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.

JohnHowardReid I'm always a pushover for spooky old house mysteries, and this is one of the best, not so much for the intriguing puzzle itself but for the creepy noir atmosphere conjured up by Rudolph Maté's superlative cinematography (reminiscent of his work on Dreyer's Vampyr) and the marvelously bizarre background created by Hogsett and Cramer.I like the screenplay and I love the cast too, especially Herbert Mundin, one of my favorite character actors. For once he has a major role and even figures most inventively at the climax. Warner Oland dispenses his customary bon mots with ease, while Gloria Roy steers a remarkably skillful line in making her "used" medium a sympathetic oddball.My only quarrel is with director Gordon Wiles, the art director that William K. Howard and Jimmy Wong Howe had all the trouble with on Transatlantic and for which, after fighting Howard and Howe all the way, he then won the industry's big award! Mr Wiles was obviously not a man open to experimentation unless someone forced him into it. Left to his own devices, Wiles always preferred the safe, conservative approach. His record as a director is not an impressive one and Charlie Chan's Secret is the highlight of that 11-picture interlude from which he was rescued by Albert Lewin for whom he designed The Moon and Sixpence, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.

bensonmum2 After many years' absence, Allen Colby is on his way home to reclaim his inheritance. But there seems to be someone who wants to make sure he doesn't make it. There are plenty of suspects – Aunt Henrietta Lowell and the rest of the extended family who have grown accustomed to living off the money, Professor Bowen and Carlotta the medium who stand to benefit greatly from the generosity of Henrietta Lowell, the caretaker Ulrich who blames Colby for his daughter's death, and the family's lawyer Warren Phelps who has enjoyed administering the family's estate. Any one of these people could have it in for Colby. When Colby's lifeless body turns up at a séance, its up to Charlie Chan to find the killer.I'm not sure how other Chan fans feel about Charlie Chan's Secret, but for me, it's a real winner. It's got everything that I could ask for in one of these movies – Warner Oland at the top of his game, atmosphere, a house full of suspects, mediums and séances, an old house with secret passages, and on and on it goes. What fun! Sure, if you sit and think about the plot too hard, it starts to fall apart. But that's not the way to watch a movie like Charlie Chan's Secret. Just turn your mind off and let it entertain. For me, it's one of the better films in the series.There are a number of special things or moments or people in Charlie Chan's Secret that I could discuss, but I'll limit this to mentioning Herbert Mundin who plays Baxter, the butler. With no Number 1 son in sight, Mundin essentially plays the role usually reserved for Keye Luke in these early Chan films. And he does so masterfully. His comic bumbling is the perfect counter to the straight-laced Oland. One scene I especially enjoy is when Mundin must cross in front of a window through which a bullet has just passed. It's a small moment, but it's played to perfection. It's a nice performance from a talented actor.

classicsoncall Missing for seven years, Allen Colby, heir to his father's fortune is no longer welcome at the Colby/Lowell home. His arrival would mean that the supply of funds doled out by his father's estate under matriarch Henrietta Lowell, Bernard Colby's sister, would come to an abrupt halt. Henrietta has an abiding interest in all things psychic, and has spent nearly one hundred thousand dollars on psychic research, séances, and payments to Professor Bowen and wife Carlotta to stay in touch with the dead.Although it's presumed Allen Colby drowned when a cruise ship went down, detective Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) has his doubts. With no body, and a recovered briefcase bearing the initials "A.C.", Chan believes the missing heir will show up. Indeed he does, but not as expected. Gaining entrance to the old Colby homestead, Allen is quickly dispatched by a knife in the back thrown from a parlor trapdoor. His corpse does make an appearance though, at a scheduled séance meant to determine his fate. With Colby truly gone, the remaining Colby/Lowell heirs can gain some measure of satisfaction - or can they? The film does a nice job of presenting a number of possible suspects to the Colby murder. Attorney Warren Phelps, the administrator of the Colby fortune stands to lose a substantial portion of his income from fees paid for his services. Henrietta Lowell would lose all of her psychic research funding, and her two daughters would be cut off as well. Accordingly, Professor Bowen and wife Carlotta would no longer enjoy their séance income if Allen Colby showed up to claim his inheritance. And for good measure, the film offers caretaker Ulrich as a suspect; his daughter was in love with Colby years ago, but died some time after Colby disappeared seven years earlier.Charlie Chan approaches the case methodically, and begins to unravel the case a step at a time. When he demonstrates to Mrs. Lowell how the séances were rigged by the Bowen's, she becomes a loyal ally to uncover the mystery, to the point of faking her own death when the killer lashes out. But with all the meticulous work done in laying out the suspects, the identity of the real murderer still comes as a surprise at the end. In typical Chan fashion, the killer had a stake in Colby's disappearance, but there were no real clues to implicate him throughout the film.With no Chan family members on board for this film, the comic relief is handled by Lowell butler Baxter, nervously but effectively portrayed by Herbert Mundin. As if to lend further credibility to mysterious psychic forces at work in the Colby House, a black cat named Lucifer snarls his way into a couple of well placed scenes. Sufficiently dark and moody, "Charlie Chan's Secret" is a well told mystery that nicely complements other films in the Chan series.