The Golden Eye (1948)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A Masterpiece!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The story is set mostly in Arizona near an old gold mine. The owner is being threatened and wants Chan's help. It's a good premise but the story is dull and unconvincing. There are not enough suspects to make the puzzle interesting. The killer here is easier to figure out than in most Chan stories. There was one surprise toward the end but it only contributed to the story's implausibility.Characters are shallow and generally uninteresting. Way too much time is spent on the drunk who stumbles around the swimming pool. This character isn't really needed anyway and my impression is that he functions mostly as filler; the film contains a lot of filler, despite the short runtime.Outdoor visuals do not look much like Arizona. The mine-shafts add a spooky quality. But film lighting renders the tunnels too bright to be convincingly subterranean. Overall lighting is generally too dark. Production design is predictably minimal and cheap.As bug-eyed Birmingham Brown, Mantan Moreland is always a welcome addition to the cast. But Victor Sen Yung doesn't add much as Number Two Son. And Roland Winters is dreadful as Charlie Chan. Winters just doesn't have the Chan persona that Warner Oland or Sidney Toler had.With minimal mystery and suspense, few suspects, and a dull Charlie Chan actor, "The Golden Eye" is below average for this series. Only hard core Charlie Chan movie fans will find much appeal in this film.

An Arizona gold mine becomes the location for another murder that Charlie Chan happens to be around when it occurs. As the series began to reach its inevitable conclusion, the plots just got more outrageous, yet this one is perhaps one of the more accessible of the later part of the series. Roland Winters doesn't have the cleverness of either Warner Oland or Sidney Toler, and sometimes it seems like the writers just put together their plots by simply just changing the location, the motivation, the names of all the suspects and toss in a couple of comic bits for Mantan Moreland and whatever # son happens to be there. Victor Sen Yung gets his opportunity to be a dude as he tries on chaps and Mantan Moreland does his usual pratfalls and scaredy-cat double-takes, even talking directly to the camera. Of course, all the usual suspects are there, as is the vulnerable heroine (Wanda McKay), a tough-talking nun (veteran actress Evelyn Brent) and a dumb-as-nails cop (Tim Ryan). These later day entries confound the audience with confusing twists and turns that sometimes make no sense, and give the impression that towards the end, they weren't even really trying.

Oriental sleuth Charlie Chan(Roland Winters), Tommy Chan(Victor Sen Young)and chauffeur Birmingham(Mantan Moreland)head to Arizona at the request of a Mr. Manning(Forrest Taylor), owner of The Golden Eye mine. Manning finds it very odd that his mine losing a lot of money for a good while suddenly has become a gold bonanza. Lt. Mike Ruark(Tim Ryan) is also investigating Manning's mine manager Driscoll(Ralph Dunn)on a different matter that may help Chan's investigation of the situation at The Golden Eye. This mystery franchise is nearing its end and you can tell by the lack of any scenery and flat dialog. But this is a Charlie Chan flick, man. Just not one of the best. Other players: Wanda McKay, Evelyn Brent and Bruce Kellogg.

This episode in the Chan series features skimpy sets - not rare in the later Chans - and a weak role for the usually entertaining Mantan Moreland, but some Chan is better than none. Roland Winters does a perfectly serviceable job as Charlie - lacking the warmth of Warner Oland, but also lacking the harshness of Sidney Toler in his father/son interactions. The plot is pedestrian, but the series is about Charlie and assistants, not the stories, so a less than perfect plot is OK. This movie lacks the beautiful women in gowns we often get in Chans, and not much of a love affair, so some of the classic Chan features are missing. By this late time, they were spending very little money on the series, and milking it for the value of the franchise. One can imagine that it was a perfectly good way to spend an hour on a Saturday in post-war America.I noticed that after crediting Roland Winters and one woman actress, Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Young came next. In spite of the fact that a white man was playing Chan, clearly a black man and a Chinese man came next in popularity with audiences. For some reason, this fact is never credited. The theme of racist America is just to popular to be spoiled by such facts.