Murder Over New York (1940) User Reviews (28)

"Coincidence like ancient egg, leave unpleasant odor."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 May 2005]

"Murder Over New York" is an entertaining entry in the Charlie Chan series of films, but if you're paying attention, a lot of plot holes reveal themselves to the observant eye. While traveling to New York City for an annual police convention, Chan (Sidney Toler) meets former Scotland Yard investigator Hugh Drake (Frederick Worlock) on the same flight. Now employed by military intelligence, Drake is tracking Paul Narvo and his Hindu servant, suspected for acts of sabotage around the world. Drake believes that by contacting Narvo's elusive wife, he'll be able to pin down the whereabouts of the master criminal.

When Drake winds up dead in the library of George Kirby, president of the Metropolitan Aircraft Corporation, Charlie theorizes that he was killed by a recently discovered poisonous gas called "tetrogene", administered via a glass pellet that releases the poison when broken. Summoning Kirby to bring all of his dinner party guests together, Chan and Police Inspector Vance (Donald MacBride) question those in attendance, as one of them may be the killer. Among them are Herbert Fenton (Melville Cooper), a fellow Oxford student of Drake's, actress June Preston (Joan Valerie), unknown to Drake but requested by him to attend, Ralph Percy (Kane Richmond), the chief designer at Kirby's aircraft company, and Keith Jeffrey (John Sutton), Kirby's stock broker. Kirby butler Boggs (Leyland Hodgson) is also a suspect, especially after Number #2 Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) catches him steaming open a cablegram, the contents of which concern Boggs himself.

There are some other cleverly planted characters in the proceedings as well. Mrs. Narvo turns up as Patricia West (Marjorie Weaver), and contrary to Drake's suspicion that she might lead him to Narvo, is actually on the run away from her former husband and a disastrous marriage. She's involved with David Elliott (Robert Lowery), principal of a chemical research firm, and thereby a suspect in the tetrogene angle.

As with many Chan films, racial comments must be taken in stride with the proceedings. This one offers two glaring ones. When Kirby's black servant is brought in for questioning, he states that he doesn't know anything about Drake's murder, that he's completely "in the dark". Chan's response: "Condition appear contagious".

Later, following Inspector Vance's order to round up all the Hindu's in New York, Jimmy Chan comments on their arrival with "They're all beginning to look alike to me." Actually, the scene provides one of the elements of comic relief in the movie, as Shemp Howard impersonates Hindu mystic "The Great Rashid", but is actually uncovered by the police to be con artist Shorty McCoy.

Before the movie's over, two more victims fall to the clever Narvo - his confederate Ramullah, and aircraft magnate Kirby himself. To uncover the killer, Chan, in concert with Elliott, arranges for a test flight aboard a newly developed TR4 Bomber after discovering a poisoned capsule planted by mechanics on the plane the day before. Before it can release it's deadly poison, the Brit Fenton catches the falling capsule in mid-air, revealing that he knew about the plant. Arrested and brought in for questioning, Chan asserts that Fenton is not Narvo. The real Narvo reveals himself when he offers a poisoned cup of water to the nervous Fenton, anxious to maintain Narvo's secret. But Chan was clever enough to be wary of such an attempt, and reveals the real murderer - Narvo now in the guise of stock broker Jeffrey, having undergone reconstructive surgery following a car accident.

Now for the plot holes. When first investigating Hugh Drake's murder, it was maintained by the police that fingerprints found in the library did not match those of any of the dinner guests. However Jeffrey/Narvo was present at the dinner party. It had already been established that Drake had one non party visitor in the library, chemist Elliott. If the fingerprints really did not belong to Narvo, then making them an issue was pointless.

Also, at the end of the film when Narvo offers Fenton the poisoned water, how did he think he would get away with it with everyone there as a witness? But going even one better than that, how would a world traveling saboteur like Narvo have the time and wherewithal to establish himself as a New York City stockbroker, it just doesn't make sense.

For trivia fans, a few more points bear mentioning. In the film, Number #2 Son Jimmy is a college student studying chemistry as he comes to "Pop's" aid to solve the case. In the prior Chan film - "Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum" - Jimmy was a law student.

