are a few absolutes you can generally count on.
That's not the case in Charlie Chan on Broadway.
END OF BIG TIME SPOILERS Overall, I'm very pleased to have discovered a "new" Charlie Chan film.
Pretty typical of the later Warner Olan films from the Chan series.
I enjoyed CHARLIE CHAN ON Broadway but also have to admit that there isn't much new or special that sets it apart from all the other later Warner Oland films from the Charlie Chan series.
It has all the usual elements--the assistance (whether wanted or not) of #1 son, plot twists and clever "Chanisms"--the clever aphorisms Charlie makes during the course of the film.
So the film isn't a disappointment nor is it particularly distinguished.The plot involves a gangster's moll who is killed just before she reveals mob secrets.
Despite the movie making it look like the mobsters Burke or Moran did it, I found this plot much easier to unravel than most when I noticed the exact same clue that Chan did when he gives a summation of the case at the end of the film--so it's not one of the more baffling mysteries of the series.Decent acting, plot and dialog--this is yet another fine Chan film.
It just happens that the murders happened in the Broadway neighborhood, so don't expect anything like CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA..
"Charlie Chan on Broadway" is somewhat of a misnomer, since most of the New York City action takes place far from the bright lights of the theater district, and instead are presented in the setting of the Hottentot Club, a premier night club run by mobster Johnny Burke (Douglas Fowley).
The film begins aboard an ocean liner, where we observe Burke's former flame Billie Bronson (Louise Henry) conceal a package in the Chan luggage; it turns out to be a diary containing information on mob rackets, and there are plenty who would pay dearly for it.
When Billie turns up dead in the Club, along with her shipboard tail Tom Mitchell (Marc Lawrence), the hunt is on for the killer.Keye Luke is on board again as Number #1 Son Lee, and Harold Huber joins the Chan series as Police Inspector Nelson, quick to jump to conclusions based on partial evidence.
Quite a few characters are placed at the center of the mystery, including newspaper reporter Speed Patten (Donald Woods), photographer Joan Wendall (Joan Marsh), and New York Bulletin Editor Murdock (J.
Of course, Burke is a prime suspect, along with henchman Buzz Moran (Leon Ames), but editor Murdock arouses suspicion when he arrives early for an appointment with the murdered Billie, as his newspaper would have the inside scoop on the diary's secrets.With crafty precision, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) unravels the case based on evidence provided at the Bronson crime scene in mobster Burke's office - a photograph of the murder victim's location with it's effects, and the subsequent discovery of missing elements from the photo.
All of this sleight of hand casts suspicion on the main suspects - both Burke, and his current girlfriend and nightclub dancer Marie Collins (Joan Woodbury), who believes Billie's return from self imposed exile is a threat to her relationship with Burke.The final revelation of the killer's identity is typical of Chan films - reporter Speed Patten is involved in the mob rackets, and his access to the other suspects places him at the center of the action.
The diary has enough information to put him and his cronies away for a long time, and ultimately, it does, as the Oriental Detective lays out the missing pieces of the case for the viewer.Warner Oland would go on to portray Charlie Chan only one more time for an adventure in Monte Carlo, before his untimely death shortly after from bronchial pneumonia.
Charlie suspects foul play.NOTES: Number fifteen of the sixteen pictures made by Warner Oland in the series, and the third of five (four with Oland and one with Toler) directed by Eugene Forde.COMMENT: A lively entry with a great cast that will particularly delight Harold Huber's vast legion of fans.
***SPOILERS*** Warner Oland in his next to last film as Hawaiian master detective Charlie Chan gets involved in a double murder while attending a banquet in his honor by the New York Police Department as it's gust of honor.
This has to do with mob moll Billie Bronson, Louise Henry, who after coming out of hiding in Europe was found gun down at the notorious mob hangout the Hottentot Club that her mobster boyfriend Buzz Moran, Leon Ames, ran.Charlie as usual is hampered by hi #1 Son Lee, Keye Luke, who among other things that made pop's job difficult was looking through the keyholes at the hotel, The Cartlon, that the two were staying at.
It's a wonder he didn't get his head slammed by someone in the place opening up a door or being arrested by the hotel detective as a peeping Tom or Lee. As Charlie soon discovered the murder victim Billie Bronson's body was moved and evidence stolen when he was shown a photo of the murder scene.
This lead Charlie #1 Son Lee as well as NYPD Police inspector Nelson, Harold Huber,to Billie Bronson's hotel room where there was discovered the body of murdered hoodlum Thomas Mitchell, Marc Lawrence, who's been following Billie all the way to NYC from far off Europe.***SPOILERS*** As it soon turned Billie had an explosive diary that she was going to use to blackmail members of the New York city police as well as well placed New York politicians and businessmen who were involved with the town's criminal element who was paying them off to look the other way.
No mystery remains unsolved with Charlie Chan around-even on Broadway!.
One of Warner Oland's last appearances as Charlie Chan was this short and sweet mystery where Charlie happens to be involved in the smuggling of a diary intended to be used for blackmail.
The blackmailer (Louise Henry) is all of sudden murdered and Chan must gather all the clues he can to find the killer.
This gets Number One Son (Keye Luke) involved, which of course, isn't a shining light in pop's eyes.
The Oriental sleuth Charlie Chan(Warner Oland) rides a bumpy sea to attend a police testimonial in New York City.
When the chanteuse is murdered, Charlie and Number One Son Lee(Keye Luke)join Chief Inspector Nelson(Harold Huber)in piecing together clues to find the killer.
This film moves at a good pace and is typically true to the Charlie Chan formula.
I guess I am too because it occurs to me I have a towel from the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia hidden away with the rest of my loot.I haven't gotten to the climax yet so I don't know if Charlie Chan and Enumerated Son get to Broadway to see a show or not.