Charlie Chan at the Circus

Plot

The circus owner Joe Kinney gave Charlie Chan a free pass, so the detective brought his wife and all twelve children to see the show. Kinney had been receiving anonymous threatening letters and wanted Chan to find out who was sending them. Since Kinney was deeply unpopular, almost every circus worker was a suspect. But when Chan went to meet Kinney during the evening performance, he found the man dead. It looked like a rampaging gorilla that had somehow escaped its cage had killed him.

Lieutenant Macy took over the investigation. Chan and his eldest son Lee helped, though Lee was overzealous and spent his time unsuccessfully trying to romance Su Toy, the contortionist. Following Chan's advice, Macy allowed the circus to move on to its next stop, and the three of them went along. On the train, someone tried to murder Chan by putting a poisonous cobra near him. Later, an attempt was made to break into the circus safe, but nothing was taken. Inside the safe, Macy discovered a marriage certificate showing that Kinney had supposedly married Nellie Farrell, the circus wardrobe lady, in Mexico. But Kinney's fiancee, Marie Norman, said she could prove Kinney was not in Mexico on the date the certificate listed. Before she could show her proof, someone shot one of the ropes on her trapeze swing during her act. She fell to the ground and was seriously injured, though still alive.

A doctor was called. Chan insisted Marie was too badly hurt to be moved, so the doctor had to operate right there. Chan asked everyone to stay quiet and clear the area so the medical staff would not be distracted during the delicate surgery. Meanwhile, Chan had spotted a newspaper article about a crime at a casino on the same day as Kinney's supposed marriage. He sent his son to phone the police for a description of the criminals involved. When Lee came back, he saw a man knock out the policeman guarding the gorilla's cage and let the ape out again. Lee fought with the man but was knocked unconscious.

Reception

In a 1936 review for The Spectator, Graham Greene praised the film, stating that Charlie Chan needed no introduction. He observed that the Chan series had consistently been well-crafted and well-performed, and found this new installment especially enjoyable because it introduced audiences to Chan’s entire family. Meanwhile, Frank Nugent of The New York Times noted that the movie gave some consideration to plot structure and used relatively few pseudo-Confucian sayings, though still too many for his taste. He admired several shots capturing the nighttime magic of a circus train, but ultimately concluded that by that point, any Chan film was essentially a routine, formulaic production.