CHARLIE CHAN IN PANAMA (1940)

 In this Charlie Chan flick(#26 out of a whopping 47!) Mr. Chan(played by non-Asian actor Sidney Toler) along with his #1 son(played by actual Chinese man Victor Sen Yung) break up a spy ring intent on blowing up a ship and blocking a naval fleet heading through The Panama Canal. Lionel Atwill, from a bunch of classic horror films, also appears but doesn't stick around too long. A few mysterious murders take place and, as is familiar to anyone who's seen a couple of these old Chan flicks knows, things get resolved fairly predictably, however, in good mystery fashion, you may not be able to guess the main culprit in this one very easily. This one was directed by a friend of mine's grandad, Norman Foster, and it was his last Chan movie before moving on to more obscure stuff and eventually television work. He borrowed the plot for this from a 1934 Spencer Tracy film titled MARIE GALANTE which I have not seen and I assume it might be too classy for my taste.

The big-ass list of classic Chan films starring Sidney Toler!:

1. CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU (1938)
2. CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO (1939)
3. CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND (1939)
4. CITY IN DARKNESS (1939)
5. CHARLIE CHAN IN PANAMA (1940)
6. CHARLIE CHAN'S MURDER CRUISE (1940)
7. CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940)
8. MURDER OVER NEW YORK (1940)
9. DEAD MEN TELL (1941)
10. CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO (1941)
11. CASTLE IN THE DESERT (1942)
12. CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE (1944)
13. CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CHINESE CAT (1944)
14. BLACK MAGIC (1944)
15. THE JADE MASK (1945)
16. THE SCARLET CLUE (1945)
17. THE SHANGHAI COBRA (1945)
18. THE RED DRAGON (1945)
19. DARK ALIBI (1946)
20. SHADOWS OVER CHINATOWN (1946)
21. DANGEROUS MONEY (1946)
22. THE TRAP (1946)