Rindiana Some unbearable racial stereotyping colonialist style mars this already weak entry to the pulpy, but sometimes agreeable Charlie Chan canon.Throw all the Egyptian clichés you can come up with together with all the usual whodunit ingredients, add a predictable plot with bland love interests and a boring denouement, and you get this silly murder mystery. There are certainly many stronger early episodes preferable to this.Oland is as great as always.Not even good enough for rainy Sunday afternoons.3 out of 10 secret tombs

Michael O'Keefe The honorable detective Charlie Chan(Warner Oland)finds himself at an excavation of an Egyptian tomb. Chan is working on the behalf of the French Historical Society in search of reasons why treasures from a once popular high priest is turning up in private collections. The archaeologist that made the discovery of the tomb, Professor Arnold(George Irving)has disappeared and found murdered. Arnold's family believes the crimes are part of a threatening curse. During Chan's investigation suspects are also murdered. Atmospheric mystery with some comic relief provided by the legendary Stepin Fetchit. Also in the cast: Jameson Thomas, Nigel De Brulier, Pat Paterson,Thomas Beck and a young and beautiful Rita Haworth. There is also another beauty in a minor role, Gloria Roy. This film can only boost Chan's fan base.

tex-42 Charlie Chan is in Egypt this go around when he gets called to investigate how various Egyptian treasures have ended up in private collections rather than the group to whom they were supposed to go. As with many Chan adventures, murder plays a role in the proceedings and it is up to Charlie to solve the case before an entire family ends up dead.The set design of this movie is wonderful. It captures the art deco of the 1930s mixed with the Egyptian craze of the 1920s. The plotting leaves some holes, particularly with the character of Nadya who spends a portion of the movie acting as though she has something to hide, but ends up serving no real purpose, not even as a red herring.As many people have noted, the main problem of the film is Stepin Fetchit. Besides the obvious racism intended with the character, he literally adds nothing to the movie. He drags down his scenes with mostly incomprehensible dialogue, and doesn't even work in the comic relief manner for which he was intended. Otherwise, this is a decent to good Fox-era Charlie Chan film.

Lechuguilla Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) finds mystery and murder, naturally, in the secret chambers of an Egyptian tomb, amid lots of hocus-pocus about figurines and ornaments with mysterious powers. With a runtime of just 73 minutes the story is rather thin, and the whodunit puzzle isn't very good. But I suspect the film's appeal in 1935 had more to do with the novelty of Egyptian decor and production design than with the film's plot, some of which is not explained. And I did not like the Snowshoes character, at all. He may have been included as comic relief, but there is nothing about him that is funny, and the character is irrelevant to the whodunit puzzle. The actor playing the part whines and mumbles in a most disagreeable manner. I found him truly annoying.The film's B&W cinematography is marginally acceptable. However, in the copy I watched the images were grainy. At the film's beginning, they used stock footage of Egyptian sites to foster the illusion of being in Egypt. Acting ranges from acceptable to laughably melodramatic. The man playing Barry Arnold, in particular, dreadfully overplays his role, with those bug-eyed histrionics.Although "Charlie Chan In Egypt" is not a complete waste of time, there are other films in the Charlie Chan series that are much better.