A notorious strangler has struck again and again and it is thought he is one of the passengers on a cruise ship that has docked at Honolulu. The strangler is being hunted by British policeman Duff (C. Montague Shaw) but after Shaw is murdered at Charlie Chan's (Sidney Toler) office, the famous Chinese detective joins the cruise ship and hunts for the criminal as the boat heads for California. The strangler could be one of a party of people on the boat.
There are a number of potential suspects though, could it be Dr Suderman (Lionel Atwill), Professor Gordon (Leo G. Carroll), Walters (Charles Middleton) or Pendleton (Leonard Mudie)? They all look suitable villainous in their various ways. Charlie Chan comes up with a fiendishly complicated ruse to trick the strangler to unmask himself...
Another entertaining entry in the long-running Charlie Chan series. At times Chan seems a bit lost as to whom the strangler is and his final plan does seem a bit risky!
