EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Hitchcoc I really enjoyed this. Our irrepressible detective finds himself at the home of an old friend who is trying to locate her son who disappeared years ago. While it is unlikely he is alive, her connections to the spirit world through a couple Mystics and her ouija board tell her otherwise. Charlie, respecting the workings of the occult from his Oriental heritage, isn't sure the young man is dead. Well, interestingly enough, he turns up one day, only to be killed at a seance. This throws the whole issue of inheritance into a tizzy. The old lady would be disinherited and her children affected. There are four or five suspects but no evidence. Charlie must set some kind of trap to draw out the culprit. While I pretty much had this figured out way ahead, I still enjoyed it. Mainly, because I wanted to see how he played his cards. By the way, there is some pretty good CSI work done here.

Michael_Elliott Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)*** (out of 4) Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) is investigating the death of a man but it turns out that he's actually alive. However, shortly after Chan finds this out the man is murdered. By the man really being dead a large group of people will lose out on a sum of money so soon others begin getting murdered to cover something up.CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET was certainly a major rebound from the previous entry in the series and while there are some flaws here, overall this is a very strong entry into the series thanks in large part to the screenplay, the strong supporting cast and some nice touches by the director. There are some very effective moments to be found in this entry including the ending, which I obviously won't spoil for people who haven't seen the film but it's a great one. Also worth noting is a terrific sequence at the start of the film during a psychic reading where a body appears. How many films from this era featured a psychic reading? Well, this here might be the very best of the bunch.The story itself is quite strong and allows for some pretty good suspects to come into play. Another plus is that the performances are so good with OIand once again hitting a grand slam in the role of Chan. The supporting players are just as good including Henrietta Crosman in the role of the leader of the family. Jonathan Hale is also a stand out as is Rosina Lawrence and Herbert Mundin as a scared butler.CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET manages to build up quite a few memorable moments making it one of the best in the series.

binapiraeus Now, I may be biased, but IMO "Charlie Chan's Secret" is one of the VERY best movies of the whole series. It masterfully mixes supernatural experiments, complete with Ouija-boards, mediums, séances in darkened rooms with ghastly 'apparitions' with a very REAL murder case - where the culprit finally isn't too hard to find out for an experienced crime fan; but it's the AMTOSPHERE that counts.And without being a horror movie, this unique film has some exceptionally scary moments for which many a 'real' horror movie could certainly envy it. On the other hand, though, there's also the clear, logic reasoning of Charlie Chan and his co-star, Henrietta Crosman as Mrs. Lowell, who is a fervent believer in the communication with the dead, but also shows quite remarkable guts! The murder victim is millionaire Allen Colby, who'd been away for years, but suddenly turns up again - much to the chagrin of his aunt's (Mrs. Lowell's) family, who had hoped to inherit his fortune, as well as to Mrs. Lowell's trusted psychic couple, which has already earned quite a nice sum from their obviously faked séances. Then there is janitor Ulrich, who'd hated Crosby ever since he'd seduced his daughter and then dropped her like an old glove, and the poor girl committed suicide, and Colby's lawyer and trustee Phelps... So, as we see, there are QUITE a lot of suspects to choose from! But since Charlie realizes that he'll never get a confession out of any of them, he decides to catch the murderer red-handed - and for that purpose, he applies a VERY clever trick: his 'secret', as the title suggests...This movie REALLY holds you in its spell from the first to the last moment - and when there are moments without the creepiness of dark séance rooms in the old house especially prepared for those procedures, or the even darker secret passageways behind its walls, there are surprisingly welcome comical sequences provided by the ever-scared butler Baxter (Herbert Mundin)... Hollywood entertainment at its VERY best!!

MartinHafer The Warner Oland series of Charlie Chan films made by Twentieth Century Fox were among the best of the B-detective series films--with excellent stories and acting as well as a quality level unmatched by the later series by Monogram Studios. So my expectations for this film were pretty high and I am sad to report that this is one of the few failures in the series. The biggest problem is that the usual comedic moments are sadly lacking, as inexplicably, none of the Chan children are here for comic relief. While #1 son (Keye Luke) is probably most people's favorite, I would have been happy if #2, #3, #4, #5 or even Chan's daughter were here to provide some needed fun for the film. In fact, now that I think about it, there were few of the Oland or Toler series films where Chan works alone. As a result, not only is the usual balance not there, but some of the lines and situations usually reserved for the Chan children have either been removed entirely or given to the butler, Baxter--who is a sad replacement indeed.Now as for the plot, while it was original, oddly, it was reused in a later Sidney Toler Charlie Chan film (CHARLIE CHAN IN BLACK MAGIC), as BOTH movies concerned phony psychics and a murder at a séance. It has its moments, but even this plot is a bit ordinary. Not a bad film and certainly worth seeing for fans, but truly a bit of a disappointment.