IMDb > Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   961 votes
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Up 3% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers:
Charles Belden (writer)
Earl Derr Biggers (character)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Charlie Chan at the Opera on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
21 April 1937 (Denmark) more
Tagline:
A fiendish killer lurks at the opera! Weird! Thrilling! The Master Minds of Crime Match Wits Against Each Other!
Plot:
A dangerous amnesiac escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the opera house to wreak revenge on those who tried to murder him seven years earlier. full summary | add synopsis
User Comments:
Mystery and Culture, All in the Same Film more (21 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Warner Oland ... Charlie Chan

Boris Karloff ... Gravelle
Keye Luke ... Lee Chan
William Demarest ... Sergeant Kelly
Guy Usher ... Inspector Regan
Margaret Irving ... Mme. Lilli Rochelle
Gregory Gaye ... Enrico Borelli
Nedda Harrigan ... Mme. Lucretia Borelli
Frank Conroy ... Mr. Whitely
Charlotte Henry ... Mlle. Kitty
Thomas Beck ... Phil Childers
Maurice Cass ... Mr. Arnold
Tom McGuire ... Pop Morris - Stage Doorman
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Additional Details

Runtime:
68 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Filmed on standing sets left over from _Cafe Metropole (1937)_ with 'Tyrone Power (I)' and Loretta Young. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When they characters are all gathered in the dressing room after the murders and they are questioning Childers, he says he knew Madame Barelli well. What he actually meant to say Madame Rochelle (or Madame Lilli as she was being referred to). more
Quotes:
Sanatarium Guard: Say, I worked around sanitariums before. It's not so bad. I like the cuckoos myself. They're the same as anybody else, only they're smart enough to admit they're nuts. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked (2000) (V) more
Soundtrack:
March Funebre more

FAQ

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful.
Mystery and Culture, All in the Same Film, 15 January 2005
8/10
Author: Mike-764 (michaelnella@yahoo.com) from Flushing, NY

An amnesiac escapes from a Los Angeles sanitarium and later has everyone in the city on edge, due to his homicidal tendencies. Judging from a newspaper with a photo of opera soprano Lilli Rochelle on it, Charlie Chan suspects that she may be the target of his madness. Charlie teams up with Sgt. Kelly (who resents having Charlie on the case with him) to protect Mme. Rochelle (after receiving several threatening notes) at the opening of the new opera season, but Mme. Rochelle has further trouble with her affair with lead baritone Enrico Borelli, which creates tension with Lilli's husband, Whitley and Borelli's wife, Anita. As the opera is in progress, the amnesiac makes his way to Mme. Borelli's dressing room and she recognizes him as Gravelle, a baritone formerly with the opera company and assumed dead after being left in an opera house fire. Thinking that Mme. Rochelle and Borelli are responsible for his attempted death, Gravelle plans his revenge on the two, first by replacing Borelli in the opera, Carnivale, and surprising Mme. Rochelle in the performance, who faints upon recognizing him, and is later found murdered in her locked dressing room, as is Borelli in another. The police search the opera house for Gravelle, but Charlie has other suspicions to check before finding the killer. Probably the most popular film of the Chan series and its no wonder with a terrific script and direction combining the mystery, humor, suspense, and this time the musical spectacle. Karloff makes for a good red herring in this film with the unbalanced mind scaring everyone he comes in contact with, including Irving and Harrington that create the perfect look of fear in Karloff's presence. Demarest provides the comic relief here, even though his opinions of Charlie and son Lee are on the politically incorrect side this day and age. Great job on the opera and musical score throughout the film. Rating, 8.

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