Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum

Did You Know?

• A review in The New York Times described the film as an 'eerie lark'.
• The review added that the film 'would require a more than ordinary criminal dialectician to make head or tail out of the assorted and sinister monkeyshines'.
• The review noted that 'Taken moment to moment the film has a chilling sequence or two, but don't ask too many questions of the plot.'

Plot

Charlie Chan's courtroom testimony helps secure a death sentence for convicted murderer Steve McBirney. But McBirney escapes and flees to a wax museum that secretly serves as a Mob hideout, run by Dr. Cream, a corrupt facial surgeon who alters McBirney's appearance with surgery. Cream lures Chan to the museum by arranging a radio broadcast where Chan is supposed to debate an old case with Dr. Otto Von Brom. Von Brom's earlier testimony had led to a death sentence for Joe Rocke, though Chan believes Rocke was innocent. The whole event is a trap so McBirney can get revenge, but Chan is already suspicious. Without Chan's knowledge, his son Jimmy sneaks into the museum to investigate. During the gathering, Carter Lane arrives, representing Mrs. Joe Rocke, and his client also slips in. The group sits around a table to reenact a scene from the Rocke case for the broadcast. Cream ensures Chan takes a seat wired for electrocution, but Von Brom insists on swapping places. Night watchman Willie Fern is tricked into flipping the switch. The lights go out, and Von Brom dies, though not from electricity. Cream's assistant Lily Latimer had cut the wire to hide the museum's other purpose. Chan discovers a small puncture wound on the dead man's neck and a bamboo blowgun dart. He becomes certain that "Butcher" Dagan framed his business partner Rocke and also killed Von Brom. Dagan was supposedly murdered by McBirney, another partner and Rocke's friend. Since Cream operated on Dagan, no one at the museum knows his true identity—Jimmy even suspects Mrs. Rocke. Dagan kills McBirney and tries to kill Chan, but the detective finally exposes and captures him.