UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Lancoor A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Michael O'Keefe Run-of-the-mill murder mystery. Mary Whitman(Pauline Moore)arrives in Reno, Nevada for a six-week divorce. She finds herself arrested accused of murdering another divorce-seeker staying at her hotel. Circumstancial evidence seems to be damning, but family friend Charlie Chan(Sidney Toler) the Honolulu detective is summoned to seek the truth. Charlie's number-two-son Jimmy(Sen Yung)is on hand with intent to help his dad and is about as useful as the dim-witted local sheriff(Slim Summerville). The Police Chief(Charles D. Brown)is more than happy to have Chan on the case, because the crime quickly becomes complex. Cab driver Eddie Collins provides some humor. Other players: Ricardo Cortez, Phyllis Brooks, Kay Linaker and Kane Richmond.

Lin21 An entertaining film as Charlie heads over to Reno to help a friend. Mrs. Bentley would have been interesting to hang around with for a while. The film drags in a couple of spots but only briefly. I personally didn't find the Tombstone' character to be all that funny. Other than Charlie's sons,the attempts at humor in the Chan films tend to fall flat. Eddie Collins is annoying as the cab driver and it's nice to see Charlie put him in his place. Phyllis Brooks gives a good performance as Ms. Wells. I love the way Pauline Moore speaks and acts in this film. Iris Wong is great as usual.The interplay between Charlie and his #2 son is priceless!

classicsoncall "Charlie Chan in Reno" offers a cleverly woven mystery in which the murder suspects are all revealed to have had some involvement with each other in the past. It helps when watching to keep a scorecard to keep track of events and relationships so the final revelation makes sense. Not only do we have a murder victim, but an attempted murder as well.When Mary Whitman (Pauline Moore) is found over the dead body of Jeanne Bentley (Louise Henry), she of course is the obvious suspect, and with a firm motive; Bentley was going to marry Whitman's about to be ex-husband. But Bentley had a unique way of alienating most everyone with her ingratiating manner, not the least of which was another suitor, Wally Burke (Robert Lowery). Burke comes across as suitably suspicious, as does Dr. Ainsley (Ricardo Cortez), who is surprised to be discovered in the murder room of the Hotel Sierra, claiming to be looking for the money won by Bentley at the casino, offering robbery as the motive for the crime.Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler in his second performance as the Oriental Detective) is aided in the case by Number #2 Son Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung, credited as Sen Yung). Jimmy is on spring break from the University of Southern California, and gets himself mugged by a pair of con men who steal his borrowed car; he's identified by "Pop" in a police line up. There's also Police Chief King (played straight by Charles D. Brown) and an inept Reno Sheriff Tombstone Fletcher (Slim Summerville). Fletcher is quick to dismiss Chan's serious questioning and investigative work, preferring to pin the crime on the innocent Mary Whitman.Once Charlie gets down to business, a whole host of new clues and information come to light. The investigation eventually leads to an abandoned ghost town outside of Reno, and yet another suspect, this time Jeanne Bentley's ex husband George.For trivia fans, there are two actors in "Reno" that also appeared in Toler's first Chan adventure in "Honolulu". Phyllis Brooks as Vivian Wells is ultimately revealed to be the murderer; while Eddie Collins does a comic turn as the talkative cab driver. Collins was the lion keeper aboard a freighter in the "Honolulu" film.Before the mystery is over, Chan unravels an entire network of entanglements that connect the murder victim with each of the suspects, and the suspects with one another. It's rather cleverly done, and promotes this film to one of the better Charlie Chan titles, particularly those of Sidney Toler.

reve-2 This very good Charlie Chan mystery was made at 20th Century Fox. At this time the series still had the backing of a major studio and so the production values, acting, script, camera work, etc. were of good quality. Later, when Fox dropped the series and it found a home at Monogram, the Chan films got pretty bad with the look of cheapness in abundance. But, this film had some very good actors, such as Ricardo Cortez, Robert Lowery, and the always funny Slim Summerville supporting Sidney Toler as Chan. There seemed to be just the right amount of comic relief to keep the story moving at a good pace. Later Chan entries would go overboard with comedy with Mantan Moreland and company trying to avert the viewers from realizing what lame plots and bad acting they were watching. Of course, as in all Chan mysteries, there is no shortage of suspects in the case of a murder that is committed on a thoroughly unlikeable woman who seemed to go out of her way to alienate everyone. With several characters having a motive to kill the woman, Chan must sort out the clues and unmask the killer while continually being harassed by an inept (but very funny) sheriff, portrayed by Summerville. Victor Sen-Yung, as number two son, helps out when it counts while enduring the usual number of affectionate insults from his detective father. All in all, this movie is great fun.