Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)

Another pleasing Charlie Chan romp. An experimental new guidance system for unmanned aeroplanes is stolen by foreign agents, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) tracks the system to the Olympics in Berlin where the system is to be sold to the highest bidder. With Number 1 son (Lee Chan) in the US swimming team, Chan heads over to Berlin on the Hindenburg...

As usual there are plenty of suspects and red herrings for Chan to sort through in Berlin with the help of the German police in the form of Strasser (Frederik Vodeding). Chan son's life also ends up in peril as the film becomes more a spy adventure than a crime drama.

A good Charlie Chan film that is certainly is worth watching especially for actual footage of the 1936 Olympics. It is also interesting for showing Nazi Germany in a fairly neutral light, of course a couple of years later all that would change.