Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)

What a beautiful movie!

just watch it!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This is a nice clean mystery. Charlie is in Shanghai to receive some sort of honor. After a couple testimonials, a dear friend of his opens a box. In it is a revolver that goes off and kills him. Charlie has, himself, received a threat to his life. He suspects an attack and evades death when he puts some pillows in his bed which are attacked by the would be killer. Another development is the appearance of his son played by Keye Luke. The son is quite protective of his father. He is also carrying on a relationship with a young woman over the phone, causing consternation to his father who needs to stay in contact with the police. It turns out a couple is at the center of all this and are trying to isolate the two Chans in order to kill them. As is usually the case, Charlie has the ability to see things others don't. From watching the Chan movies in order, I would recommend not opening boxes if you can help it.

"Charlie Chan in Shanghai" was a 1935 entry into the very popular Charlie Chan series. It stars Warner Oland, Keye Luke, Jon Hall, and Irene Hervey.Charlie (Oland) goes to Shanghai in order to meet with a Stanley Woodland, but he doesn't know why Woodland has sent for him. Once he's in Shanghai, he meets up with Lee (Luke), who has been sent by his company to look into some trade agreements.At a welcoming dinner that evening, Woodland is killed, leaving Charlie further in the dark. He soon learns that he was asked there to help break up a large opium ring. There are attempts on his life as he tries to figure out who's bad and who's okay.The Warner Oland Chan was much different from the Chan of Sidney Toler. The Oland Charlie was happy and enjoyed the company of his son; Toler seemed a much older Charlie (even though he wasn't), he was sarcastic somewhat slow, and his kids were always getting into trouble with Birmingham. I actually like both. It's been a while since I've seen Roland Winters.At any rate, this is a good, if somewhat unremarkable story - Chan dealt with better mysteries, but both Oland and Keye Luke are very good and keep things lively.I agree with one of the reviewers here - these aren't PC movies, but it's important to see the practices and views of other eras, as well as interesting to see the Hollywood casting traditions. If you want a real casting eye-opener, take a look at Dragon Seed. A Swede as Charlie Chan will not seem unusual at all! Entertaining.

The Hawaiian detective, Charlie Chan, visits the homeland of his ancestors along with his son, Lee. Once there, not unexpectedly there is a murder and Chan is called into action to solve the crime. It seems that somehow the Opium trade and the US State Department are pulled into the case and it's up to clever Charlie to solve it. Along the way, you get to see Oland sing a cute little song to a group of kids (a rarity in these films) and his son is there to provide some comic relief, though it's much more subdued and less blundering like it was in later films--and this is indeed a relief. Lee isn't the idiot like many of the later Chan clan!I've long thought that the Charlie Chan films deserve to be remembered far better than they have--particularly the early ones that featured Warner Oland as the brilliant detective. While they clearly were B-movies (lower budget films intended for a double-feature), they were significantly better than nearly all the other detective series films from the same era. Excellent writing and production values compared to the rest of the genre really set them apart. Here, we've got the whole package--Oland in the title role, his best sidekick (#1 son, played by Keye Luke), a very good plot and a less hurried pace than the cheaper series made by Monogram in the 1940s---so it's certainly well worth a look.By the way, in today's world, the Chan films are not exactly welcome in many circles because they are NOT politically correct. This ISN'T because they portray Asians badly--heck, Chan is seen as brilliant and the rest of the Asians in this film are decent folks and not cardboard stereotypes. However, Chan was played in this and the rest of the films of the next couple decades by Westerners in Asian garb. While insensitive, for the era it was made, this was the norm and I hope that viewers can accept this and just watch the films for their own merits.

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.