Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

Overrated

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Yep, this is the Charlie Chan movie which has a black actor named "Snow shoes." And of course he's scared of just about everything. It's a real shame that a Charlie Chan film, which I've always viewed as a positive ethnic role model from an an era when such things were extremely rare, resorts to this. My other major gripe is that the modern viewer can easily see that the movie was shot on the Fox back lot; it may have worked in 1935 but not now.However I have to say I enjoyed the story of Charlie investigating rifled Egyptian artefacts from an ancient tomb. The suspects are all nicely shady and the first death - that of an Arab worker who looks into the newly opened tomb - is very effective. Pity no one even refers to it during the rest of the movie! It's a nicely macabre touch to have a murder victim mummified. It's also interesting to see Rita Hayworth in an early role. Warner Oland of course is the real star; and Charlie is his usual polite and sharp self.An enjoyable 70-odd minutes; there are better Chan movies out there. I believe next up I'm about to take a trip to Shanghai. Probably another back lot! :)

A very good Charlie Chan movie marred by the unfortunate inclusion of the dated comic relief Stepin Fetchit ( "Mr. Tom won me in a card game"). Despite being introduced in the previous film, Keye Luke's "Number One Son" Lee doesn't appear here. The story sees Charlie coming to Egypt to investigate the theft of Egyptian relics and a missing archaeologist. Most notable today for the early appearance of a young Rita Hayworth (billed as Rita Cansino). This is generally considered to be one of the best of the Charlie Chan series. The mystery is nicely done. The Egyptian trappings provide for a nice horror-movie atmosphere. Lots of great Chan aphorisms that we all love. It's a good film for fans of old detective stories. Just be prepared to grit your teeth through the scenes involving Stepin Fetchit's character Snowshoes.

Although I had the murderer pretty well figured out way before the end, this Charlie Chan film is still a pretty good one with Warner Oland of Sweden giving a grand interpretation of the celebrated Chinese sleuth from Honolulu.There are some superficial resemblances to the classic Boris Karloff feature The Mummy as the setting of this film is Egypt and an archaeological expedition. The death of Lord Carnarvon shortly after he opened King Tutankhamen's tomb was subject matter for many a story with an Egyptian setting. But while Karloff's The Mummy dealt with sinister supernatural forces from the ancient past, Charlie Chan In Egypt has some very human murderer with some very human motives.Charlie Chan who has been hired by a French Museum to oversee their interests arrives in Egypt and the daughter of the expedition leader Pat Patterson gets Warner Oland to go out to the dig and find her father George Irving who hasn't been heard from in 3 months. He finds him all right, in the mummy's case all wrapped in white linen with a bullet in the chest. Later on Patterson's brother James Eagles is killed with a very clever device that emits poison gas.Pat Patterson had a minor career in the Thirties and retired from the screen after she married Charles Boyer. In only her second film Rita Hayworth under her real name of Rita Cansino plays a mysterious Egyptian girl who adds a bit of decoration in a bit role. Nothing mysterious about Stepin Fetchit who sadly paraded his usual stereotype in his role as the camp errand runner.I think you'll figure this one pretty early, but no reason you still won't enjoy Charlie Chan In Egypt.

I did not like this one on the first viewing, but I had a very bad tape which didn't help. With the DVD (part of recent Chan Collection that came out in 2006) I enjoyed this more, thanks, in part to have the option of English subtitles.I still think this is a slightly sub-par Warner Oland-edition Charlie Chan, but only because I think so highly of the other films. It did have some excellent suspense and strange characters and is known because of the appearance of young Rita Cansino who would go on to star status as Rita Hayworth.THE BAD - None of Charlie's kids are here to help him out, and that's a loss. Instead, for humor, we have Stepin Fetchit with his mumbling drawl and unfunny character (unlike Mantan Moreland in later Chans, even though both are horrible black stereotypes of the day.) Worse than the above, we have a shrill, hysterical female lead character , "Carol Arnold" (Pat Paterson) who got on my nerves, big-time! That's almost another stereotype of the period: women who fall apart easily and act like overemotional cripples. After a few of these outbursts, I just hit the mute button when she went into her act. She had a brother in here who was almost as bad except he had far fewer lines. Also in here was the typical thing you saw more of in the '30s than in modern films: stories that dealt with the occult and a lot of superstitions. THE GOOD - The action was pretty good and this story gave us more of the weird suspects than what is normally provided. Not only weird people but strange scenes. Combine those with the usual Chan witticism's, profound statements and uncommon courtesy he gives everyone, and it's an entertaining film. I would never have recognized Hayworth if I hadn't been informed it was her. She played a dark-haired Egyptian woman. If you froze some frames and looked carefully enough, you could be convinced it was her, but it wasn't easy. She certainly wasn't the incredible beauty she would be in the next decade.