Murder Over New York (1940)

On a flight to New York, Honolulu detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) runs into a Scotland Yard acquaintance (Frederick Worlock) who's hot on the trail of a sabotage ring. When the British detective turns up murdered during a dinner party, there's no shortage of suspects. Directed by Harry Lachman, this is a decent entry in the Chan franchise but it's definitely not one of the series' stronger entries. These Chan movies were programmers so their running time rarely exceeded 90 minutes and this one is a pleasantly brief hour and five minutes. The film is racially insensitive, not to the Chinese but when a group of Hindu suspects are rounded up, the police detective (Donald MacBride) in charge of the case snaps, "How many more of these Ali Babas are there?". Ouch! That aside, the only other (minor) problem I had was when Chan requested all the guests at the dinner party be present at an airport so he can reveal the murderer. Except that not all of the party guests are there and no explanation is given. With John Sutton, Robert Lowery, Victor Sen Yung, Melville Cooper, Marjorie Weaver and Clarence Muse.