Murder Over New York

I love the Chan series but it takes an element of disbelief. You have to either accept (or ignore) the fact that Charlie never seems to spend much time in Hawaii (making one wonder what the Honolulu PD actually pays him to do) and much like Philo Vance or Nick Charles, has some sort-of official status everywhere he goes. And if you watch enough of these, you begin to see the same Fox contract players popping up over and over again as red herrings, jilted lovers and "adventuresses." This '40 entry has Charlie coincidentally meeting up with an old friend (bad omen--- his friends have a shorter life expectancy than the doomed red shirted yeomen beamed down in Star Trek episodes) Scotland Yard on a plane en route to a police convention. Charlie enlists himself in solving his friend's murder and by default, the case he was working on. No. 2 son Jimmy Chan (played by 25-year old Victor Sen Yung) seems to exist to state obvious inane comments or offer wildly improbable facts--- most notably identifying a new poison gas by smell (he must be a whizz undergrad back in California). Watch for Shemp Howard as a phony Hindu in a line up and future Captain Marvel Frank Coghlan Jr. in a bit part as a coat room clerk in a men's club. This is a fair entry but suffers somewhat from the lack of an exotic setting (Paris, Berlin... Reno!) or the occasional supernatural elements found in several of the others (...Egypt, ...Secret, Castle in the Desert). It's one of the most straight forward whodunits of the entire Fox films.

This film is about a deadly poison that is contained in small glass globes that is used to kill. This is apparently done to hide an espionage ring intent on stealing plans for a new American bomber. Now much of this plot was repeated in other Chan films, THE JADE MASK and THE DOCKS OF NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, it was first used in MR. WONG, DETECTIVE--all had the exploding glass globes--a plot element that obviously has been overused. It was interesting in MURDER OVER NEW YORK, but by these later films it was rather passé.

Fortunately, the rest of the film was fresh and the plot worked out very well--with a nifty conclusion where, of course, the culprit reveals himself. However, no plane could fly the way this one did--especially in 1940. Such extreme dives and rapid ascents were pretty silly out of this already obsolete plane.

By the way, in a small role as a porter you'll see Frank Coghlan Jr.--the same actor who played Billy Batson in the CAPTAIN MARVEL serial. According to IMDb, Mr. Coughlan is 93 years old and retired from the film industry.

This Charlie Chan mystery is a misnomer. There is no Murder Over New York, but not for lack of trying. And the attempt is made at the climax of the film so that Sidney Toler can get the murderer of three people to give himself away.

Toler and number two son Victor Sen Yung are in New York for a police convention and Toler runs into a former Scotland Yard colleague Frederic Worlock who is on the trail of an international spy. Later on Worlock is found dead. Two other murders are committed.

Note the presence of a lot of Hollywood's British colony here. Some are suspects, some are not. A whole lot of the cast has played villains in other films so that affords you no clue. The ultimate mastermind is someone who has played some incredibly slimy bad guys on screen.

Quite a curve gets tossed us toward the end as all the suspects are put in a plane and are meant to be killed. Of course they're not as Charlie Chan gets his man.

One of the best of the Sidney Toler Chan films.

Charlie's in New York catching pre-war spies with wise-cracking #2 son, Victor Sen-Yung. They make a delightful team. Yes, it's unfortunate that blacks are stereotyped, but we're certainly intelligent enough to place this within the proper prospective.

As with every Chan film in the 30s & 40s, the film shows Charlie's high sense of family values, and he is accorded respect like no other character in the film as he easily outwits dimwitted white chief detective Don McBride and the others.

Overall, the Chan series are an honorable and respectable part of our film history - and they're fun and entertaining as hell. These films deserve to be seen as often as any other film of the era.

Please pass the popcorn and leave your over-sensitive political correctness at the door. It's show time!

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is full of clever sayings in Murder in New York, from 1940. Also starring is Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan. They make a delightful team. Jimmy shows up unexpectedly while Charlie is in New York to attend a conference. He and a friend of his want to attend the World's Fair.

It's not long before both Chans are on a case, when a friend of Charlie's, a detective, is murdered. Soon they're in the midst of the investigation of a sabotage ring, people being killed by poison gas pellets, an airplane crash, and plenty of suspects. The police ask Charlie to stick around and help. I don't think he gets to his conference, and Jimmy doesn't see the World's Fair, at least not yet.

Donald McBride, Ricardo Cortez, Kane Richmond, Robert Lowery, Marjorie Weaver, and Joan Valerie are all featured.

It's a fair mystery, enlivened by Charlie's witty dialogue. Frankly, any one of these films that has something to do with the war basically have similar plots: sabotage, missing formulas, spies, that type of thing.

Sidney Toler is in good form. I have to say I prefer Warner Oland, who seemed to exhibit more energy and was more upbeat. Toler's humor comes from his sardonic line delivery and good chemistry with the actors. Both brought something special to the role.

Whether the story is bad, good, confusing, whatever, with stereotypes abounding, somehow these films are always enjoyable.