Nonureva Really Surprised!

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

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

snicewanger Reclusive historian Paul Manderley lives in a a spooky castle replica on the Mojave Desert. His wife Lucy is a descendant of the infamous Borgia family who poisoned their way to power in Italy during the Renaissance. His doctor, lawyer, lawyers wife, butler, chauffeur, publisher, and historical researcher are all there. Thats a lot of people around for somebody who claims to enjoy his solitude as Manderley does. One of them is poisoned but the body is planted in a hotel room in Mojave Well a town 35 miles away.Manderley doesn't want to be bothered with a police investigation. Charlie Chan receives a request from Mrs Manderley to come to the castle and investigate.Leaving San Francisco and arriving at Mojave Wells he finds the hotel manager extremely hostile to anyone associated with the castle. When the limo from the castle and Charlie gets in another traveler emerges from the hotel and slides in the backseat next to Charlie. He is Watson King a New York City sculptor and art critic who has also received a summons from Mrs Manderley.Mr Manderley is quite irritated when the two men arrive. When it's discovered that the note summoning Charlie is a forgery and Lucy Manderley didn't ask him to come to the castle, Paul Manderley insists that both men immediately leave. However, the butler soon informs Mr Manderley that the distributor cap has been removed from the limo engine and the car will of course not start. Mr Manderley, reluctantly asks Charlie to investigate the strange happenings at the castle.Another private detective shows up. Number 2 son Jimmy Chan and a star gazer and psychic from the town sneak in through the basement torture chamber. Another guest is poisoned, and yet another is killed by the dart from a crossbow. Everything revolves around the 20 million dollar Manderley estate and who will have control of it.Charlie unmasks the real killer in the end.This is my favorite Charlie Chan film. It was the last film in the 20TH Century Fox Charlie Chan series. It was, in my opinion, the best of the Sidney Tolar Chan movies. The castle setting and basement torture chamber give the film a dark and eerie ambiance It also has three of my favorite mystery actors in the cast. Malevolent Henry Daniell is one of my favorite screen villains. Daniell could be menacing just taking a puff from a cigarette. Skeletal Milton Parsons was like a figure of death. No matter what kind of a role he played, he always seemed like a mortician.Ethel Griffie's repertoire of eccentric and unconventional ladies made her an audience favorite and her role as the desert fortune teller is one of the highlights of the movie. Castle in the Desert certainly is not perfect. The are plot holes, contradictions and discrepancies in the story. It becomes fairly obvious who the killer is very early in the story. Jimmy Chan is his irritating self. That said. Castle in the Desert is a very entertaining 58 minutes of mystery and suspense.

Robert J. Maxwell Son Number Two (Victor Sen Yung), now in army, not hold candle to Son Number One (Benson Fong). So much different that I wonder if Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler)have been fooling around. Maybe Wife Number Two stashed in basement of Jade Empress Restaurant or tattoo parlor on Hotel Street.As Charlie Chan movie, production values not bad, compliments 20th-Century Fox. Actors not bad too. Henry Daniell always reliable villain. Douglass Dumbrille usually bad also but in this case is victim of several murder attempts.Plot involve one murder and two attempted murder. Also deadly nightshade. Come from mushroom. Not found in moo goo gai pan. Also tagara root. Not poison, only hypnotic. Romeo give tagara root to Juliet to put to sleep and do head pass on villains in play about Romeo and Juliet. (Forget name of play. Never mix rum with herculanium.) Story take place in desert castle, just like title say. Thirty-five miles from Mojave Wells. Castle not have electricity or running water. Please not ask about air conditioning. This 1942.Victor Sen Yung very amusing in suit of armor, stumbling around basement full of cobweb and poison. Charlie Chan too stern. Always put Number Two Son down with funny wisecrack. Number Two Son ignore insults but still insults must hurt, like telling skinny lady, "I'll bet in high school they call you Treasure Island because you have sunken chest." Sen Yung funny, but not patch on Mantan Moreland.

moonspinner55 Mid-entry in the long-running "Charlie Chan" series which originally started with Warner Oland portraying Chan and finished up with Roland Winters taking on the role; here, Sidney Tolar is cast as the clever Orientel sleuth, amusingly sniffing out a killer in a desert mansion. Although Tolar is enjoyable, the overly-colorful supporting turns by Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglas Dumbrille, and Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan are amateurish, and the mystery plot is perhaps too convoluted for its own good (and nearly impossible to follow in its final fifteen minutes). Still, some dry laughs and good production values in this modest second-biller. ** from ****

dbborroughs Considered by many as the best of the Chan's this is possibly the one I like the least. The plot has Chan answering a call from someone needing his services and going alone to the title location. When he arrives he finds that a poisoner is on the loose. For me the film is all about the location, the huge sets of the castle are spectacular, however the plot gets lost in the empty halls. Its not that the plot is bad, its just there isn't enough to sustain the running time of about an hour. Even Jimmy Chan's appearance fails to add any sort of life to the proceedings. As much as I watch and rewatch the other films this is one I watch the least, doing so when ever it happens to come up on its no infrequent TV airings.