The poison gas formula would get reworked in a later Chan film, this time by Monogram with Roland Winters in the Chan role in "Docks of New Orleans". In that story, poison gas is released from shattered radio tubes in similar fashion to claim its' victims.

I'll never go on another case again without a gat....

[jbacks3 · 6/10 · 18 June 2011]

I love the Chan series but it takes an element of disbelief. You have to either accept (or ignore) the fact that Charlie never seems to spend much time in Hawaii (making one wonder what the Honolulu PD actually pays him to do) and much like Philo Vance or Nick Charles, has some sort-of official status everywhere he goes. And if you watch enough of these, you begin to see the same Fox contract players popping up over and over again as red herrings, jilted lovers and "adventuresses." This '40 entry has Charlie coincidentally meeting up with an old friend (bad omen--- his friends have a shorter life expectancy than the doomed red shirted yeomen beamed down in Star Trek episodes) Scotland Yard on a plane en route to a police convention. Charlie enlists himself in solving his friend's murder and by default, the case he was working on. No. 2 son Jimmy Chan (played by 25-year old Victor Sen Yung) seems to exist to state obvious inane comments or offer wildly improbable facts--- most notably identifying a new poison gas by smell (he must be a whizz undergrad back in California). Watch for Shemp Howard as a phony Hindu in a line up and future Captain Marvel Frank Coghlan Jr. in a bit part as a coat room clerk in a men's club. This is a fair entry but suffers somewhat from the lack of an exotic setting (Paris, Berlin... Reno!) or the occasional supernatural elements found in several of the others (...Egypt, ...Secret, Castle in the Desert). It's one of the most straight forward whodunits of the entire Fox films.

Bad eggs filled with... deadly poison

[binapiraeus · 8/10 · 15 March 2014]

Coincidentially, Charlie Chan meets an old colleague and friend of his, Inspector Drake from Scotland Yard, aboard the plane that takes him to New York for the annual police convention; and Drake reveals to him that he's now in the secret service, and he's been chasing dangerous saboteur Narvo literally all over the world - and he suspects him to have been involved in the crash of a new test plane only a few days ago. And the same night, Drake is murdered at a dinner party given by plane constructor Kirby, poisoned in his library by a newly invented gas (Jimmy, who's once more followed his dad, this time using the World Fair as an excuse, can identify it easily, being a chemistry student) that kills instantly and is usually put into small glass balls that smash easily... So, Charlie deduces that this was also the way the plane was made to crash - and immediately takes over his friend's case, investigating all the more or less suspicious characters who were present at Kirby's dinner party...

Once again, Charlie proves a lot cleverer than even 'New York's Finest' (Donald MacBride as the slow-witted Inspector Vance used to specialize in this kind of roles anyway), and as always his psychological tricks work excellently - there's just nothing but oriental finesse to catch a cunning criminal!

The whole cast is superb, the case is very intriguing, and of course the jokes aren't missing either (as usual at the expense of poor Jimmy...) - great 40s' murder and spy entertainment which really transfers us back into time!

It's film history, it's fun, enjoy!

[estabansmythe · 13 September 2003]

Charlie's in New York catching pre-war spies with wise-cracking #2 son, Victor Sen-Yung. They make a delightful team. Yes, it's unfortunate that blacks are stereotyped, but we're certainly intelligent enough to place this within the proper prospective.

As with every Chan film in the 30s & 40s, the film shows Charlie's high sense of family values, and he is accorded respect like no other character in the film as he easily outwits dimwitted white chief detective Don McBride and the others.

Overall, the Chan series are an honorable and respectable part of our film history - and they're fun and entertaining as hell. These films deserve to be seen as often as any other film of the era.

Please pass the popcorn and leave your over-sensitive political correctness at the door. It's show time!

Good cast, strong plot in solid Chan mystery

[csteidler · 7/10 · 22 September 2012]

Charlie Chan flies in to New York for the big police convention. His flight lands, he's greeted by old friend Inspector Vance (Donald MacBride), and who should come rushing out onto the runway but—Jimmy Chan?

Sidney Toler and Sen Yung are excellent as always as Pop Chan and Number Two Son. Jimmy, it turns out, has come to New York with a college buddy to see the World's Fair—he figured he could ask permission once he got there.

