Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
Josephina
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
gridoon2018
"The Docks Of New Orleans" (don't expect to see much of New Orleans, by the way; the production values are depressing) presents a potentially intriguing locked-room murder mystery, but the method of the murder turns out to be an almost exact copy of "Mr. Wong, Detective" (the Boris Karloff movie), and the murderer is fairly obvious after a point. The film is a mostly dreary affair, but one long sequence near the end, with Chan held at gunpoint by three villains and trying to stall for time, is well-done. Number Two Son and Birmingham Brown have very small parts this time around. My favorite Chan line: "Only important that you do not underrate me when we part". ** out of 4.
mark.waltz
By the end of the 1940's, the 20 year series of "Charlie Chan" was beginning to look its age, even if Chan had plastic surgery twice with the replacement of two actors from its originator, Warner Oland. Roland Winters, the weakest of the three actors to play Charlie during this time, was mighty bland, and most of the scripts followed convoluted plots which at times needed a map to figure out, clues thrown in at the last minute to throw the viewer off. Here, the plot line follows a poisoned gas invented by Harry Hayden who makes threats against the men who purchased the invention for use against America's enemies. After Hayden makes threats, murder occurs, and of course Hayden is the top suspect. Chan happens to be in New Orleans when this happens and gets involved in the case, number two son Victor Sen Young tagging along and putting his foot not only in the case but in his mouth too with his interference.This is probably the most straight forward of the plots of the last few years of the series, taken over from Monogram in the mid 1940's with reduced budgets and sometimes outrageous plot devices. There's a few of those developments here, but for the most part, it is on the level and overall more interesting than the remainder of the Monogram years. Still, there's a feeling that the series was long out of steam, and a sense of desperation being felt. Mantan Moreland is aboard as usual with his string of malapropisms and offers some amusement as he teams with Sen Young in getting the two into constant trouble.
Michael O'Keefe
A ship is being loaded at the Port of New Orleans, where the LaFontanne Chemical Company is shipping out a load of chemicals. Mr. LaFontanne(Boyd Irwin)is visited by two of his partners that for some reason want a death waiver on each other put in place; this demand seems suspicious just as Mr. LaFontanne discovering that he is being followed. There is the chance that the ship is being loaded with something other than chemicals and it is becoming apparent that someone doesn't want the ship ever leaving the dock. LaFontanne hires Charlie Chan(Roland Winters)to find out who and why he is being shadowed. In the mean time a former partner thinks the Chemical Company swindled him out of his invention of a poison gas...now he wants more than he was originally paid. This is a reason to threaten Mr. Fontanne, who drops dead in his office before a meeting with Chan. This script is too contrived and poorly acted. Winters just doesn't have the charisma to be a decent Charlie Chan. Other players: Birmingham Brown, Victor Sen Young, Virginia Dale, Howard Negley, Douglas Fowley and John Gallaudet.
MartinHafer
Fans of the Charlie Chan series may notice right away that Victor Sen Yung (#2 Son) is named 'Tommy' instead of 'Jimmy' as he'd been in many films before. Somehow, he was re-named Tommy late in the life of the franchise and no one seemed to notice or care. In many ways, this is a metaphor for the overall health of the series--no one seemed to particularly notice or care that the series was on cruise control, of sorts.Another thing fans will probably recognize is the overall lack of fun in this film. Since the death of Sidney Toler, the next films all seemed very dry--even with the support of Mantan Moreland. It really just seemed as if the writers didn't mind that the films lost a lot of the 'fun factor'.The plot of the film involves three men who agree to share a company. However, when they start to die off one by one, it is assumed that the surviving partner(s) are at fault. A rather routine story and so I'm not really going to discuss it further but it sure is obvious there's more to the killings. In the end, Charlie talks and talks to explain the convoluted plot, though because this is such a low-energy and adequate film, I think my review should be the same and I'll just stop here. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
