PLAZA THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 205, 2 September 1935, Page 12

PLAZA THEATRE

I "CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT.” Tlie latest of the long series of pictures in which Warner Oland has played the part, of Charlie (’han. the imperturable Chinese detective, created originally by Earl Derr Biggers, is “Charlie Chan in Egypt.” which is being screened at the I’l aza Theatre. Those who have seen any of the previous Charlie Chan pictures will find him as shrewd and as philosophic in Egypt a« he was in Paris, moving “in niys terious ways, his wonders to perform,'' while those who have read any of Earl Derr Biggers’ books will find in Warner Oland the living realisation of the mental picture they had formed of the stout little Chinaman who rounds off a piece of brilliant deductive reasoning with a quotation from Confucius. Bis latest feat of detection is the solving of a complicated murder mystery in the Valley of Kings. Commissioned by an European museum to find out how relics from the 300-year-old tomb of an Egyptian priest, recently discovered by an archaeologist working for the museum, are coming into the hands of private collectors, Charlie Chan discovers that the archaeologist has been murdered and his body hidden in the mummy case of the ancient priest whose tomb he was despoiling. A second murder, of which the dead ex-

Icayator’s son is the victim, and at i tempts on the lives of his daughter and her fiancee, the dead man’s assistant in the excavations, provide Charlie Chari: with the clues he requires to sheet the responsibility home, though few in the i audience will bo able to anticipate his ! dramatic exposure of the murderer. A 1 leavening of humour is provided by Stepin Fetehit, as a negro servant, while I’at Paterson handles her role as heroine with skill. An excellent coined v, in which vocal and lap dancing numbers are judiciously tilted into a rapid run of slapstick burlesque, a i ‘‘Scrappy’’ cartoon and newsreels 1 complete the programme.