Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)

To me, this movie is perfection.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Nightclub singer Louise Henry returns to New York as it turns out with Warner Oland and number one son Keye Luke on the same boat. She hung around with a lot of criminal types like Marc Lawrence, Douglas Fowley, and Leon Ames and reputedly kept a diary of events that could mean long stretches in prison if she turns it over to law enforcement. Excellent reason for people wanting to do her harm.In addition to Warner Oland investigating to help Inspector Harold Huber of the NYPD, reporter and photographer Donald Woods and Joan Marsh are trying to scoop each other to please city editor J. Edward Bromberg who has a big interest in this case.I'm kind of divided in terms of my feelings about Charlie Chan On Broadway. On one hand the eventual perpetrator of both Henry and then Lawrence's homicide fits quite logically when you remember the sequence of events. But the casting will throw you off.Oland and Luke do some good work here helping clear up a pair of homicides of some people society won't miss unless you're a fan of Henry's singing.

This is fast, zippy, full of wisecracking reporters and cops, in the midst of whom Charlie Chan is a model of thoughtful decorum. The same can't be said for Number One Son who peeks through keyholes and rushes about frantically. It's the kind of movie in which New Yorkers get into tuxedos and evening dress and go to night spots with names like The Hottentot Club to watch a flamboyantly overdressed women with the dancing skills of a dog trained to stand on its hind legs prance around the floor to an avalanche of applause. Get a load of her, Boss! Say, she's a swell dish! I just made up those two remarks because the screenwriters were absent-minded enough to leave them out.A brassy woman knows too much about Mister Big but returns to New York and winds up dead, along with one or two others formerly living human beings. The plot has something to do with smuggling, too, and mixed-up hotel rooms. Oh, and theft -- if swiping a towel from a hotel is a crime, in which case you are all under arrest. I guess I am too because it occurs to me I have a towel from the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia hidden away with the rest of my loot.I haven't gotten to the climax yet so I don't know if Charlie Chan and Enumerated Son get to Broadway to see a show or not. It's half an hour before a serious infraction takes place but it's very busy before then anyway. It's hard to imagine that it gets much busier afterward.

I can never get upset with a Charlie Chan film, they're all simply classics. That being said, I already have a bias in favor of the Chan series so my review may be tainted.In this Chan outing, Charlie (Oland) and #1 son Lee (Keye Luke) find themselves hot on the trail of the murderer of an infamous ex-mob lady Billie Bronson (played by the sultry Louise Henry). Added to the fray is her missing diary which contains secrets that could blow the lid off of New York's underworld. We have the usual Chan formula, with a fast-paced, New York twist. You have the usual suspects (who more often than not turn out to be not guilty) and the big surprise ending where we learn who the real killer is. I can honestly say I didn't see it coming.The things which separate this film from others in the series are the hectic New York setting and a few very interesting characters. Huber's character Inspector Nelson seems to be one of those characters you either love or hate. I'm a lover because he adds so much flair to the movie. We even have him telling a woman to shut-up near the ending, which is something you don't see in many (if any) Chan flicks. A woman has never been treated so crudely up until now and I just love it. I found myself cracking up and rewinding the scene just so I can hear its delivery again.Lastly, this film's killer shocked me in more ways than one. He/she was actually a character I liked and cared for and I was a little heartbroken when I found out. That's something a Chan film hasn't ever made me feel, sad. But boy this movie sure is a wild ride and it ended up being one of the Chan films I like to watch over and over.Be sure to see this one soon and enjoy. You can thank me later!

"Charlie Chan on Broadway" is somewhat of a misnomer, since most of the New York City action takes place far from the bright lights of the theater district, and instead are presented in the setting of the Hottentot Club, a premier night club run by mobster Johnny Burke (Douglas Fowley). The film begins aboard an ocean liner, where we observe Burke's former flame Billie Bronson (Louise Henry) conceal a package in the Chan luggage; it turns out to be a diary containing information on mob rackets, and there are plenty who would pay dearly for it. When Billie turns up dead in the Club, along with her shipboard tail Tom Mitchell (Marc Lawrence), the hunt is on for the killer.Keye Luke is on board again as Number #1 Son Lee, and Harold Huber joins the Chan series as Police Inspector Nelson, quick to jump to conclusions based on partial evidence. It's this somewhat annoying aspect of Huber's character that makes one wonder how he became an inspector in the first place. Quite a few characters are placed at the center of the mystery, including newspaper reporter Speed Patten (Donald Woods), photographer Joan Wendall (Joan Marsh), and New York Bulletin Editor Murdock (J. Edward Bromberg). Of course, Burke is a prime suspect, along with henchman Buzz Moran (Leon Ames), but editor Murdock arouses suspicion when he arrives early for an appointment with the murdered Billie, as his newspaper would have the inside scoop on the diary's secrets.With crafty precision, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) unravels the case based on evidence provided at the Bronson crime scene in mobster Burke's office - a photograph of the murder victim's location with it's effects, and the subsequent discovery of missing elements from the photo. They include a napkin and the key to the Chan hotel room! All of this sleight of hand casts suspicion on the main suspects - both Burke, and his current girlfriend and nightclub dancer Marie Collins (Joan Woodbury), who believes Billie's return from self imposed exile is a threat to her relationship with Burke.The final revelation of the killer's identity is typical of Chan films - reporter Speed Patten is involved in the mob rackets, and his access to the other suspects places him at the center of the action. The diary has enough information to put him and his cronies away for a long time, and ultimately, it does, as the Oriental Detective lays out the missing pieces of the case for the viewer.Warner Oland would go on to portray Charlie Chan only one more time for an adventure in Monte Carlo, before his untimely death shortly after from bronchial pneumonia. His health problems appear to have taken their effect on Oland's performance in this film, in which he appears less animated and jovial than in some of his prior efforts.