The Chans are soon on a case, this one jump started—as is frequently the case—by the murder of a fellow detective. Their investigation delves into the suspicious crash of a newly designed airplane, a deadly supply of poison gas pellets, and the usual assortment of suspicious characters.

Donald MacBride offers good support as the police detective who looks to Mr. Chan for guidance and is even impressed with Jimmy Chan's detecting abilities. (The elder Chan is dubious but resigned: "Aid from number two son like interest on mortgage…impossible to escape.")

Ricardo Cortez is an executive with the company building the new planes; Kane Richmond an engineer; Robert Lowery and Marjorie Weaver a frightened young couple; and Joan Valerie (who had just appeared in a different role in the previous Chan movie) an actress mixed up in it somewhere. —No shortage of familiar faces for B movie fans, that's for sure.

It's a nicely worked up plot, and the couple of action sequences are well staged and exciting. The series was really rolling along at this point—and this entry is no disappointment.

Charlie helps British Intelligence

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 May 2013]

This Charlie Chan mystery is a misnomer. There is no Murder Over New York, but not for lack of trying. And the attempt is made at the climax of the film so that Sidney Toler can get the murderer of three people to give himself away.

Toler and number two son Victor Sen Yung are in New York for a police convention and Toler runs into a former Scotland Yard colleague Frederic Worlock who is on the trail of an international spy. Later on Worlock is found dead. Two other murders are committed.

Note the presence of a lot of Hollywood's British colony here. Some are suspects, some are not. A whole lot of the cast has played villains in other films so that affords you no clue. The ultimate mastermind is someone who has played some incredibly slimy bad guys on screen.

Quite a curve gets tossed us toward the end as all the suspects are put in a plane and are meant to be killed. Of course they're not as Charlie Chan gets his man.

One of the best of the Sidney Toler Chan films.

Director Lachman makes use of some distinctive visual touches

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 3 January 2023]

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is headed to a police convention in New York City when he reconnects with an old colleague on the plane ride. The old friend is now working for British military intelligence in the war effort, and he tells Charlie that he's on the trail of saboteurs after bomber planes. When Chan's buddy ends up murdered, Charlie takes on the case.

This Chan entry, the last of four released in 1940, has a few unusual characteristics. The most obvious is dropping the "Charlie Chan" name from the title. In fact, even in the opening credits Toler's name is listed last. Director Lachman had helmed Charlie Chan at the Circus back in 1936, and his return to the series sees some distinctive visual touches, like a more mobile camera; heavy (if at times corny) use of shadows, with menacing disguised figures lurking behind our hero; and lots of close-ups of actors giving suspicious looks. It's enjoyable if one doesn't take it too seriously, but it can seem almost comical. The cast is good, although Cortez is wasted.

Make way for C.C.

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 1 February 2014]

The indomitable Charlie Chan returns in this war-time espionage thriller, which is neither as silly nor as blatantly jingoistic as most movies of its type. Although connoisseurs will experience no difficulty in picking out the master spy, there are not only some diverting plot twists along the way, but the pace is often breath-takingly rapid. Director Harry Lachman indulges his usual penchant for close-ups. True, I don't usually like too many close-ups, but here they are not only astutely composed but dramatically very effective. As usual, Toler is excellent and the support cast first-rate. And it's a pleasant surprise to find Donald McBride's character not only more restrained, but more sensible than usual. However, despite her position on the very top of the support bill, Marjorie Weaver has an extremely small role – about a quarter the size of John Sutton's and he receives no billing at all! Chan's bon mots of Chinese philosophy are fairly amusing and Sen Yung's number–two son is a more effective offsider than usual and is not required to descend to tiresome "comic relief". Production values of course are first class. Miss Valerie wears some wonderfully attractive costumes, while Virgil Miller's photography remains very crisp, despite being often forced to work very close to the actors. Film editing is also remarkably smooth despite the necessity to integrate angles that are not quite suitable for ideal matching. And, as usual, Chan's make-up is faultless,

Unremarkable - except for the plane climax

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 9 April 2016]

