Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Princess Mei Ling(Jean Wong)goes to the San Francisco apartment of Charlie Chan(Roland Winters). After she is led to the den by manservant Birmingham(Mantan Moreland), she is murdered via poison dart gun. She manages to leave a written clue on a note pad that leads to Captain Kong(Philip Ahn), whom she has made a million American dollar deal to ship airplanes to Chinese freedom fighters. But Kong is not the only Captain K involved in this deal. However, who would be better off that the princess is dead? Chan is aided by police Sergeant Davidson(Warren Douglas)in spite of the pest of a newspaper reporter Peggy Carpenter(Louise Currie), who wants the exclusive story of the murder of the princess. Not real fond of Winters playing the lead role. He is the palest Chinese/Hawaiian detective Chan ever. Also in the cast: Byron Foulger, Thayer Roberts and Cha Bing. And not understandable to Chan fans is that Victor Sen Young in this flick has changed his name from Jimmy to Tommy(who used to be #3 Son played by Benson Fong). Change is not easy to accept. But a Charlie Chan mystery seems always to be worthwhile.

As Chans go, not the best, but the story itself is fine. Roland Winters is a perfectly good Chan - the role was defined by the time this episode in the series was made, so he basically just had to show up and recite the lines to get the job done. Although Victor Sen Young shows up as Tommy, he plays a very small part in the film - a good thing in my opinion. Birmingham Brown is present as comic relief, but doesn't shine in this one. Sargent Bill Davidson and plucky girl reporter Peggy Cartwright play the clichéd role of battling couple with unfortunate results. After the third or fourth exclamation of "Bill Davidson!" by our intrepid girl reporter, I was ready to strangle her. By the sixth or seventh time, I was ready to strangle myself. You'd think the writers were paid to keep the word count down. Worse, while the two argue in Davidson's office, he grabs her and shakes her in a rage, nearly knocking her off her feet. Of course, that's what men do to women they love, right? Don't worry, it all ends up in a kiss. Good God.That's what you have to deal with when watching sixty year old movies - sometimes there's a real culture shock.

Princess Mei Ling visits Charlie Chan's house with need of the great detective's help. Before she can meet with him she is killed by an air gun, but is able to scrawl "Capt K" on a sheet of paper in hoping to give Chan a clue to her killer. Chan, teaming up with police sergeant, Bill Davidson, finds the apartment where the princess is residing and finds that her trip to America was to purchase a fleet of airplanes to aid in China's defense from invaders. Captain Kong, who was captain of the ship that the princess traveled on, and Captain Kelso, who was the supplier of the planes for the princess, are both determined to see that Chan and Davidson make no further progress on the murder case, which has also added the princess' maid and a mute Chinese boy who may have seen the killer. Obviously by the time the Monogram Chan films were at this stage they were pretty routine and boring and this film is no exception, despite being Roland Winters debut as Chan. The film really lacks a mystery aura as seen in any other Chan film with a storyline that does little in the way of entertain. Victor Sen-Yung last the least to do of any son in any Chan film and Moreland lacks much of the humor he usually does, but does seem more involved with solving the case. Rating, 3.

Winters' debut as Chan is okay, but film is a near line-by-line remake of MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN, and the story wasn't great then. Foulger has meaty part as nervous banker, Ahn looks inscrutable, Moreland rolls his eyes, and Louise Currie is gorgeous, but pedestrian direction and cheapo production sink this for all but Chan fans.