At-A-Glance Film Reviews: The Chinese Ring (1947)

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One of the most muddled and incomprehensible Charlie Chan mysteries, The Chinese Ring had me aching for the Warner Oland days, when the series had a budget and writers and actors and things. This film rehashes elements from those better films, extracts whatever made them work in the first place, and slaps the result up on the screen. Consider the initial murder, for example. The murdered woman is obviously killed by a mysterious unseen person out the window, but before she dies she obviously manages to write part of a name on a piece of paper: "Captain K." Gee, I wonder what the chances are that this film's tiny cast of characters will include more than one Captain K? Never mind -- the point is that every little detail in what I have just described, plus so many more I've left out as an act of mercy, has been done before. Not quite so incompetently, perhaps, but before, before, and before.

I just have no idea what these characters are doing here as they roam around from place to place finding what they call clues and penetrating what they call disguises and foiling what they call plots. None of it makes a lick of sense.

Other Versions

Mr. Wong In Chinatown (1939)

Series Entries

Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
The Black Camel (1931)
Charlie Chan's Chance (1932)
Charlie Chan's Greatest Case (1933)
Charlie Chan's Courage (1934)
Charlie Chan In London (1934)
Charlie Chan In Paris (1935)
Charlie Chan In Egypt (1935)
Charlie Chan In Shanghai (1935)
Charlie Chan's Secret (1936)
Charlie Chan At the Circus (1936)
Charlie Chan At the Race Track (1936)
Charlie Chan At the Opera (1937)
Charlie Chan At the Olympics (1937)
Charlie Chan On Broadway (1937)
Charlie Chan At Monte Carlo (1937)
Charlie Chan In Honolulu (1939)
Charlie Chan In Reno (1939)
Charlie Chan At Treasure Island (1939)
City In Darkness (1939) (aka: "Charlie Chan In City In Darkness")
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise (1940)
Charlie Chan At the Wax Museum (1940)
Charlie Chan In Panama (1940)
Murder Over New York (1940)
Charlie Chan In Rio (1941)
Dead Men Tell (1941)
Castle In the Desert (1942)
Charlie Chan In the Secret Service (1944)
The Chinese Cat (1944) (aka: "Charlie Chan In the Chinese Cat")
Charlie Chan In Black Magic (1944) (aka: "Meeting At Midnight")
The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
The Scarlet Clue (1945)
The Jade Mask (1945)
The Red Dragon (1946) (aka: "Charlie Chan and the Red Dragon")
Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
Dangerous Money (1946) (aka: "Charlie Chan In Dangerous Money")
Dark Alibi (1946)
The Trap (1947) (aka: "Charlie Chan In the Trap")
The Chinese Ring (1947)
Docks of New Orleans (1948) (aka: "Charlie Chan On the Docks of New Orleans")
Shanghai Chest (1948)
The Golden Eye (1948) (aka: "Charlie Chan and the Golden Eye")
The Feathered Serpent (1948) (aka: "Charlie Chan and the Feathered Serpent")
The Sky Dragon (1949) (aka: "Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon")

Related Films

The House Without a Key (1925)
The Chinese Parrot (1927)
Behind That Curtain (1929)
The Return of Charlie Chan (1979) (aka: "Happiness Is a Warm Clue")
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)

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