Basically, this is just another Charlie Chan film. It moves relatively well and has some good lines for Chan, but not much of it stays in your mind afterwards, except for the climax involving a plane and a clever trap devised by Chan to expose a saboteur. This sequence is pretty exciting, but it would have been even more exciting if Mr. Chan wasn't so utterly calm throughout, signaling to the viewer that it is all, indeed, merely a trap. The last-minute revelation of the real-real villain has become so customary, at least in the films of the series I have watched so far, that it has lost some of its shock impact. And despite the fact that "New York" appears in the title, it plays practically no part in the film, the action could have been set almost anywhere. My favorite Chan line (the last in the film): "Confidence of favorite son like courage of small boy at dentist: only evident after tooth extracted!" **1/2 out of 4.

Enjoyable Charlie Chan mystery

[chris_gaskin123 · 8/10 · 7 February 2005]

Murder Over New York is one of the better Chan mysteries and I've just seen this for the first time.

In this one, Charlie Chan is visiting New York to attend a police convention. At the same time, people who are involved with aircraft plants are being murdered and he decides to help with the investigation, along with his Number 2 son. These murders turn out to be the results of sabotage at the aircraft plants and Chan helps to identify the murderer...

Charlie Chan is played well by Sidney Toler and the rest of the cast includes Sen Yung as his Number 2 son and Marjorie Weaver.

I rather liked this mystery and is worth having if you like this sort of thing.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Pretty nifty

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 19 April 2009]

This film is about a deadly poison that is contained in small glass globes that is used to kill. This is apparently done to hide an espionage ring intent on stealing plans for a new American bomber. Now much of this plot was repeated in other Chan films, THE JADE MASK and THE DOCKS OF NEW ORLEANS. Additionally, it was first used in MR. WONG, DETECTIVE--all had the exploding glass globes--a plot element that obviously has been overused. It was interesting in MURDER OVER NEW YORK, but by these later films it was rather passé.

Fortunately, the rest of the film was fresh and the plot worked out very well--with a nifty conclusion where, of course, the culprit reveals himself. However, no plane could fly the way this one did--especially in 1940. Such extreme dives and rapid ascents were pretty silly out of this already obsolete plane.

By the way, in a small role as a porter you'll see Frank Coghlan Jr.--the same actor who played Billy Batson in the CAPTAIN MARVEL serial. According to IMDb, Mr. Coughlan is 93 years old and retired from the film industry.

Number Two Son Screws Up Again

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 12 January 2016]

In watching the entire Charlie Chan canon, there is one consistent issue. That is the trust that Charlie puts in his own son. There are at least five goof ups due to him; not to mention his constantly tampering with evidence and shooting off his mouth. I realize that these are part of the comic relief, but sometimes they cross over into potential danger for other people. Putting that little complaint aside, this was quite an entertaining offering. It involves sabotage once again. There is a test plane at the center of it and concern that someone may try to put a wrench in the works. The use of poison gas is front and center and the identity of a man known for his terrorism. We have the repeated business of a person in authority wanting the spotlight, but Chan is ultimately in control. I like this one.

Charlie Chan attends a detective convention in NYC

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 4 December 2013]

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is full of clever sayings in Murder in New York, from 1940. Also starring is Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan. They make a delightful team. Jimmy shows up unexpectedly while Charlie is in New York to attend a conference. He and a friend of his want to attend the World's Fair.

It's not long before both Chans are on a case, when a friend of Charlie's, a detective, is murdered. Soon they're in the midst of the investigation of a sabotage ring, people being killed by poison gas pellets, an airplane crash, and plenty of suspects. The police ask Charlie to stick around and help. I don't think he gets to his conference, and Jimmy doesn't see the World's Fair, at least not yet.

Donald McBride, Ricardo Cortez, Kane Richmond, Robert Lowery, Marjorie Weaver, and Joan Valerie are all featured.

It's a fair mystery, enlivened by Charlie's witty dialogue. Frankly, any one of these films that has something to do with the war basically have similar plots: sabotage, missing formulas, spies, that type of thing.

Sidney Toler is in good form. I have to say I prefer Warner Oland, who seemed to exhibit more energy and was more upbeat. Toler's humor comes from his sardonic line delivery and good chemistry with the actors. Both brought something special to the role.

