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Castle in the Desert

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Director
  
Harry Lachman

Duration
  

Prequel
  
Charlie Chan in Rio

Country
  
United States

7.8/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Comedy, Crime, Mystery

Running time
  
1h 2m

Language
  
English


Writer
  
Earl Derr Biggers
,
John Larkin

Release date
  
February 27, 1942

Sequel
  
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

Cast
  
Sidney Toler
(Charlie Chan),
Arleen Whelan
(Brenda Hartford),
Richard Derr
(Carl Detheridge),
Douglass Dumbrille
(Paul Manderley),
Henry Daniell
(Watson King),
Edmund MacDonald
(Walter Hartford)

Similar movies
  
The Maltese Falcon
,
Murder by Death
,
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
,
The Big Sleep
,
8MM
,
The Two Faces of January

Castle in the Desert is a 1942 film featuring the Asian detective Charlie Chan. It was the eleventh film to feature Sidney Toler as the title character, and the last made by 20th Century Fox. The series continued with Toler, though under much reduced circumstances, at Monogram Pictures.

Contents

Plot

Mrs. Manderley, an eccentric descendant of the Borgias lives in a castle in the middle of the Mojave Desert with her husband Paul Manderley, a reclusive scholary millionaire. Someone is killed after being poisoned. Paul tries to cover up the murder in which Charlie Chan investigates. In addition to Paul Manderley and his wife (who may be insane and not responsible for her actions) other suspects include:

Castle in the Desert movie scenes

  • Walter Hartford, Paul's lawyer who wants to maintain his influence over the Manderley estate
  • Madame Saturnia, a local astrologer who takes great pride in the fact that her predictions about the growing number of murder victims are always right
  • Watson King, a sculptor who warns Chan to mind his own business and has a connection to the Manderleys

    • Castle in the Desert movie scenes

    The clues include:

  • the poison used which was stolen from a laboratory
  • a forged letter sent to Charlie Chan summoning him to the Manderley Castle
  • the poisoned cocktail
  • a medieval crossbow

    • Aiding and hindering Chan's investigation is his Number Two son Jimmy, who is on leave with the U.S. Army, and decides to get involved to help his father solve the case, much to the senior Chan's annoyance.

    The location is loosely based on Scotty's Castle, a Spanish Revival style villa built by a Chicago millionaire as a vacation home in Death Valley.

    Cast

  • Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
  • Arleen Whelan as Brenda Hartford
  • Richard Derr as Carl Detheridge
  • Douglass Dumbrille as Paul Manderley
  • Henry Daniell as Watson King
  • Edmund MacDonald as Walter Hartford
  • Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan
  • Lenita Lane as Lucrezia "Lucy" Manderley
  • Ethel Griffies as Lily, Mme. Saturnia
  • Steven Geray as Dr. Retling
  • Lucien Littlefield as Professor Gleason
  • Milton Parsons as Arthur Fletcher, Private Investigator

    • References

    Castle in the Desert Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA

    Castle in the Desert IMDb Castle in the Desert themoviedb.org


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