Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Ricardo Daly The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

kapelusznik18 ***SPOLIERS*** Sidney Toler in his debut as the legendary Hawaiian detective Charlie Chan gets involved in a, you guessed it, murder that his wannabe detective and bumbling son James, Sen Yung, takes charge of. That by impersonating his famous father who at the time is in the hospital maternity ward waiting to see if his first grandchild is either a boy or a girl. The dead man Mr. Randolph, found in the ship Susan B. Jennings, has a mysterious past. In that together with his murder $300,000.00 was stolen from Judy Hayes,Phyills Brooks, who was bringing it back to her boss in Honolulu from Shanghai on a top secret mission! Before Charlie can come to his son's assistance he seemed to have solved the murder all by himself in running into the hard of hearing and creepy Dr. Cardigan, George Zucco, who seems to know more about Mr. Randolph's murder then he's letting on to. Fair but not one of the best Charlie Chan murder mystery with a lot more suspects then you would expect making it far more difficult for Charlie, even with the help of his son James, to solve. It's while trying to solve the both murder of Mr. Randolph as well as robbery of Judy Hayes' $300,000.00 another murder takes place on the ship of passenger Mrs. Carol Wayne, Claire Dodd, who as it later turned out was somehow involved with the person who murdered Mr. Raldolph who in turned, in Carol knowing too much, ended up murdering her as well!****SPOILERS*** Charlie for his part uses the now with perfect hearing, and cleared as a suspect in Mr. Randolph & Mrs. Wayne's murders, Dr. Cardigan to help him catch the killer but not knowing just quite, with as many as a dozen suspects, just who he is. That's until Charlie in setting a trap for him in thinking that he has the goods, a pair of fingerprints, on him ends up tricking the killer in total darkness, with him turning the lights off, to retrieve it. Not knowing that a flash camera was set up by Charlie for the killer, in grabbing the so-called evidence of his crime, that he fell right into it thus convicting himself, in living black& white, of the two murders- Mr. Randolph & Mrs. Wayne- as well as the stolen $300,000.00 when the film was developed!

SanteeFats In this Charlie Chan movie there is a murder on board a freighter that is carrying six passengers. One of them has $300,000 in cash that she is suppose to deliver to one of her bosses clients. The money gets swiped and is hidden in a lifeboat where another passenger discovers it. The guy who finds it is a crook on his way back to Frisco with a detective. This detective is actually his accomplice. Charlie has that figured out and both will go to jail at the end of the voyage. Chan's number two son goes on board before Charlie gets there and tries to solve the case. He doesn't of course but it is a funny enough scenario. When things finally settle it turns out that the ship's captain is the guilty party. He was trying to get a huge windfall through murder and theft. If you are old enough to remember "Death Valley Days" the captain is played by the narrator of that show. Sydney Toler is Chan for this movie but there were actually two who played the role. Each brought different aspects to the role. Both were white guys and both spoke pigeon English. In today's climate of political correctness that would never fly.

blanche-2 "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" is Sidney Toler's first Charlie Chan, and the difference between him in this and in his last films is very noticeable. Here he is much more lively.As this story unfolds, Charlie's daughter is about to give birth, and while he and his wife are at the hospital, the police call Charlie at home and ask him to go to a ship where someone has been murdered. Aspiring detective Jimmy Chan (Sen Yung, Bonanza's Hop Sing) intercepts the call, and he and #5 son Tommy (Layne Tom Jr. who in real life became a distinguished architect) decide to take on the case. Tommy immediately gets stuck in an area where wild animals are being kept for importation to the zoo; chaos ensues. This takes up some footage at the beginning.Charlie finally arrives and tries to sort out the mess, but there's another murder, and a missing and reappearing $10,000, a mysterious doctor (George Zucco) who pretends to be deaf and has an interesting science experiment on board, a fast-talking detective and his charge -- meanwhile, Charlie keeps getting calls from his son-in-law.They really threw the book at this one, complete with very dramatic music, as Toler's debut. He's delightful.One of the crazier Chan films, but it's nice to see Toler so energetic, and the Chan family is fun.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Charlie Chan in Honolulu, 1938. Honolulu Police Lieutenant Charlie Chan is aphorism-spouting oriental sleuth, while his son debut as Charlie's Number Two Son, Jimmy. While awaiting the birth of his first grandchild, Chan endeavors to solve a shipboard murder involving $300,000.000 on a Hawaiian freighter.*Special Stars- Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, George Zucco, Eddie Collins, Phyllis Brooks, Marc Lawrence, Richard Lane, James P Spencer.*Theme- A good detective always uses all his senses to defeat crime.*Trivia/location/goofs- Sidney Toler made his first appearance as aphorism-spouting oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in 1938's Charlie Chan in Honolulu, while Victor Sen Yung likewise makes his series debut as Charlie's Number Two son, Jimmy.*Emotion- This was an enjoyable film because we learn and see the family life of the famous Charlie Chan. His large family is mentioned in all seceding film of this series. The family matters make the character as lovable and interesting to the film's fans. The best of the film's for it's humanity.