As far as I know this is the only film where Charlie Chan's son is involved with another Detective other than honorable father. Granted this might have been Charlie Chan's Gamble if Warner Oland did not die, but the role of Chan became a real killer in Hollywood. Sidney Toler who took over for Oland would die too years later. Sometimes role of Detective ends suddenly with actor.
As this is sort of a merger of 2 Detective series due to the circumstances, it can be forgiven that this one is not quite even. The studio assembly line was cranking out lots of "B" films which is what these series films almost always are. They are meant as a warm up for the feature attraction. This one is from the era of going to a theater to see 2 movies as TV was not very far along yet. Mr. Moto starts the film with his detective class in college.
Mr. Moto and the police chief go to a boxing match whose winner is going to fight for the championship. The fight has a strange ending as the loser appears to have been poisoned though it's not clear where the poison that kills him came from. Moto then follows a trail of clues looking for who done it.
This film has a large cast, many un-credited, as the film goes through the usual plot lines. Keye Luke as Lee Chan, Charlie's son, is one of Moto's students in class. As usual he and an annoying companion whose a kleptomanic go off on the wrong path while Moto sticks with looking for scientific clue to find the killer. Chan & friend wind up cooling their heels in jail until just before the Championship match.
The match is where Moto manages to catch the murderer by setting a trap using their own booby trap. There are a couple of good female actors mixed in here including a triangle for the living challenger for the title. The title fight is where everything leads too. If there is a mistake these movies made up for in later years, there was never a Mr. Moto Meets Charlie Chan like there was a Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Why the studios did not try this in the 1940's I don't know.
This movie is as close as it gets. That's a good thing though I wonder how Dick Tracy Meets Sam Spade might have worked?
Mr. Moto and the police chief go to a boxing match whose winner is going to fight for the championship. The fight has a strange ending as the loser appears to have been poisoned though it's not clear where the poison that kills him came from. Moto then follows a trail of clues looking for who done it.
This film has a large cast, many un-credited, as the film goes through the usual plot lines. Keye Luke as Lee Chan, Charlie's son, is one of Moto's students in class. As usual he and an annoying companion whose a kleptomanic go off on the wrong path while Moto sticks with looking for scientific clue to find the killer. Chan & friend wind up cooling their heels in jail until just before the Championship match.
The match is where Moto manages to catch the murderer by setting a trap using their own booby trap. There are a couple of good female actors mixed in here including a triangle for the living challenger for the title. The title fight is where everything leads too. If there is a mistake these movies made up for in later years, there was never a Mr. Moto Meets Charlie Chan like there was a Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman. Why the studios did not try this in the 1940's I don't know.
This movie is as close as it gets. That's a good thing though I wonder how Dick Tracy Meets Sam Spade might have worked?