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.
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.