Charlie Chan at the Olympics

Charlie has his youngest helper ever - or at least in any of the 20 Chan films I've seen - as 12-year-old Charlie Jr. joins Number One Son Lee as they both help dad solve a crime.

Lee (Keye Luke) plays a member of the United States Olympic swimming team in this adventure. The repartee between Chan (Warner Oland) and his two sons in here is terrific. Layne Tom Jr. plays Charlie Junior.

The Chan movie is more of an adventure than the normal whodunit as Charlie and the cops travel to the Olympics in Munich, Germany in search of a missing radar-plane "black box." Lee is kidnapped at the games and his dad does everything he can to get his kidnapped son back while not jeopardizing the United States in the process.

This is one of the better Chan films and will be available on DVD in December, 2006, as part of another Charlie Chan DVD package of four movies.

Every four years comes the Olympic Games which is when the leading capitalist corporate brands and countries strive for world supremacy, and the hyped-up media urges the public to admire athletic junkies beating the clean and honest. I wonder if the trillions of dollars spent on it could be better used to try to feed the hungry and cure the diseased? Give me a three-legged race at a junior school any day!

Charlie has no such hang-ups about going to Nazi Germany. He wants to go on fish-hunt but ends up on man-hunt instead as secret government McGuffin that enables war planes fly by remote control is stolen. The trail and chase to recover it leads from Honolulu to San Francisco to New York and Berlin – with swift global communications it was such a small world after all! At first he's helped by little Cheeky Chan, but when he gets to Berlin no.2 son Lee takes over who is participating at the Games as a swimmer. The likely suspect is the dame in the white fox fur but it turns out more complicated involving gangs of spies and a maze of sinister characters, and all in Berlin too. It's intrigue at warp speed, hardly a second is wasted. Favourite bits: the footage of the Hindenburg (and its unperturbed passengers) beating the ocean liner's passengers to Germany; Charlie's touching faltering concern for the kidnapped Lee; the denouement; Lee continually trying to spout killer aphorisms like his Pop - or something like that!

Overall imho a good entry in the series with a slightly different format to those preceding, and I'd rather watch this than the real Olympics - no contest.

Charlie discovers the body of a pilot who was missing for days following a test flight using a remote control navigation system, which is missing from the plane. Charlie discovers that the killer, Miller, worked at an airplane factory in Honolulu, but is found murdered in his apartment before he can be questioned. The suspects of being the sinister power behind the theft are headed towards Berlin, not only to watch the Olympics, but to sell the remote control unit. Charlie takes the Hindenburg to Berlin and is joined by son Lee (who is entered in the 100m swimming relay) to track down Yvonne Rowland, who was seen in Miller's apartment, and who has contacted Baron Zaraka, dignitary for a warring nation. Knowing that Chan is on the case, Zaraka has Lee kidnapped and will turn him over to Charlie in exchange for the remote control device. Charlie tries to dupe the spies, even though he knows that his son is at their mercy. Very good Chan film that places the emphasis on foreign intrigue rather than mystery (and is able to succeed). Oland does turn in one of his best performances as the character, due to the character's development from the genial detective to the worried parent. The Olympics angle does give an interesting aspect of the film towards today's audiences giving an idea of the athletes back then (and the subtraction of the Nazi influence over the games). The climax to the mystery (which is suspenseful) and the revelation of the killer's motive seems to suggest that the film was trying to bloat the mystery angle of the film more. Rating, based on B mysteries, 7.

In the scene on board the Hindenburg involving CC and 2 other men, look closely at the title of the article in the magazine that the seated man is reading. It's "Think fast, Mr. Moto"!!!

I enjoyed this CC movie for its locations. Opening in Hawaii w/#2 son. On board the ship with #1 son. CC flying in the Hindenburg. And finally the Olympic Stadium. Jonathan Hale, as usual, is just suspicious enough to be a legitimate villain/red herring...(???) The arms dealer, foreign diplomat and the lady w/the white fox fur all add intrigue and deception to the plot.

We also get to check out Warner Oland's physical condition as he jogs with his shirt off for his physical at the movie's beginning.

"Charlie Chan at the Olympics" starring Warner Oland was made in 1937, with a backdrop of the 1937 Olympics which were held in Berlin, Germany.

Charlie is going to see Lee Chan compete in swimming when a device for airplanes, that allow them to work without a pilot, is stolen during a test run and the pilot is killed. Obviously someone was hiding on the plane and stole the device. Charlie sets out to help recover the device for the U.S. Lee meanwhile is on a ship with other Olympic hopefuls and a couple of suspects in the robbery.

Once in Germany, Charlie works with the Berlin police to help track down the thieves.

Never in your life have you seen more helpful Nazis. There is not one mention of the German political climate - and the footage of the Hindenburg had every single swastika airbrushed out. What is also interesting is the footage of the Olympics, including some of Jesse Owens.

I found this film somewhat distracting - a bunch of suspects, a bit confusing as to plot, probably because I was too busy looking at Olympic footage. However, I enjoyed it particularly because of Warner Oland and Charlie Jr., played by Layne Tom, Jr., who is delightful. Tom is still alive as of this writing, 85 years old, and became a prominent architect. This is one of his favorite films. I love Keye Luke but Lee here is a bit annoying as he kept misquoting his father and adding, "or something like that." Of course that was the script, but it was too much.

America was really trying to stay out of any potential conflict in Europe, as you will be able to tell from this film.