Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers:

Lou Breslow (story)
Saul Elkins (story)

Release Date:

14 August 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Sport | Thriller

Plot:

When a friend of Charlie's is found kicked to death by his own race horse on board a Honolulu-bound liner, the detective discovers foul play and uncovers an international gambling ring.

Plot Keywords:

Horse Stall | Thoroughbred | Detective | Murderer | Steamship

Cast

Warner Oland	...	Charlie Chan
Keye Luke	...	Lee Chan
Helen Wood	...	Alice Fenton
Thomas Beck	...	Bruce Rogers
Alan Dinehart	...	George Chester
Gavin Muir	...	Bagley
Gloria Roy	...	Catherine Chester
Jonathan Hale	...	Warren Fenton
G.P. Huntley	...	Denny Barton (as G.P. Huntley Jr.)
George Irving	...	Major Gordon Kent
Frank Coghlan Jr.	...	Eddie Brill, Jockey
Frankie Darro	...	'Tip' Collins, Jockey
John Rogers	...	Mooney, Ship Cabin Steward
John Henry Allen	...	'Streamline' Jones
Harry Jans	...	Al Meers

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2353) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Santa Anita Park - 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Director Cameo: [H. Bruce Humberstone]The director has a small uncredited role as the gambler who causes the Chans to be kidnapped.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the climactic race begins, only half of the horses announced (Gringo, Wild Bill, Shrapnel, Gallant Lad, Golden Fleece, Elsie Lee, Avalanche, Hold Away) match the names seen earlier on the odds board (Golden Fleece, Money Maker, Shrapnel, Blue Boy, Court Jester, Gallant Lad, Avalanche, Pico).

Quotes:

Charlie Chan: When player cannot see man who deal cards, much wiser to stay out of game.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in AFI's 100 Years, 100 Thrills: America's Most Heart-Pounding Movies (2001) (TV)

Stepin Fetchit

I spend a lot of time working with old detective films because I believe them to have contributed to, indeed profoundly changed, how we manage narrative. Some detective films (and those that reference them) are clever or important, fossils that indicate how our imagination evolved. Others are some other agenda wrapped in the detective label. The Chan series started out, I think as a genuinely interesting detective. The idea here was that some "otherness" was in our designated observer on screen. The fellow who unraveled reality for us was something like us, but wiser in an inscrutable way.

But the movies quickly became a lowbrow entertainment, which meant jokes at someone's expense. And because of the era, that means a main thread is jokes about race. Its inevitable, since the main device is racial: a white actor playing a superwise Chinese man. There are two secondary devices you will find in most Chan films:

— the son (usually a son) is played by a real Chinese man, and lest we forget that the detective is an icon, this Chinese fellow is a buffoon. He sometimes gets things right, but never by intent.

— the black man. Often this is the "driver." Here it is a stablehand. His job in the story is always the same, to indicate another fold in the reality of the characters. His demeaned demeanor is bug-eyed, retarded, subservient. He plays someone as iconic as Chan, but at the bottom of the stack, with the otherwise 100% white folks in the "real" story.

Oh. The story? Adapted from the Sherlock Holmes tale "Silver Blaze." Swapped racehorses with a "gambling ring" thrown in. I'm curious. Where there ever famous gambling rings like this in real life, or are they just movieland confabulations?

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.