Whether the story is bad, good, confusing, whatever, with stereotypes abounding, somehow these films are always enjoyable.

Saboteurs and poisonous gas.

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 6 October 2010]

It appears the formula for Charlie Chan mysteries is wearing itself thin. Even this movie's title could have been better or more descriptive. The Honolulu detective Chan(Sidney Toler)is in New York for a police convention when a Scotland Yard inspector friend of his falls victim of toxic gas poisoning. The gas is relatively new and is also being used by saboteurs plaguing an airline. Number Two Son Jimmy(Sen Yung)offers aid to the investigation, but you know how that is going to work out. The plot seems to lack urgency and just isn't one of the better films in the Charlie Chan series. The supporting cast features: Marjorie Weaver, Robert Cortez, Melville Cooper, Donald MacBride and Joan Valerie.

Fairly fun, if you can get by some dated elements

[Wizard-8 · 27 January 2015]

Though I have certainly seen more than my share of movies in my lifetime, I have to admit that "Murder Over New York" is my very first Charlie Chan movie. One reason why I put off seeing any Charlie Chan movies for a long time was that I found the idea of a Caucasian playing an Asian to be insulting. While I would have preferred an Asian to play Charlie Chan (and wished that Chan would have spoken fluent English), I have to admit that Sidney Toler gave a warm and likable performance as the detective. And I was pleased to see that his character was treated with respect and likability by his policeman peers and other characters. As for the rest of the movie, it's in large part a fairly standard 1940s murder mystery, but it does keep you guessing for a long time, and at 65 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. And in the end, it was entertaining enough for me that I will give another Charlie Chan movie a chance in the future should one cross my path again.

Enjoyable mystery with a couple of nail biting set pieces.

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 24 October 2009]

Chan is in New York and he gets involved with an attempt to sabotage a new aircraft design.

The war was over a year away from reaching America but the second world war was already raging everywhere else in the world and so it colored everything since most people probably realized that war was coming. Here the War isn't mentioned but the fact that the film deals with the production of planes at the very least alludes to it. The mystery itself is pretty good, it the notion of plane sabotage lends itself nicely to a couple of rather tense moments. To be certain we are talking about Charlie Chan so we can be certain that he would live to fight another day, but there was no guarantee what condition he would be in, not whether anyone around him would survive.

I really like this film a great deal. Its not one of the nest, and far from the worst. It is one of the truly rare things, a truly enjoyable one. Definitely worth a look or six.

"Fresh weed better than wilted rose."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 7 March 2014]

An old friend of Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is murdered. Charlie's investigation puts him on the trail of a mysterious man known as Paul Narvo. If he can figure out the identity of Narvo, he can solve the murder. With unwanted help from "Number Two Son" Jimmy, of course.

Fairly routine Charlie Chan mystery. Toler is solid as Charlie and Victor Sen Yung is good fun as Jimmy. Donald MacBride plays the police inspector who would be lost without Charlie's help. The suspects are made up of Ricardo Cortez, Robert Lowery, Melville Cooper, John Sutton, and pretty Joan Valerie. Marjorie Weaver is over-the-top in her performance as a woman who used to be married to Narvo. Also an amusing appearance from Shemp Howard. Not bad but not one of the series' best.

"I'll never go on a case like this again without a gat."

[bensonmum2 · 6/10 · 19 November 2008]

On his way to a police convention in New York, Charlie Chan runs into an old friend from Scotland Yard, Hugh Drake. Drake, now employed by military intelligence, is hot on the heels of a saboteur named Paul Narvo. Drake asks Chan to pay him a visit while he's in New York to talk over his case. Chan makes the visit only to find that his colleague has been murdered.

If you look through my reviews, it should become apparent that I'm a fan of Charlie Chan. That's why it pains me to admit that I don't really care for Murder Over New York as much as most other fans seem to. Part of the problem is the whole WWII spy angle. I've never much cared for this type of plot when watching a Chan film. I should also point out that I have the same problem with the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films that deal with WWII espionage. I'd much rather see my favorite film detectives solving murders than chasing spies.

