The Black Camel (1931)

Director: Hamilton MacFadden

Writers: Earl Derr Biggers, Hugh Stanislaus Strange, Barry Conners, Philip Klein

Starring: Warner Oland, Sally Eilers, Bela Lugosi, Dorothy Revier, Victor Varconi, Murray Kinnell, William Post Jr., Robert Young, Violet Dunn, Dwight Frye

More info: IMDb

Tagline: CHARLIE CHAN'S Latest Thriller

Plot: The unsolved murder of a Hollywood actor several years earlier and an enigmatic psychic are the keys to help Charlie solve the Honolulu stabbing death of a beautiful actress.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Congratulations.  I just watched my first Charlie Chan movie.  Only a few dozen more to get through the film series.  I'm not complaining.  I like this one enough.  Oland is wonderful as the great detective and what a treat to see Bela Lugosi in a flick released a few months after DRACULA (1931).  The pacing is nice enough so as not to waste any time but the best bits are definitely when Chan is on the screen.  He owns it.  The shit he says is often hilarious and it's easy to see how he became such a hit with audiences.  When he's absent it's just routine movie mystery stuff that was typical of early 30s pictures.  This is the second of Oland's Chan pictures with the first being classified as lost.  I'm going to try to get through these in chronological order.  According to that documentary I watched recently, the next one which is the sixth for Oland (three films followed THE BLACK CAMEL and are perceived to be lost as well), is CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON (1934), a film that locked in what became know as the classic CC formula.