Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

When Professor Arnold discovers the tomb of an Ancient high priest, which probably leads to the treasures of the goddess Sekhmet, he mysteriously disappears. His brother, his daughter and his son have been waiting for news from him for weeks when Charlie Chan arrives with the news that some of the items from the tomb, which were all to be delivered to the French Archaeological Society, have been found in various private collections in Europe; and this, combined with the professor's sudden disappearance, of course leads him to the conclusion that someone from the expedition team wants to make a fortune out of the finds - and much more of the hidden treasures of Sekhmet...A VERY suspenseful, exotic adventure of our Chinese detective, highly dramatic at times, but also with some comical elements, and a very beautiful love story. Warner Oland is once more at his best, just like all the rest of the cast, most of whom regrettably are more or less forgotten today - except for the girl who played the mysterious young Egyptian servant: Rita Cansino - better known as Rita Hayworth...So there are MANY reasons for watching this classic mystery, which is not just another 'whodunit' set in some faraway country, but MUCH more - here, Ancient history meets with modern greed and ruthlessness; and the 'antidote' to it in the shape of a very clever, philosophical and humane Chinaman...

A tomb is opened in the Valley of Kings, an archaeologist dies quickly, another disappears, and artifacts from the tomb begin appearing mysteriously on the black market. Charlie Chan is called in to investigate the whole business by the French archaeological society. Everybody looks suspicious except the pretty young woman and Stepin Fetchit as "Snowshoes", who claims to be descended from Ameti, the recently disinterred King.Actually, what the French Archaeological Society has to do with anything is just as big a mystery. Egypt was in British hands at the time, and they shouldn't have been fiddling around with three-thousand year-old tombs either without the most careful supervision, which was never provided.I lost the thread of the narrative once or twice because my attention drifted and the plot is a little convoluted, but I enjoyed the mumbo jumbo and the fake ghosts and the violin with the deadly gas concealed in its belly, encased in thin glass designed to shatter when the instrument emits sound of a certain frequency.Stepin Fetchit wasn't very amusing. The stereotype wasn't bothersome. Mantan Moreland appeared in some of the later episodes and was often quite amusing. It's just that Fetchit has little to do and nothing funny to say. Rita Hayworth appears in a secondary role but you'd never recognize her if you didn't know who it was. Her hairline was far lower at the time. Not as bad as the wolfman's, but you know what I mean. It peaked down the middle of her brow and had yet to be electrolyzed or electrocuted or whatever it is that Hollywood does to permanently remove hair and restore its line to where they believe Nature intended it to be. I kind of like stories like this about ancient Egyptian tombs -- the narrow passageways, the confusion of multiple rooms, the profusion of hieroglyphics, the fake ghosts gleaming in the darkness, the underground streams. I wish they'd worn pith helmets.The pyramids had uncountable numbers of corridors and shafts going this way and that like a carnival maze. Some years ago, after the invention of fiber optic photography, an investigator ran a tube a few dozen yard up a dead-end shaft that was square and about a foot in diameter. Of course there was nothing IN the tiny shaft -- except a few dangling threads of an old spider web. No one has explained what the spider was seeking at that depth, or why the spider was stupid enough to look for anything at all in a dead-end three-thousand-year-old granite-lined shaft.

Charlie Chan is in Egypt this go around when he gets called to investigate how various Egyptian treasures have ended up in private collections rather than the group to whom they were supposed to go. As with many Chan adventures, murder plays a role in the proceedings and it is up to Charlie to solve the case before an entire family ends up dead.The set design of this movie is wonderful. It captures the art deco of the 1930s mixed with the Egyptian craze of the 1920s. The plotting leaves some holes, particularly with the character of Nadya who spends a portion of the movie acting as though she has something to hide, but ends up serving no real purpose, not even as a red herring.As many people have noted, the main problem of the film is Stepin Fetchit. Besides the obvious racism intended with the character, he literally adds nothing to the movie. He drags down his scenes with mostly incomprehensible dialogue, and doesn't even work in the comic relief manner for which he was intended. Otherwise, this is a decent to good Fox-era Charlie Chan film.

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.