Highly Overrated But Still Good

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Based on the last quarter of an actual Earl Derr Biggers' novel, namely "Charlie Chan Carries On", this re-make, Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940), very capably directed by Eugene Forde, is also a delight, particularly in its 76-minutes Australian release version which Fox has now made available to American viewers for the first time ever. The movie was cut to 70 minutes for both its original USA release and its American TV airings. Oddly, the cuts were made in the dramatic scenes. All the comedy remained intact, with the result that the film's cleverly engineered pacing was destroyed. Virgil Miller's atmospheric low-key photography is a stand-out as usual, and the support cast includes such favorites as Lionel Atwill, Leo G. Carroll and Kay Linaker. To judge from the surviving Spanish version, this is a much more exciting film than the original Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), even though it is missing two of that film's best scenes.

An old Scotland Yard Inspector friend Montague Shaw drops in on Charlie Chan in Honolulu asking for his help in catching a murderer whom he believes is on a cruise bound for San Francisco. Shortly afterward Shaw is strangled and Sidney Toler now has a personal reason for taking over Shaw's investigation.Also coming along is Number 2 son Victor Sen Yung as usual providing his unwanted assistance to Pop. Number 2 son as a stowaway earns his passage as a steward's assistant, but does prove useful in being able to search cabins of cruise passengers.With such worthy villainous types as Lionel Atwill, Leo G. Carroll, Charles Middleton, and Leonard Mudie in the cast it's going to be difficult to tell who the perpetrator can be. All have been cast as villains in many films. Jewelry salesman Don Beddoe also winds up dead before the cruise is over.With a really good cast to provide believable red herrings Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise is a top drawer feature of the Charlie Chan series. Captain Stubing never saw things like this going on with the Love Boat.

Charlie Chan and #2 son Jimmy join a cruise headed to San Francisco hot on the heels of a murderer. The mad strangler has already killed Chan's friend and colleague from Scotland Yard, so Charlie has to be on his toes. And with the confined space of a cruise ship, suspects at every turn, and even more dead bodies, Charlie Chan certainly has his hands full.When you go about 35 years in between viewings, you not only forget everything about the plot (including the killer's identity), but you also forget how good a movie can be. That's the case with me and Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise. I had the opportunity to check out it out last night for the first time in over three decades. My reaction - what a wonderful movie! An excellent and convoluted plot, a ruthless killer, red herrings everywhere you look, comic relief that doesn't get in the way of the mystery, and some of the most solid acting you'll find in one of the Toler Chan films help make Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise a real winner. The cast that includes Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, the always enjoyable Lionel Atwill, Leo (no G.) Carroll, and Charles Middleton is as good as you'll find in a "B" mystery from the 40s. Another big plus is the film's location. I've always been a fan of a mystery where the killer and suspects are trapped in a place with no hope of escape. And a cruise ship is one of those kind of locations. Add to this list of superlatives I've mentioned some nice pacing from director Eugene Forde and solid cinematography and lighting and you've got the makings of a wonderful entry in the log running Charlie Chan series.

This is a tight little entry in the Charlie Chan series concerning the tracking down of a serial killer on a cruise ship. Sidney Toler and Sen Yung are in good form as Charlie and his impetuous son, Jimmy. The supporting cast would be outstanding for an A film. With Lionel Atwill on-board as (I kid you not) cruise director you know you're in for a good, scary time. The Chan series was at its peak when this one got made. Warner Oland, whose dour presence had put Charlie on the map, so to speak, was but a memory by 1940. Toler was a more jovial Chan, and his good humor set the tone for the rest of the series. The actors in the film, which include Charles Middleton and Claire Du Brey, as a stuffy religious couple, do their deadpan best to keep the story afloat and suspenseful, adding just a touch of the diabolical. There's a festive air in this one, and a neat game of shuffleboard with Don Beddoe.