CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS (1937)

That’d be the 1936 Berlin Olympics; the one where Jesse Owens took the local team to the cleaners.  Not that we get more than a few stock shots of the activities.  But some clever lad at 20th/Fox thought it just the spot for Charlie Chan (Warner Orland in his antepenultimate appearance as the famous detective) to chase down unnamed foreign powers on a case of industrial espionage.  The missing gizmo a radio control airplane device, stolen mid-flight on a Honolulu test run, now making its way to Berlin.  Enter Detective Chan, doubly delighted at the chance to solve the case and take in Key Luke’s Number One Son on the USA swim team.  (His briefly seen form leaving everything to be desired!)  And he’s not the only Chan son on the case.  Back in Honolulu, 12-yr-old Charlie Jr has been helping out to mixed, but winning effect.  (The Hollywood norm at the time that had Euro-leads bringing up real Asian kids was standard operating procedure, but what must the child actors have thought of it?)  These late Orland episodes (he died the next year) are the best in the series with the previous release, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA, also directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, considered best of the lot.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA/’36 (not seen here) has Boris Karloff as co-star, perhaps picking up pointers for his Chinese detective series as MR. WONG.  Five films, replaced in the sixth by (wait for it) Key Luke!  (see link for details)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/01/mr-wong-detective-1938.html  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-fatal-hour-1940.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Since it’s 1937, the Berlin police aren’t the bad guys, merely incompetent.