Docks of New Orleans (1948)

The LaFontanne Chemical Company is shipping out a load of we're not sure what, disguised as something entirely different. Mr. Pereaux and Mr. Grock don't want that shipment to ever arrive ... See full summary »

Director:

Derwin Abrahams

Writers:

Earl Derr Biggers (characters), Scott Darling (original screenplay)

Stars:

Roland Winters, Virginia Dale, Mantan Moreland

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Roland Winters	...	Charlie Chan
Virginia Dale	...	Rene Blanchette
Mantan Moreland	...	Birmingham Brown
John Gallaudet	...	Capt. Pete McNalley
Victor Sen Yung	...	Tommy Chan (as Victor Sen Young)
Carol Forman	...	Nita Aguirre
Douglas Fowley	...	Grock
Harry Hayden	...	Oscar Swenstrom
Howard Negley	...	Andre Pereaux
Stanley Andrews	...	Theodore Von Scherbe
Emmett Vogan	...	Henri Castanaro
Boyd Irwin	...	Simon LaFontanne
Rory Mallinson	...	Thompson
George J. Lewis	...	Sgt. Dansiger

Storyline

The LaFontanne Chemical Company is shipping out a load of we're not sure what, disguised as something entirely different. Mr. Pereaux and Mr. Grock don't want that shipment to ever arrive anywhere, and they and a man named Aquirre mean to stop it at any cost. The ship's owner, Mr. Fontanne, smells a large rat and calls Chan in on the case, since the famous detective is in New Orleans because, well, because he felt like being in New Orleans, I guess. Chan gets what facts there are from LaFontanne, who is promply set upon by a gang who attempt to kidnap him, but fail. Mr. LaFontanne's partners come up with some insurance; just by chance they tell him, a partnership agreement (why they would have been running a company all this time without one is another large mystery which will not be solved) that bestows upon the living partners the portion owned by a deceased partner. Then the guy who invented the formula for the poison gas that the company is making but who was, in his opinion, ...

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Plot Keywords:

company | partner | poison gas | shipping | poison | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 March 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Charlie Chan in Docks of New Orleans

Company Credits

Production Co:

Monogram Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

64 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The forty-third of forty-seven Charlie Chan movies.

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Quotes

Capt. McNalley: Say, the boy has a head on his shoulders.
Charlie Chan: Oh, yes, even melon grown in shade will ripen in the end.

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Connections

Follows Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)

User Reviews

Recycled from Wong by Katzman

Not that Monogram invested too much of anything in their product under the tight fisted and Philistine like regime of Sam Katzman, but they do out do themselves with Docks Of New Orleans. Roland Winters, the third and last big screen Charlie Chan had taken over and this is the second of two Mr. Wong plots that I've discovered recycled for the Chan series.

Docks Of New Orleans is remade from Mr. Wong Detective and when I wrote my review of that film I remarked that it was a truly unique and clever way that the culprit had of murdering the victims. Here the gimmick is told from the outset Taking the most important element of the previous film away.

One of the partners of a chemical firm says that he feels betrayed by his two other partners and later on winds up dead in a proverbial locked room. Having consulted Roland Winters, Charlie Chan is brought in as a consultant to the New Orleans PD in the person here of John Gallaudet.

There's both a smuggling racket and a murder plot and Winters has to solve both in order to solve either. If you saw the Mr. Wong film than you know how this ends and who was doing what.