NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

gridoon2018 One of the better early Charlie Chan entries, with some spooky atmospherics (even if you know immediately that the psychics are fakes), some twists, and an outcome that may be surprising precisely because it names as the guilty party one of the most suspicious characters! Major debit: the butler's unsuccessful comic relief. My favorite Chan line: "Best place for skeleton is in family closet". **1/2 out of 4.

blanche-2 Warner Oland is Charlie Chan in "Charlie Chan's Secret" from 1936.Charlie is attempting to ascertain whether a man named Allen Colby is dead or alive. After seven years of being away, he's announced to his family that he is on his way home to claim the family fortune. However, the ship that he is on sinks near Honolulu, and he is presumed drowned. But is he? Charlie sees in the journal Colby left behind that there have been attempts on his life. He heads for the family mansion.There he sees the matriarch of the family (Henrietta Crosman) and other family members. Henrietta is involved with a psychic and has séances at her home to connect with her late husband. During one séance, the body of Allen appears - dead. It's the actual body -- he arrived home, was murdered, and then hidden until the séance. Charlie has to find the killer.It's not hard to figure out the killer, but that doesn't make the film any less entertaining. Warner Oland was a delightful Chan, cheerful and funny, with more energy than the older Sidney Toler. The rest of the acting, with the exception of Crosman, isn't very good - in fact, it's bad -- but Oland keeps it going.Some nice spooky elements, some sinister-looking people, and a fun mystery.

Michael O'Keefe Ace sleuth Charlie Chan(Warner Oland) has been summoned by Henrietta Lowell(Henriettta Crosman), the matriarch of a wealthy family to help clear up the disappearance of her son Alan Colby(Jerry Miley), who has not been seen for seven years. A vast fortune is at stake of being divided. He returns home to only be murdered before claiming his inheritance. Next Mrs. Lowell's life is in harm's way. A creepy family mansion sets the scene for a couple of insightful séances. Several persons have greedy reasons for getting their hands on the money. Chan is there to right any wrongs; clearing up mystery and murder. Other players include: Rosina Lawrence, Charles Quigley, Astrid Allwyn, Jonathan Hale, Egon Brecher and Herbert Mundin.

bob.decker I've worked my way recently through about 10 of the films in the Chan series and this is one of the most compelling I've seen yet -- largely due to the good chemistry between Warner Oland and Henrietta Crosman, who is one of the more memorable of the leading ladies in the series. True, the Chan family is missing -- except when viewed briefly in a photograph at the film's very end -- and the San Francisco location isn't very convincing; it is hard to place the "ancient" house where much of the action takes place in a city where most everything was burnt to the ground in 1906. Nevertheless many of the typically alluring elements of the Chan films are present in full force -- society ladies in long dresses, a shady pair of mediums, séances that come to a screaming end, pitch black scenes in secret rooms, and odd applications of 1930s technology. Jonathan Hale is a welcome presence and the comic relief supplied by Herbert Mundin as the butler stops short of being annoying, which is more than one can say for some of the later entries in the series. All in all quite satisfying.