Charlie Chan In Rio (1941)

The renowned Chinese detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) arrives from Honolulu to Rio De Janeiro in order to arrest a nightclub singer (Jacqueline Dalya) for murder. But before he and his Brazilian counterpart (Harold Huber) can make the arrest, she is found murdered. Based on the characters created by Earl Derr Biggers and directed by Harry Lachman. This is one of the more enjoyable entries in the Charlie Chan franchise. The film is generously laced with humor (most of it provided by Victor Sen Yung as Chan's son) and the mystery is sufficiently involving although if you put your mind to it, it's not that difficult to come up with the killer's identity. The psychic's (Victor Jory) use of coffee and cigarettes to induce a semi comatose state is pretty silly and far fetched but movies like these are not to be taken too literally. The suspects include Mary Beth Hughes, Richard Derr, Kay Linaker, Ted North, Truman Bradley, Hamilton MacFadden, Ann Codee and Cobina Wright Jr.