Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Louis King

Writers:

Robert Ellis (writer)
Helen Logan (writer)

Release Date:

21 June 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

While investigating the theft of antiquities from an ancient tomb excavation , Charlie discovers that the body of the expedition's leader concealed inside the mummy's wrappings.

Plot Keywords:

Tomb | Murder | Mummy | X Ray | Ancient Tomb

Cast

Warner Oland	...	Charlie Chan
Pat Paterson	...	Carol Arnold
Thomas Beck	...	Tom Evans, Archeologist
Rita Hayworth	...	Nayda (as Rita Cansino)
Stepin Fetchit	...	Snowshoes
Jameson Thomas	...	Dr. Anton Racine
Frank Conroy	...	Prof. John Thurston
Nigel De Brulier	...	Edfu Ahmad, Servant
Paul Porcasi	...	Insp. Fouad Soueida
Arthur Stone	...	Dragoman
James Eagles	...	Barry Arnold, Carol's Brother
Frank Reicher	...	Dr. Jaipur
George Irving	...	Prof. Arnold
Anita Brown	...	Showshoes' Friend
John Davidson	...	Chemist Daoud Atrash

Runtime:

73 min | USA:72 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

A young Rita Hayworth appears in a minor role, before she became a star.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The name of the deceased high priest can be seen on the inscription on the door of his tomb, in a cartouche - a mistake on the part of the prop department. The cartouches were only placed around the name of a dead king. A priest would never put his name in a cartouche for fear of offending Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead.

Quotes:

Tom Evans, Archeologist: [pointing to the hieroglyphs on the tomb wall] The design alternates with the symbols of life and death.
Charlie Chan: Story of man very short.
[alternately pointing to the symbols]
Charlie Chan: Life... death... life... death. Am reminded of ancient sage Confucious
[extending his arms out to suggest length]
Charlie Chan: who write, 'From life to death is reach of man.'

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#22.103)" (2006)

A treasured artifact from the age of the ancient Americans

This has always been one of my favourite Warner Oland Chan's, made even more suitably murky and mysterious by the passage of time and the way it's been handled since it was made.

Charlie's in Egypt to track down the person responsible for leaking valuable ancient artifacts into European collections, finding murder as well. With some fantastic atmospheric sets as backdrop and a great cast he and the ever dependable Thomas Beck act as a team to get to the bottom of the mystery and nab the culprit. Every other post has highlighted the main problem with it: Stepin Fetchit. It's a shame they put him in but it's not a problem to me as I don't watch it for him shuffling and mumbling along but for the main story unfolding around the rest of the cast. His major scenes could easily be cut out or altered to save everyone's black and white blushes today - but where would you stop? Airbrush cigarettes, smoke and alcohol, cgi over carbon non-neutral cars or low efficiency lightbulbs, even change Oland to a white Swede and superimpose a black superhero in goodie Beck's place to engage a more proactive and socially inclusive demographic, erase mention of Egypt to try to disguise the colonial connotations etc? And of course if we went that far also add plenty of mindless graphic sex and violence because that's OK in todays crazy world; the Nazis would have simply burned all the prints of this and everything considered similar and revised the history books.

With all its faults I'm grateful for what we've got – some of the early Chan's are lost forever – at the very least for an insight into the human mental condition as it existed in Hollywood in 1935 but more for as it exists around the world today. If you really don't like it you could campaign for its destruction, but if you like watching pre WW2 b&w middle brow detective movies containing innumerable dead people like this like me watch it without angst as a good film.