''City in Darkness'', also known as ''Charlie Chan in City in Darkness'' is a 1939 American drama film directed by

Herbert I. Leeds Herbert I. Leeds (September 13, 1900 – May 15, 1954) was an American film director. Biography Herbert Irving Levy was born on September 13, 1900, to Abraham T. Levy and had a sister, Marjorie Levy Rudman. He married Evelyn C. and had Lydia as t ...

and starring

Sidney Toler Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second European-American actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his p ...

Lynn Bari Lynn Bari (born Marjorie Schuyler Fisher, December 18, 1919 – November 20, 1989) was a film actress who specialized in playing sultry, statuesque man-killers in roughly 150 films for 20th Century Fox, from the early 1930s through the 1940s. ...

, and Richard Clark. It is one of the films in the

Charlie Chan Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alter ...

film series, the fourth starring Toler, and was released on December 1, 1939.

Plot

Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is visiting Paris during the Czech annexation crisis in September 1938, but is having trouble finding a way to return to the United States, since there are transportation disruptions due to the threat of the impending war and the

Munich Crisis The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...

. While visiting the office of the Chief of Police Romaine (C. Henry Gordon), who is away on business, word is received that Petroff (Douglass Dumbrille), a well-known millionaire, has been murdered. Romaine's bumbling godson, Police Inspector Marcel Spivak (Harold Huber) has been left in charge during the chief's absence, and is terrified of handling such a high profile murder investigation. He asks for Chan's assistance, which is agreed to. Spivak suspects his butler, Antoine (Pedro de Cordoba), but spy Charlotte Ronnell (Dorothy Tree) is spotted fleeing the residence. Due to a chance encounter earlier, Chan realizes that local woman Marie Dubon (Lynn Bari) is involved, and the two detectives head to her hotel. Charlie learns that Dubon was helping her husband, Tony Madero (Richard Clarke), clear his name after Petroff accused him of smuggling. Following a clue in Dubon's room, Chan interrogates counterfeiter Louis Santelle (Leo G. Carroll). Returning to the Petroff household, Chan and Spivak track down burglars Lola (Barbara Leonard), Max (Louis Mercier), and Alex (George Davis) (who had broken into Petroff's house just before the murder) before interrogating Petroff's business partner, Belescu (Noel Madison). After nearly being killed by Santelle, Charlie realizes that three clues are the key to the case: A dropped franc coin, a wooden leg, and a telephone left off the hook. After Belescu is shot, Chan and Spivak chase Ronnell to Le Bourget Airport. But her plane crashes during takeoff and she dies. Chan returns to police headquarters, and reveals that Antoine (a French patriot) killed Petroff after returning home early and discovering that Petroff was selling arms to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Prefect Romaine says Antoine will likely stand trial for murder, but is likely to receive the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

instead of the

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...

Cast

as Charlie Chan *

as Marie Dubon *Richard Clark as Tony Madero *

Harold Huber Harold Huber (born Harold Joseph Huberman, December 5, 1909September 29, 1959) was an American actor who appeared on film, radio and television. Early life Huber was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia, who had arrived in ...

as Marcel * Pedro de Cordoba as Antoine *

Dorothy Tree Dorothy Tree (born Dorothy Estelle Triebitz, May 21, 1906 – February 13, 1992) was an American actress, voice teacher and writer. She appeared in a wide range of character roles in at least 49 films between 1927 and 1951. Her roles includ ...

as Charlotte Ronnell *

C. Henry Gordon C. Henry Gordon (born Henry Racke; June 17, 1883 – December 3, 1940) was an American stage and film actor. Gordon was born in New York City, New York. He was educated both in New York and abroad in Switzerland and Germany. For some years ...

as Prefect of police *

Douglass Dumbrille Douglass Rupert Dumbrille (October 13, 1889 – April 2, 1974) was a Canadian actor who appeared regularly in films from the early 1930s. Life and career Douglass Dumbrille ( ) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. As a young man, he was employed ...

as Petroff *

Noel Madison Noel Madison (born Noel Nathaniel Moscovitch; April 30, 1897 – January 6, 1975) was an American character actor in the 1930s and 1940s and appeared in 75 films, often as a gangster. Born in New York City, Madison was the son of actor Ma ...

as Belescu *

Leo G. Carroll Leo Gratten Carroll (25 October 1886 – 16 October 1972) was an English actor. In a career of more than forty years, he appeared in six Hitchcock films including ''Spellbound'', '' Strangers on a Train'' and ''North by Northwest'' and in thre ...

as Louis Santelle * George Davis as Alex *

Louis Mercier Reverend Lewis Page Mercier (9 January 1820 – 2 November 1875) is known today as the translator, along with Eleanor Elizabeth King, of three of the best-known novels of Jules Verne: ''Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas'', ''From the Earth to ...

as Max * Barbara Leonard as Lola *

Lon Chaney, Jr. Creighton Tull Chaney (February10, 1906 – July12, 1973), known by his stage name Lon Chaney Jr., was an American actor known for playing Larry Talbot in the film '' The Wolf Man'' (1941) and its various crossovers, Count Alucard (Dra ...

as Pierre

Reception

Harrison's Reports ''Harrison's Reports'' was a New York City-based motion picture trade journal published weekly from 1919 to 1962. The typical issue was four letter-size pages sent to subscribers under a second-class mail permit. Its founder, editor and publisher ...

'' did not give the film a good review. They were critical of the plot, and a script which they found suffered "from an over-abundance of dialogue". They were highly critical of the role of Marcel, as well as Huber's performance.

External links

References

{{Reflist American black-and-white films 1939 drama films 1939 films Films directed by Herbert I. Leeds 20th Century Fox films American drama films Films scored by Samuel Kaylin 1930s American films