Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)

Réalisateur:

H. Bruce Humberstone

Scénaristes:

Charles Belden (writer)
Earl Derr Biggers (character)

Date de sortie:

21 avril 1937 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedie | Musical | Mystère | Thriller

Accroche:

A fiendish killer lurks at the opera! Weird! Thrilling! The Master Minds of Crime Match Wits Against Each Other!

Intrigue:

A dangerous amnesiac escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the opera house to wreak revenge on those who tried to murder him seven years earlier.

Plot Keywords:

Opera | Amnesiac | Opera House | Charlie Chan | Murder

Avis des utilisateurs:

Oland Meets Karloff

Ensemble

Warner Oland	...	Charlie Chan
Boris Karloff	...	Gravelle
Keye Luke	...	Lee Chan
William Demarest	...	Sergeant Kelly
Guy Usher	...	Inspector Regan
Margaret Irving	...	Mme. Lilli Rochelle
Gregory Gaye	...	Enrico Borelli
Nedda Harrigan	...	Mme. Lucretia Borelli
Frank Conroy	...	Mr. Whitely
Charlotte Henry	...	Mlle. Kitty
Thomas Beck	...	Phil Childers
Maurice Cass	...	Mr. Arnold
Tom McGuire	...	Pop Morris - Stage Doorman

Durée:

68 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,37 : 1

Son:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Classification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Société:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Anecdotes:

Filmed on standing sets left over from _Cafe Metropole (1937)_ with 'Tyrone Power (I)' and Loretta Young.

Goofs:

Erreurs faites par les personnages (éventuellement des erreurs délibérées par les cinéastes): When they characters are all gathered in the dressing room after the murders and they are questioning Childers, he says he knew Madame Barelli well. What he actually meant to say Madame Rochelle (or Madame Lilli as she was being referred to).

Guillemet:

Inspector Regan: Kelly, you stay here. It might do you a little good to meet a real detective.
[after a pause]
Inspector Regan: Ask Mr. Chan to come in.
Sergeant Kelly: Wait a minute! You haven't called Chop Suey in on the case? Have you, Chief?
Inspector Regan: No, but it's not a bad idea, and take your hat off! You could learn a little politeness from the Chinese too!

Connexions De Film:

Références Frankenstein (1931)

Bande son:

March Funebre

Oland Meets Karloff

My favorite of the Warner Oland Chans, Charlie Chan At the Opera, is an excellent entry in the series. It begins like a horror film, on a stormy night, as Boris Karloff overcomes a guard in a sanitarium, then escapes. We are then introduced to a motley group of characters, including a temperamental opera diva, who has been recieving threatening notes, then Charlie and son arrive, and soon the action moves to the opera house, where the film remains. Karloff turns up backstage, where he is hiding, above the dressing rooms, and we soon learn the truth: he is a famous singer who had supposedly died in a fire but escaped, and has been suffering from amnesia ever since. He has only recently begun to remember who is, and is now looking for the person who tried to kill him.

There's a lot of plot in this film, and it isn't brilliantly developed. What makes the movie so watchable is the acting, which is uniformly good (and in Karloff's case outstanding); the music, courtesy of Oscar Levant, who wrote the score; the set design, which is marvelous; and occasionally the dialogue, which is often funny. Director Bruce Humberstone juggles all these elements masterfully, making the movie hum. Karloff brings gravitas and real menace to his part, and elicits pity as much as terror. Oland is his usually Buddha-like self, delivering his fortune cookie homilies with aplomb. William Demarest is the Irish cop this time around. As was so often the case with murder mysteries, a suggestion of the supernatural helps the mood enormously. Karloff isn't quite the phantom of the opera, but people react to him as if they've seen a ghost, since they all assume that he's dead.

The movie is a very accomplished piece of work. Its theatre and backstage atmosphere give it the feeling of a show within a show, and it's a pretty good one whichever way you look at it.