Inspector Duff of Scotland Yard visits Charlie Chan in his Honolulu office. Duff is traveling incognito on the trail of a strangler who is apparently one of ten folks on a four-month world cruise run by a man named Suderman (Lionel Atwill). The last leg of the trip will leave soon for San Francisco and Chan agrees to help, but when Chan leaves his office briefly, Duff is strangled to death by an intruder and Chan is determined to finish Duff's case. He visits the hotel the cruise group is staying at where a Mr. Kenyon is found dead, a small bag of thirty coins found in his hand. Chan makes a connection to Judas' thirty pieces of silver from the Bible and assumes a betrayal motive for the murders. Other cruise members include Kenyon's nephew (Robert Lowery), a somewhat acerbic socialite (Cora Witherspoon), her secretary (Marjorie Weaver) who is flirting with Lowery, an archeologist (Leo G. Carroll), a playboy, and an older couple who believe in signs from the unseen world. Of course, it wouldn't be a Charlie Chan movie without one of his sons tagging along—here it’s #2 son Jimmy who stows away on the ship once it takes off. We see a heavily bearded man skulking around the ship, obviously someone in disguise, who eventually strangles another passenger before Chan ropes all the remaining cruise members together in San Francisco to unmask the strangler. This is one of the better Sidney Toler Chan films, partly because it has a fast pace and fairly straightforward plotting (based on one of the original Chan novels, Charlie Chan Carries On, which was adapted to film in 1931 but is now considered lost). Like most of the Chan movies from Fox, the supporting cast is strong, especially Lowery, Witherspoon, Atwill, and Carroll. Charles Middleton, the villain Ming in the Flash Gordon serials, is the meek husband to the occult inclined wife. Jimmy (Victor Sen Ying) gets an amusing slapstick moment as he goes slipping and sliding through a hallway and collides with a steward carrying a full tray of food. The opening scene is a fun bit in Chan's office as Jimmy and his younger brother Willie comb through Pop's mail to find Willie's disappointing report card, which it turns out Chan has already seen. Not quite top rank Chan, lacking an interesting atmosphere, but enjoyable. Pictured are Atwill, Yung and Toler. [DVD]
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