Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

darkcollins I really like Harold Huber, I really do. He was one of the best character actors of the 1930s until his passing in the 1950s. He was even really good and great in his previous Chan roles and also in the Mr. Moto films in supporting roles. But here...WOW. Director Herbert I. Leeds also previously helmed the Mr. Moto entry "Danger Island" the same year. The buddy relationship in that film with Peter Lorre and Warren Hymer worked there perfectly because the movie never lost focus that MOTO was the main character and the chemistry between Lorre and Hymer clicked beautifully. It seems like Leeds was attempting the same for Sidney Toler and Harold Huber but Huber's comedy is overbearing, really unfunny and completely out of place. Huber is basically the main character of the film and is given free rein to go wild while Toler is left to clean up the mess (bless you for being a trooper with this, Mr. Toler). And the absence of Victor Sen-Yung in favor of Huber's bumbling annoyance is another mark against this one. Another problem is that the murder victim isn't that interesting, nor are a good amount of the suspects who have their own sneaky self- interests to hide. Whenever the Chan films emphasized espionage rather than the basic murder mystery, the results were a largely mixed bag but here, it's a real slog to sit through. Not even Lon Chaney Jr's brief presence was enough to enjoy. The historical aspect of the rising European tensions on the eve of World War Two make this film interesting from that perspective but the potential to make the usual fun popcorn Chan movie went down the drain with Huber being pushed to the forefront. Avoid this one.

robertguttman Although not the best of the Charlie Chan series, this is a cut above the later Sidney Toler Chan films. However, what really makes it worth seeing is that the story takes place during the 1938 Munich Crisis (September 1938), yet was produced before WW-II began (September 1939). The setting is Paris, which is blacked out due to the threat of war, and while the French armed forces are busy mobilizing. The city-wide blackout explains the title, as "The City of Light" had been transformed into a "City in Darkness".There are plenty of lame gags involving the distribution of gas masks, and people panicking due to false air raid alarms. Within a few months of this film's production none of those things would be laughing matters anymore. In fact, although produced prior to the outbreak of WW-II, the movie was not actually released until December 1939, by which time the war had actually begun. In a sense, therefore, "City in Darkness" represents a significant moment in history that, one might say, has been preserved in a drop of amber. It was the moment when one world crisis was averted, leading to the preservation of world peace for a last few happy months before the final unleashing of Armageddon. For that alone, if for no other reason, "City in Darkness" is still worth a look.

binapiraeus Even after watching it a couple of times, this - admittedly unique - entry in the 'Charlie Chan' series still looks like a somewhat strange and a little bit inappropriate mixture of a 'usual' murder mystery and an early WWII flag waver. It starts like a Newsreel about the dramatical political developments in Europe; and it is announced that on September 28, the whole city of Paris has to remain in darkness because of the possibility of a German air strike.The next thing we see is a reunion party of secret agents from WWI, to which M. Romaine, the Prefect of Police, has invited his old friend Charlie Chan; and they drink a toast to peace, hoping there'll not be another war soon...But at the same time, there is a spy ring of an enemy country in full activity: Charlotte Ronnell arranges with sinister Belescu that a cargo full of French weapons manufactured by another enemy spy, Petroff, will sail out the same night to get into the enemy's hands before an embargo will be imposed; but Belescu tricks them, and they're left without the necessary papers. And in another part of Paris, Petroff's innocent former secretary Tony Madero wants to flee the country in order not to be accused as a member of the spy ring, and his wife Marie promises him to get him a ticket and a false passport from shady M. Santelle - but she's got to raise a lot of money, and her only hope is Petroff...... And a few hours later, Petroff is found shot, discovered by his butler Antoine, a veteran from WWI who has just sent his young son to the army; and so, while the soldiers are leaving for a possible war, Charlie and his friend's godson, dopey inspector Marcel (played once more by Harold Huber, who specialized in playing nervous, clumsy Frenchmen) investigate the Petroff murder, looking for clues like a camellia lying next to the body, a smashed window in the cellar, and so on...Somehow, this mixture doesn't work properly - solving a murder case (even if it's connected to a dangerous spy ring) amid the atmosphere of a city preparing for war is simply somehow like losing one's sense of proportion... And when the case is solved, the film takes us back to politics: Romaine proclaims happily that there will be NO war, because Hitler has just invited the French and British Premiers to a conference in Munich! BUT since the film was released in December 1939, the further developments were already known by that time; and so Charlie Chan can utter one of his wise 'foretellings': 'Beware of spider who invites fly into parlor'...

xnet95 This is without a doubt the worst Charlie Chan movie I have ever seen. Harold Huber as Inspector Spivak was horribly annoying. He had about ten times the amount of lines that Sydney Toler had, which is why I say this is barely a Chan film. It's bad enough the producers felt that this film needed comic relief, but to have that comic relief be so dominant is a travesty. Aside from Huber's grating performance, the rest of the movie kind of plods along, filling time until Huber comes back to dominate. YUCK! It was nice to see that the review from Variety (Nov. 22, 1939) didn't like this movie. The following is a quote from that review: "Direction is inadequate, further hampered by poor story material. Attempts to provide Huber with comedy as a jittery police novice are ineffectual. The audience is never presented with sufficient interest in the murder or culprit, and the mystery just unwinds without much attention." The fact that so many people on IMDb gave this a 9 or a 10 rating sickens me. Watching this movie was a complete disappointment.