Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise

USA 1940
produced by
20th Century Fox
directed by Eugene Forde
starring Sidney Toler, Marjorie Weaver, Lionel Atwill, Victor Sen Yung, Robert Lowery, Don Beddoe, Leo G.Carroll, Cora Witherspoon, Kay Linaker, Harlan Briggs, Charles Middleton, Claire Du Brey, Leonard Mudie, James Burke, Richard Keene, Layne Tom jr, C. Montague Shaw
screenplay by Robertson White, Lester Ziffren, based on the novel Charlie Chan Carries on by Earl Derr Biggers

Charlie Chan, Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler), Charlie Chan at Fox

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

In Honolulu, famous police detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) receives a visit of his old friend, Scotland Yard inspector Duff (C. Montague Shaw), who tells Chan he's on Dr Sudermn's (Lionel Atwill) cruise to find a notorious strangler. Problem is, he has no idea what the strangler looks like, so Duff has come to Chan to ask for assistance ... and a short time later, Duff is found dead in Chan's office, strangled.

Chan pays a visit to the hotel where the members of the cruise are staying - to find one cruisemember murdered. Chan soon finds a suspect, the dead man's nephew Dick (Robert Lowery) too, who had a quarrel with him shortly before his demise, and who is the heir to his vast fortune ... but Chan doesn't think he's guilty, and soon finds out there was a confusion and the murder victim actually should have been another man, the overly nervous Pendleton (Leonard Mudie). Chan thinks it's best to continue the cruise - under his supervision.

On the cruise, Chan meets all the members, your typical eccentric bunch of folks, like vastly rich Susie Watson (Cora Witherspoon) and her golddigger boyfriend Ross (Don Beddoe), archeologist Gordon (Leo G.Carroll), who likes nothing more than telling anecdotes of his adventures, and a god-fearing couple (Charles Mittleton, Claire Du Brey) with a tendency to create confusion. And then there's Charlie's son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) too, who more than once jumps the gun.

Chan tries his best to keep everything under control and to protect Pendleton, but then Pendleton is killed all the same ... and Chan finds a clue that the killer is actually after Pendleton's wife (Kay Linaker), who's not on the cruise but supposed to meet her husband in San Francisco, the final destination of the ship, as well. The only clue to the killer seems to be that he's wearing a beggar's outfit, and later, a beggar is actually found on board, hunted down and killed, even though nobody who has hunted him has ever aimed to kill him. When his disguise is removed, the beggar is revealed to be Ross, the golddigger. So he's the murderer, right?

Wrong of course. Charlie has meanwhile done a background check on Mrs Pendleton and has found out she was married to a jewel thief, Oberton, before she was married to Pendleton, but had seen to it that he got thrown into the slammer when she found out about his line of work. He has sworn revenge on her and Pendleton (who had no idea what Oberton looked like) of course. Now Ross could not have been Oberton simply because he was Oberton's fence - which explains why he was taking turns in wearing the beggar's outfit with Oberton. And yes, it was Oberton who eventually killed Ross to clear himself. Problem now, still nobody knows what Oberton looks like. Nobody but Mrs Pendleton ...

San Francisco: Chan has asked all suspects to the coroner's office and has invited Mrs Pendleton to identify Oberton - by voice, because she has lost her eyesight. Dr Suderman protests, is identified, but makes a hasty getaway. While everybody's going after Suderman though, a man in a beggar's outfit is trying to kill Mrs Pendleton, and while doing so he's giving a full confession. Chan and friends intervene in the very last moment, save Mrs Pendleton, unmask the beggar and reveal him to be ... archeologist Gordon, the real Oberton.

But why has Mrs Pendleton identified Suderman as Oberton?

It was all staged by Chan to lure the real Oberton into a trap (and a confession) of course, and Suderman was in on it. Mrs Pendleton isn't really blind either, by the way.

 

Not the greatest Charlie Chan film ever, that's for sure, but an enjoyable series film nevertheless, thanks first and foremost to a colourful cast playing colourful characters, and the regulars (Sidney Toler and Victor Sen Yung) being on top of their game. One little thing, the killer gives himself away a little too soon when he talks at length about Chinese history and gets the facts wrong in the process. Now I don't know a thing about Chinese history, but by mere construction of a mystery thriller of this ilk, monologues like this are always a dead giveaway.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!