A foggy night on a cruise ship. Charlie Chan huddles at the rail with a man who confides that he is a government agent investigating hot money circulating in the islands. Already two attempts have been made on his life. Chan nods sagely.
It's an atmospheric opening that sets the scene nicely, reminiscent of the best Chan mysteries made several years earlier. Various characters slink by or stop to say hello as Chan and the agent talk....all suspects?
Moments later, sure enough, the government man is struck down in the ball room, victim of a knife thrown by an unseen hand. Chan takes on both the murder and the counterfeiting investigations.
Sidney Toler is fine once again as the famous detective. Sen Yung and Willie Best are along as Mr. Chan's assistants, and while this series entry has less comedy than usual, Yung and Best do manage to get some humor out of a pair of two-way radios they use in their efforts to spy on passengers and gather clues.
Overall, the plot is nothing special but manages to hold together for 66 minutes. The cast is solid and includes some familiar faces like ship captain Joseph Crehan. It's not the best Charlie Chan movie but certainly a decent late series entry.
Best movie prop ever: One of the suspects is a professor of ichthyology and he spends most of the movie carrying around a big book called simply FISH.
