It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

After solving the Stable Murder, Charlie finds his way to Paris and a meeting with a contact, who is a dancer, performing In a nightclub. After arriving in the City of Lights, pretending to be on vacation, he waits for the dancer to conclude her performance. Before he can talk to her, she is stabbed. A guy who is dressed like Father Guido Sarducci, is the culprit. This will be a significant development later in the story. An attractive young woman has connections to some guys who have been messing around with illegal treasury bonds. As a matter of fact, she is present when a man, with whom she has had a relationship, is gunned down. Because of her presence on the scene and her connection to the guy, she is blamed for the murder. Once again, however, the great Chinese detective looks for the small details which lead to his solving he case.

The famous Charlie Chan series of the 1930s starred Swedish actor Warner Oland as the main character. Yes, I understand that having a non-Chinese man playing Chan is NOT politically correct and they SHOULD have had a Chinese guy play the detective as well as play him less stereotypically, but considering this is the 1930s and the films are still entertaining, this is something the viewer is just going to have to overlook. In the 1940s, the series would continue with other non-Asians (Sidney Toler and then Roland Winters) as well as move from glamorous Twentieth Century Fox to poverty row Monogram Studios--where the production values would drop considerably and racial insensitivity would increase dramatically! Since this is one of the earlier Fox Charlie Chan films, it is a definite step up in quality and entertainment.In this film, Charlie is supposedly on vacation in Paris but is actually on the trail of a counterfeiting scheme. How Chan seemed to travel to new exotic locale in each film is a mystery in and of itself, as he was always described as "the great Hawaiian detective" but never seemed to be there! Anyway, this film has a lot going for it in spite of Charlie's ability to solve crimes too easily (it's like they gave him a copy of the script). The best of Chan's sons, #1 son Keye Luke, is there to assist him and Mantan Moreland of the Monogram films is NOT--a good recipe for success. Plus, the plot and the whole idea of the handicapped beggar really took some imagination and showed that this wasn't just a slapped together entry in the series (like so many later ones were). A good example of the genre.

Charlie Chan in Paris is another solid entry in the Charlie Chan series. In this one, Chan is hot on the heels of a gang of bond forgers. The criminals' trail takes him from the night clubs of Paris to the cities famous sewers. And the sewers in Charlie Chan in Paris are as uninviting a place as Chan ever visited. There's a real sense of menace and danger in these scenes. Warner Oland is as good as ever. Ably assisting Chan is son Lee played by Keye Luke. He may not have been the only son to come to his father's aid in the series, but Luke was by far the best, least annoying of the bunch. Unlike later Charlie Chan films where the offspring are there for little more than comic relief, Lee actually helps his father and saves his life on more than one occasion. The rest of the cast is good, but nothing outstanding. The mystery elements of the story are enjoyable. The criminals' identities will keep you guessing up to the very end.I suppose that this is as good a time as any to write about my feelings on the racial aspects and controversy surrounding the Charlie Chan films in recent years. Growing up, I'm not sure if I realized Warner Oland wasn't Asian or not, but it didn't matter. Through Chan, Oland taught honesty, self respect, and the importance of education. He taught this young fan of the importance of accepting all people, regardless of race, including Asians. I think these are good important lessons to learn regardless of Oland's ethnic origins. There's an unfortunate scene in Charlie Chan in Paris where one of the characters attempts to make a joke at Chan's expense by speaking to him in pigeon English. Chan quickly turns the table on him with class and grace and makes the would-be jokester the butt of his own joke. Good going Charlie!

20th Century Fox recognized a money-spinner when it saw one. Between 1931 and 1942 the studio produced no fewer than 27 Charlie Chan films, first starring Warner Oland and later Sidney Toler. Unfortunately, of the sixteen films starring Warner Oland, four have been "lost." For a great many years, however, the number of "lost" films stood at five--until a single print of the 1935 CHARLIE CHAN IN Paris was located.Like the earlier CHARLIE CHAN IN London, this film shows the series in full stride, a neat mixture of comedy and mystery bolstered by a solid cast. It is particularly notable as the first film in the series to introduce Chan's son Lee, memorably played by Asian-American actor Keye Luke, who would continue the role through several films. This episode finds Chan in, of course, Paris--pretending to be on vacation while in fact investigating counterfeit bank bonds in a mystery that leads Chan to the infamous sewers of the city.Chan films, particularly those starring Oland, often use the device of allowing other characters to show vulgar racism toward Chan--and Chan often encourages such dismissiveness to his own ends; underestimation of Chan's talents often delivers the killer into the detective's hand. At times, however, the device has an unfortunate tone, and that occurs here, particularly in an early scene which presents Chan speaking in pidgin and then joining others in their laughter at the "joke." This sort of patronization would be soon dropped from the series, but it is significantly offensive when it occurs.That aside, however, CHARLIE CHAN IN Paris is quite a good entry in the series, which features dancing spies, stolen love letters, and shots in the dark. The cinematography is typically static and the acting is a bit broad, as is typically of many mid-1930s films, but it's quite a bit of fun.Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer