Strong and Moving!

Powerful

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

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The French Archaeology Society has hired Charlie Chan to fly to Egypt, where the treasures from the recently-discovered tomb of an ancient monarch, intended to go to France, instead wind up in other hands, and Chan is to find out why. Once there, he finds the head of the expedition vanished, fear among the remaining people involved, financial problems having plagued the expedition, and the presence of a drug which may be the cause of many of the problems.Unlike the other Charlie Chan movies I've seen, his relatives have not come along, not even his number one son, the clues and suspects are few, and the solution is easy enough to predict. Stephen Fetchit, as Snowshoes the manservant, is along to provide comic relief. Many other reviews talk about his discomfiting presence, but personally I found his character no worse than I've seen in most 1970's sitcoms.Not the best of the series.

Charlie Chan in Egypt isn't my favorite Charlie Chan. For some reason, I'm more used to Sidney Toler in the role, I love Mantan Moreland, and it's always fun when one of Charlie's sons is on the scene.What this 1935 film does have is an interesting story, footage of Egypt, which even in black and white is pretty impressive, and an appearance by a heavier, brunette, pre-electrolysis Rita Hayworth (using her original name Rita Cansino here). Pat Paterson (Mrs. Charles Boyer) is the lead woman.Chan is in Egypt on behalf of a French museum to investigate tomb treasures that were to go to the museum but instead are in other European museums. He meets Carol Arnold (Patterson) whose father, on the dig, hasn't been heard from in some time. There's a good reason for that. He's mummified in a sarcophagus that's supposed to hold an ancient priest.Well, there's another murder and an attempted murder as Charlie attempts to figure out who killed Professor Arnold and why.Warner Oland is fine as Charlie, though some other performances are a little over the top/melodramatic. Mainly, James Eagles, as Professor Arnold's physically challenged son, sticks out with an absolutely maniacal performance.I won't bother to go into the controversial Stepin Fetchit's presence in this film. His life story is an interesting one, however, and worth a look. The character he developed, which made him a millionaire, is cringe-worthy by today's standards.All in all, an okay film.

Some unbearable racial stereotyping colonialist style mars this already weak entry to the pulpy, but sometimes agreeable Charlie Chan canon.Throw all the Egyptian clichés you can come up with together with all the usual whodunit ingredients, add a predictable plot with bland love interests and a boring denouement, and you get this silly murder mystery. There are certainly many stronger early episodes preferable to this.Oland is as great as always.Not even good enough for rainy Sunday afternoons.3 out of 10 secret tombs

Of the dozens of Charlie Chan films, this stands as one of the best--even though it sadly co-stars the biggest walking negative stereotype in movie history, Stepin Fetchit. Once again, Fetchit plays a rather sub-human part but at least he's a little less degrading than usual and the rest of the film is exceptional.This film is very much like a combination of a Chan film and a mummy film--and because of the interesting backdrop the film seems far fresher and more interesting than most in the series. Charlie has been sent to an archaeological dig by a French museum. It seems the museum is justifiably angry because items from the tomb belong to them but someone has been selling them to collectors and other museums. Naturally, when Chan arrives people begin to die and it's up to Charlie to get to the bottom of it.Despite not having any of the Chan children (particularly the ever enjoyable Keye Luke as "Lee"), this is a dandy film with some interesting twists and a mystery that is a tad over-complicated but fun to unravel. As far as my feelings about Fetchit, in this film he didn't act that much different than the Birmingham Brown character from the later Chan film, so perhaps I am just being a tad oversensitive. It's just that in so many prior films Fetchit was the living embodiment of all the negative Black stereotypes--so bad that seeing him once again kind of made me cringe.