kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS***Honolulu police detective Charlie Chan, Warner Oland, is on his way to the land of his humble ancestors China as a special agent for the League of Nations to crack a drug ring out of the port city of Shanghai run by the mysterious and always in the shadows drug kingpin Ivan Marloff ,Frederik Vogeding. Charlie's fellow drug agent British Sir Stanley Woodland, David Torrence, is killed at a banquet in Charlie's honor when he opened up what looked like a Chinese style crackerjack box that had a gun hidden in it blowing him away.With Charlie knowing, after the murder of Sir Stanley, that he'll be next he takes together with his #1 Son Lee, Keye Luke, precautions to prevent himself from being murdered by the drug gang that he and the late Sir. Stanley were investigating. Still that doesn't prevent Charlie and #1 Son Lee from getting kidnapped by the drug gang that ends with them escaping when police are about to come to rescue them. It soon turns out that young Phil Nash, Jon Hall, the assistant of US drug Agent James Andrews, Russell Hicks, is secretly working for Marloff and feeding him information in what Charlie & Co. are up too in taking him as his drug gang out of commission. That's until after being arrested Nash brakes out of jail with the help of his lover the late Sir Stanley's daughter Diana, Irene Harvey, where he heads straight to Marloff's hideout at the Versailles Cafe on the Shanghai waterfront.****SPOILERS**** It's at the Cafe that Charlie and the local police set a trap for Marloff and his drug gang in having Nash leading him straight to them. In fact Nash intentionally turned traitor to trick Marloff into thinking he was working with him instead of Charlie and the Shanghai police and Diana was also part of the sham. Wild shootout at the end of the movie with an even wilder surprise ending with Charlie, who knew the score right from the beginning, arresting the person really being the Marloff drug gang. It turned out that the head of the drug operation was impersonating a dead man, who was murdered in San Francisco three weeks earlier, who never got the news in time to know that he was dead!

dwpollar 1st watched 7/18/2009 - 6 out of 10 (Dir- James Tinling): Good mystery crime drama from the Charlie Chan vault. In this one he's in his homeland and a murder occurs at his reception of a British Intelligence man. Chan and his number one son are put on the case which eventually leads to an opium gang in the mother land. This is a good complex mystery that you have to pay really close attention to if you want to understand how it is solved. The main characters are also fun to watch as the son is always getting caught on the phone with a girl while he's supposed to be waiting for a phone call for his father. Warner Oland plays the Charlie Chan character well as we see the quiet smarts win over --as happens in all his cases. Otherwise, this is a pretty basic story but is done well and is effective.

ccthemovieman-1 This was another very-solid entry in the long-running series that mainly featured either Warner Oland or Sidney Toler as "Charlie Chan." It's generally considered that Oland's films were superior. I enjoy both of them and, after just completing watching the Chan DVD set that were all Toler's films, this return to Oland was a shocker in a way.I say "shocker" mainly because Chan was so nice and respectful to his kid. In the latter films, Toler's Chan does nothing but insult his son, whichever one accompanies him on various cases. Here, Oland's warmth for his Number One Son "Lee" (Keye Luke) is more than evident and "Lee" helps keep the case alive with a daring rescue of his kidnapped father.The story is played much straighter, too, than the Toler versions. There is still levity with Chan' many profound-yet-funny proverbs but this is an action-packed short story played more like the mysteries they were supposed to be. Good stuff

Robert Deverre Hi there all you IMDb reviewers. Aren't we having fun? I just watched 'Charlie Chan in Shanghai' for about the 4th time. For some reason, I just love these 30's films. Silly, isn't it? Looking at the previous reviews, I don't recall any mentions of Irene Hervey. I think she's a real dish. She has one of those mouths that stays slightly open unless she consciously closes it - suggesting open-mouthed kisses are almost guaranteed. I looked at her filmography and was surprised to see that she had a very long and full career - surprised I was, because her name is not a household word. One of the things about this movie that I think is funny is the ending. Warner says to Keye that he can go back to the hotel and make one "female telephone call" (he can call his girlfriend) - Keye says "Thank you - so much", and Warner waves his hand like - "let's forget you said that". Does anybody know whether Warner and Keye got along well? Their greetings in these films seem so heartfelt. But, of course, they're actors, so who knows? I watched the very first Charlie Chan movie, which has an actual Chinese person as Charlie Chan. He is, in my opinion, boring. Perhaps Hollywood made an attempt to find a Chinese person to play Charlie Chan, but was unable to find anyone charismatic enough. Yes, Warner's portrayal undoubtedly sickens present-day Chinese, but they should recognize that he represented the Chinese to a credulous 30's American audience as a highly intelligent, globally respected person, and in the process undoubtedly created a positive impression of the Chinese at a time when they were under attack by the Japanese - perhaps that's what Hollywood had in mind.