Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Beautiful, moving film.

Absolutely brilliant

The acting in this movie is really good.

Not a good entry in the Charlie Chan, Warner Oland entries. I always liked it when Keye Luke is in the movie. He adds genuine humor being No. 1 son Lee. He is a great comic foil for his father, but he's a good detective too, slower then his pop however. Stephin Fetchit is an awful black stereotype that is not funny. His comic moments take away from the film. The plot is not hard to follow, but it's development and pace are slow beyond belief. As usual Warner Orland is the highlight of the film as Charlie Chan. But it almost seemed that Chan was bored with this mystery, and I was too. I've watched most of the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland, and this is the worst of them. Uninteresting characters, lame plot, unfunny, in overall it's boring. Avoid this one in the series, you aren't missing anything.

When Professor Arnold discovers the tomb of an Ancient high priest, which probably leads to the treasures of the goddess Sekhmet, he mysteriously disappears. His brother, his daughter and his son have been waiting for news from him for weeks when Charlie Chan arrives with the news that some of the items from the tomb, which were all to be delivered to the French Archaeological Society, have been found in various private collections in Europe; and this, combined with the professor's sudden disappearance, of course leads him to the conclusion that someone from the expedition team wants to make a fortune out of the finds - and much more of the hidden treasures of Sekhmet...A VERY suspenseful, exotic adventure of our Chinese detective, highly dramatic at times, but also with some comical elements, and a very beautiful love story. Warner Oland is once more at his best, just like all the rest of the cast, most of whom regrettably are more or less forgotten today - except for the girl who played the mysterious young Egyptian servant: Rita Cansino - better known as Rita Hayworth...So there are MANY reasons for watching this classic mystery, which is not just another 'whodunit' set in some faraway country, but MUCH more - here, Ancient history meets with modern greed and ruthlessness; and the 'antidote' to it in the shape of a very clever, philosophical and humane Chinaman...

Of the dozens of Charlie Chan films, this stands as one of the best--even though it sadly co-stars the biggest walking negative stereotype in movie history, Stepin Fetchit. Once again, Fetchit plays a rather sub-human part but at least he's a little less degrading than usual and the rest of the film is exceptional.This film is very much like a combination of a Chan film and a mummy film--and because of the interesting backdrop the film seems far fresher and more interesting than most in the series. Charlie has been sent to an archaeological dig by a French museum. It seems the museum is justifiably angry because items from the tomb belong to them but someone has been selling them to collectors and other museums. Naturally, when Chan arrives people begin to die and it's up to Charlie to get to the bottom of it.Despite not having any of the Chan children (particularly the ever enjoyable Keye Luke as "Lee"), this is a dandy film with some interesting twists and a mystery that is a tad over-complicated but fun to unravel. As far as my feelings about Fetchit, in this film he didn't act that much different than the Birmingham Brown character from the later Chan film, so perhaps I am just being a tad oversensitive. It's just that in so many prior films Fetchit was the living embodiment of all the negative Black stereotypes--so bad that seeing him once again kind of made me cringe.

Watching this film recently, after not seeing it for many years, I couldn't help but be struck by the opening scene of the scientists exploring a mysterious tomb and think that this must have been a big influence on Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo.It's a bit slow, but the location shots of Egyptian backgrounds are fun, and the whole horror movie atmosphere of curses and dreadful secrets, obviously borrowing from Universal's 1932 The Mummy, is great.The movie has plenty of atmosphere, with some genuine suspense and a clever mystery that provides some real surprises.The controversial element of Stepin Fetchit's character Snowshoes has been written about by nearly every poster. Though very politically incorrect by today's standards, I have to admit laughing at some of his lines and actions, as the fact is simply that he is often very funny, even if we're not supposed to find him so today. I cringed often at the demeaning way he is treated by most of the other characters except Charlie Chan, and at times he is down right embarrassing, but like it or not, he does add something to the entertainment value of the picture, even if only for historical reasons.This is a pretty entertaining movie, if you can manage to keep an open mind about the various ethnic stereotypes involved. When you get right down to it, most of the white characters in it don't come off looking too good, either, especially the neurotic heroine, played shrilly by Pat Paterson.