Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

binapiraeus Coincidentially, Charlie Chan meets an old colleague and friend of his, Inspector Drake from Scotland Yard, aboard the plane that takes him to New York for the annual police convention; and Drake reveals to him that he's now in the secret service, and he's been chasing dangerous saboteur Narvo literally all over the world - and he suspects him to have been involved in the crash of a new test plane only a few days ago. And the same night, Drake is murdered at a dinner party given by plane constructor Kirby, poisoned in his library by a newly invented gas (Jimmy, who's once more followed his dad, this time using the World Fair as an excuse, can identify it easily, being a chemistry student) that kills instantly and is usually put into small glass balls that smash easily... So, Charlie deduces that this was also the way the plane was made to crash - and immediately takes over his friend's case, investigating all the more or less suspicious characters who were present at Kirby's dinner party...Once again, Charlie proves a lot cleverer than even 'New York's Finest' (Donald MacBride as the slow-witted Inspector Vance used to specialize in this kind of roles anyway), and as always his psychological tricks work excellently - there's just nothing but oriental finesse to catch a cunning criminal! The whole cast is superb, the case is very intriguing, and of course the jokes aren't missing either (as usual at the expense of poor Jimmy...) - great 40s' murder and spy entertainment which really transfers us back into time!

bkoganbing This Charlie Chan mystery is a misnomer. There is no Murder Over New York, but not for lack of trying. And the attempt is made at the climax of the film so that Sidney Toler can get the murderer of three people to give himself away.Toler and number two son Victor Sen Yung are in New York for a police convention and Toler runs into a former Scotland Yard colleague Frederic Worlock who is on the trail of an international spy. Later on Worlock is found dead. Two other murders are committed.Note the presence of a lot of Hollywood's British colony here. Some are suspects, some are not. A whole lot of the cast has played villains in other films so that affords you no clue. The ultimate mastermind is someone who has played some incredibly slimy bad guys on screen.Quite a curve gets tossed us toward the end as all the suspects are put in a plane and are meant to be killed. Of course they're not as Charlie Chan gets his man.One of the best of the Sidney Toler Chan films.

jbacks3 I love the Chan series but it takes an element of disbelief. You have to either accept (or ignore) the fact that Charlie never seems to spend much time in Hawaii (making one wonder what the Honolulu PD actually pays him to do) and much like Philo Vance or Nick Charles, has some sort-of official status everywhere he goes. And if you watch enough of these, you begin to see the same Fox contract players popping up over and over again as red herrings, jilted lovers and "adventuresses." This '40 entry has Charlie coincidentally meeting up with an old friend (bad omen--- his friends have a shorter life expectancy than the doomed red shirted yeomen beamed down in Star Trek episodes) Scotland Yard on a plane en route to a police convention. Charlie enlists himself in solving his friend's murder and by default, the case he was working on. No. 2 son Jimmy Chan (played by 25-year old Victor Sen Yung) seems to exist to state obvious inane comments or offer wildly improbable facts--- most notably identifying a new poison gas by smell (he must be a whizz undergrad back in California). Watch for Shemp Howard as a phony Hindu in a line up and future Captain Marvel Frank Coghlan Jr. in a bit part as a coat room clerk in a men's club. This is a fair entry but suffers somewhat from the lack of an exotic setting (Paris, Berlin... Reno!) or the occasional supernatural elements found in several of the others (...Egypt, ...Secret, Castle in the Desert). It's one of the most straight forward whodunits of the entire Fox films.

Michael O'Keefe It appears the formula for Charlie Chan mysteries is wearing itself thin. Even this movie's title could have been better or more descriptive. The Honolulu detective Chan(Sidney Toler)is in New York for a police convention when a Scotland Yard inspector friend of his falls victim of toxic gas poisoning. The gas is relatively new and is also being used by saboteurs plaguing an airline. Number Two Son Jimmy(Sen Yung)offers aid to the investigation, but you know how that is going to work out. The plot seems to lack urgency and just isn't one of the better films in the Charlie Chan series. The supporting cast features: Marjorie Weaver, Robert Cortez, Melville Cooper, Donald MacBride and Joan Valerie.