Beyond my issues with the plot, I've always had a real problem the solution to the case. There is no way that the audience could hope to play along with Chan and come up with a solution. The movie cheats far too much. There is information known only to Chan that comes up after the killer is identified. All I ask is that movies of this type play fair.

From my rating, it's probably obvious that even with the problems I have with the film, I still enjoy it. I mean it's still Charlie Chan after all. Sidney Toler is as enjoyable as ever. Victor Sen Yung is as good, if not better (meaning less annoying), than in some of the previous installments. The rest of the cast is more than serviceable with a fun cameo from Shemp Howard. Like all the other Chan films, this one looks much better than it should. The cinematography is solid. Finally, considering all the problems I pointed out that I have with Murder Over New York, it's a bit odd that I've probably seen it more than any other Charlie Chan film. That's got to count for something.

Find The Guilty Party Guests

[biorngm · 9/10 · 26 June 2018]

Review - Murder Over New York One of the best from Sidney Toler out the Fox Studios by far, due to an excellent story holding the actual identities of the guilty until the very end, with plenty of red-herrings, trickery present to prove the guilty parties, exceptional acting from the cast members, recognizing one supporting member, i.e. Donald MacBride as Inspector Vance. Actually there were other cast members, uncredited Shemp Howard, with a funny bit, deserves mention. Unique features included twenty-one uncredited cast members, along with the thirteen credited cast members, not including the star, Sidney Toler. This was a large cast compared to later Charlie Chan movies, and it worked well, everyone figuring into the story. Marjorie Weaver as Patricia Shaw was a welcome cast member in her second of two Charlie Chan movies, each from 1940, as was Joan Valerie playing June Preston, as the only blond.

The movie is a good watch seeing how each character plays an important part in the ultimate apprehension of the guilty, both killer and accomplice. Careful study of the players as the plot moves along provides insight of the way Charlie Chan captures the killer-ringleader and nabs the accomplice first. His loyalty to his friend, Inspector Drake keeps him in New York, solving the case, with help from a few people furnishing evidence or clues for the quest to go forward to conclusion. His friend Drake is killed in an apartment during a party with several guests, and the killer was amongst them at the party. Charlie Chan learned from his late friend, a prime suspect was known to be involved in sabotage, but he was not found as yet, as was the man's wife. She is found through help from a party guest providing her address where Charlie visits to learn of her actual status and any insight he can learn of her missing ringleader husband. Her life is endangered while Charlie and the NYPD Inspector question her. The host of the party is found dead in his apartment where the party occurred. The prime suspect's valet is murdered just before an attempt was made on his wife, two bullet holes through a police headquarters' window. From the assistance of a few more people Charlie creates a ruse to force the guilty parties out into the open before there was any further bloodshed. Watch for all the clues to be presented as the case comes to a conclusion. There were no unnecessary scenes throughout the show, despite Charlie having help from son Jimmy.

Very good

[SanteeFats · 7/10 · 27 October 2013]

There are many Charlie Chan movies out there. They are generally pretty good. Either of the two actors that played Charlie Chan did a good job even though neither was of Asian heritage by any stretch of the imagination. These movies used logic and some humor, usually provided by the number two or three son and some from Chan himself (watch his face at times during the films). As usual for these movies Chan solves the case using unorthodox means and by miss direction including asking questions that direct the suspects attention where he wants them to go. Charlie is in New York for a convention. His Scotland Yard friend is killed and the hunt is on for the killer. After the usual search the guilty party is apprehended and every thing is fine.

Murder Over New York was a nearly excellent Charlie Chan series entry

[tavm · 9/10 · 22 February 2010]

This is my fourth review of a Charlie Chan movie in series chronological order on these consecutive days. This is also my first comment of one I've seen previously though it's been about 24 years since then, so I didn't remember much of it. In this one, the Honolulu detective is investigating an espionage ring that was initially tracked by a former Scotland Yard acquaintance who has turned up missing in the Big Apple...This is the best of the Chan entries I've seen so far in current memory with every clue being connected (though, of course, if I look at them at closer examination, there could still be some holes though I can't think of any right now). And "No. 2 Son" Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) is somewhat of a help when he first identifies the poison that results in some murders early on, though, of course, he blunders a little later. Among the returning supporting cast from the last Chan film-Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum-are blonde Joan Valerie as June Preston and Stanley Blystone, who's brother John G. helmed a lost Chan one called Charlie Chan's Chance, as a fingerprint expert. Nice intrigue especially with an exciting climax aboard a bomber plane. Oh, and watch for a certain Stooge at a police line up...

