Sun 13 Sep 2009
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: CASTLE IN THE DESERT (1942).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[10] Comments
CASTLE IN THE DESERT. 20th Century-Fox, 1942. Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan), Arleen Whelan, Richard Derr, Douglass Dumbrille, Henry Daniell, Edmund MacDonald, Victor Sen Yung (Jimmy Chan). Based on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers. Director: Harry Lachman.
Fox Movie Channel has decided to air the Charlie Chan films after all, and everyone should take advantage of this chance to see a really fine print of Castle in the Desert, Fox’s last Chan film and one of the best, thanks to the astute direction of Harry Lachman.
Lachman was a French Impressionist painter who fled Europe ahead of the Nazis and found work in Hollywood, mostly at 20th Century-Fox. He stayed primarily in B-movies, not all of them much good, but his work showed a consistently interesting visual style and fluid pacing that elevated many a pre-doomed project (such as Dr. Renault’s Secret, a Mad Scientist meller in which Arthur Shields(!) plays a French Gendarme).
His Dante’s Inferno (1939) is particularly interesting: the film itself is a rather awkward rise-and-fall-of-Spencer-Tracy morality tale, built around ten minutes of silent footage of Hell from an old Italian movie (hence the title), but Lachman’s handling of scenes in Tracy’s fun-house, and a shipboard fire prove more interesting than celluloid Hell itself.
Getting back to Castle in the Desert, it is, as I said, a pretty entertaining effort, what with Lachman’s punchy direction, a clever script (including a surprisingly intelligent use of the old guy-hiding-in-a-suit-of-armor gag) and the presence of Henry Daniell and Douglas Dumbrille, giving it their sinister all as suspects in the game.
Dumbrille especially seems to enjoy himself here, given a part slightly more sympathetic than normal. He was — like Laurence Harvey — one of those actors who never made any claim on our sympathy, but where Harvey came across as emotionally constipated, Dumbrille was always just stuffy; except in his personal life, where at age 70 he married the 28-year-old daughter of his friend and fellow-actor, Alan Mowbray.
September 13th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I’ve loved the Charlie Chan movies ever since they used to be shown over and over every Saturday many years ago. Now most of the films are available in 5 box sets plus another titled CHANTHOLOGY. These box sets are loaded with extras and are being heavily discounted on amazon.com.
September 13th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Another Chan lover here — books and movies. I always wondered if this one was at least in part inspired by Biggers’ The Chinese Parrot, at least in the setting.
Alas the series didn’t really survive the transition and became increasingly cheap and uninteresting until Roland Winters took the part so casually he seems to be squinting in some scenes rather than wearing makeup to look Chinese.
But they left Fox at a high point.
I like Oland and Toler about equally, though I lean a bit toward Oland, but I’m curious to hear from other Chan fans. Critics seem to prefer Oland, but I think in most cases it is which ever one you were exposed to first and most often.
Still, if I lean toward Oland my favorite Chan film is the Toler Charlie Chan on Treasure Island — based on a Great Merlini novel by Clayton Rawson, with a Philip Wylie script, and Cesar Romero as the magician sleuth, what’s not to like?
September 13th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Nice review, Dan. Ain’t heard from you (or been heard from) in a coon’s age.
September 13th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
I’ve not seen a Roland Winters Chan movie since I was a kid, watching them late at night lying on the living room with my brother.
So leaving him out of the list of choices, I’d have to agree with David that Oland and Toler are neck and neck, but with a lean toward Toler. No particular reason. I enjoy them both!
September 13th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
And as long as Dave Lewis (no relation) has stopped by, as an ex-fellow Owlhooter (I recently dropped out of the same apa we were in together), if you’re a fan of western fiction, let me recommend his new blog. It’s called Davy Crockett’s Almanack, and here’s the link:
http://davycrockettsalmanack.blogspot.com/
September 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Actually, any Chan film with Mantan Moreland is worth watching.
September 14th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Dan, I would alter that to say Mantan Moreland is worth watching in any Chan film. Sometimes the only thing worth watching in some of the later ones.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Steve – thanks for the blog plug. As of today it has a new title – Davy Crockett’s Almanack of Mystery, Adventure and the Wild West. We’re not talkin’ just westerns anymore.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
David Vineyard: well-phrased, that.
Dave Lewis: how the @#$%^&* do you post a coment on that blog of yours?
January 16th, 2011 at 10:36 pm
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