In a Chan story, sometimes you're a suspect, sometimes you're the victim.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 16 September 2023]

The rotating cast of victims, suspects, potential witnesses and law enforcement officials in the lengthy Charlie Chan series had many actors coming back in completely different roles, some of them more than two times. Ricardo Cortez had been a suspect in a Warner Oland entry years before this Sidney Toler entry, and is now the victim. Chan's already distracted by finding son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) in New York for the world's fair, so another murder in another town becomes a new perplexing problem.

It's interesting that Cortez is named George Kirby, the Cary Grant character from "Topper", but Cortez does not return as a ghost. Donald MacBride and Marjorie Weaver are other actors to return in other parts, with Weaver and Robert Lowery having been on the murder cruise right before this. Melville Cooper and Kane Richmond (in his third Chan movie) are also present. The story is complex, dealing with poison gas that escapes from passenger airplanes. You'll have to struggle to recognize Shemp Howard in a police lineup. Pretty moderate B entry in the series that's just over an hour.

Fun, but not as good as most of the other Fox Chans.

[admjtk1701 · 8/10 · 16 April 2000]

"Murder Over New York" is fun, but not as good as most of the other Fox Chans. This film would have been better named, "Charlie Chan in New York", the film's working title. This is Toler's chance to play Chan in the Big Apple. There is a lot to like here, though, including guest star Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges.

This has one of my favorite Chan sayings, "Coincidence like ancient egg--leave unpleasant odour." Toler and Yung are good in this one and so is the supporting cast. But there is little or no mysterious atmosphere which I look for in these films. Still, it is good to see.

Bomber TR-4 Threatened!

[Jim Tritten · 5/10 · 4 July 2002]

In another pre-war sabotage warning, Sidney Toler (as Charlie Chan) protects America's military production while explaining: `One man with gun have more authority than whole army with no ammunition.' Fair series entry with only a slight chance that the viewer will be able to predict the guilty party. As in many of the early Chan films, key information known only to the detective is not revealed until after the solution is announced. On the other hand, there is at least one good clue that might point you in the right direction. `Wishful thinking sometimes lead to blind alley.'

Former Scotland Yard Inspector Hugh Drake is killed prior to sharing information that would lead to the identity of mastermind killer and saboteur Paul Narvo. Mrs. Narvo has escaped from her husband and fears he will kill her since she knows of his escapades. Just enough misdirection and alternative suspects to keep it interesting. Chan is `aided' by his `favorite son' Jimmy in identifying presence of poison gas `tetrogene' and in finding Drake's killer, Chan and the police prevent the loss of a bomber TR-4 (played by the Lockheed Loadstar which is in fact pressed into wartime service as both a bomber and cargo plane) while undergoing a test flight over New York.

Racial slurs re-introduced in this film – dialog should probably be cut when shown today since it adds nothing. Closing credits list Marjorie Weaver as playing the part of Patricia Shaw while in film she uses the alias Patria West and her Scotland Yard Criminal Investigation Bureau card shows her maiden name as Miriam Shaw.

Fair mystery best recommended only for those who want to see the entire series.

Charlie does the "big apple"

[pbalos · 8/10 · 13 August 2000]

taking into consideration the Chan films that would follow, this isn't bad. Plenty of stereotypes beginning with the Black man in the beginning and when the police captain orders that "every Hindu in town" by rounded-up. A parade of stereotypical characters enter the scene including Shemp of the Three Stooges. Charlie seems to move quickly around the city going from Sutton Pl. to the W. Village in a flash.The ending is silly. An obvious toy airplane is used as it climbs through the sky and then nose dives. Ed Wood couldn't have done it better. The final scene is absurd as the murderer will obviously incriminate himself in his attempt to quiet the one person who knows his identity. Overall, it is worth watching.