''Dead Men Tell'' is a 1941 American mystery film 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 ...
, who played Charlie Chan in 22 feature films, beginning with ''
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
''Charlie Chan in Honolulu'' is a 1939 American film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan. The film is the first appearance of both Toler as Chan and Victor Sen Yung as ...
'' (1938), and ending with ''
The Trap'' (1946). The first 11 Charlie Chan films were produced by 20th Century Fox Studios, thereafter sold to
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
.
The interiors for ''Dead Men Tell'' were filmed in 1941 at Fox Studios in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
. Exterior shots were filmed on the 20th Century Fox backlot, which is now
Century City
Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...
.
Plot
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 ...
is engaged by an heir to solve a mystery on a boat. Miss Nodbury seeks a pirate treasure on
Cocos Island
Cocos Island ( es, Isla del Coco) is an island in the Pacific Ocean administered by Costa Rica, approximately southwest of the Costa Rican mainland. It constitutes the 11th of the 13 districts of Puntarenas Canton of the Province of Puntarenas ...
, and her ship has recently hosted a museum of pirate lore. For safety, she has split her map into four pieces, which she gave to some of the passengers whom she has invited, but tells no one who they are. When she is given a fright and succumbs to her heart disease, Chan must clear up the mystery while the ship is still at the dock.
Cast
*
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 ...
as
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 ...
*
Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan
*
Sheila Ryan
Sheila Ryan (born Katherine Elizabeth McLaughlin, June 8, 1921 – November 4, 1975) was an American actress who appeared in more than 60 movies.
Career
Born in Topeka, Kansas, Ryan went to Hollywood in 1939 at the age of 18. Her acting career b ...
as Kate Ransome
* Robert Weldon as Steve Daniels
*
Don Douglas
Donald Douglas (born Douglas William Kinleyside, 24 August 1905 – 31 December 1945) was a Scottish actor in the United States who performed in films, on the stage and in radio.
Background
He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 24 August 1 ...
as Jed Thomasson
*
Katharine Aldridge as Laura Thursday
*
Paul McGrath as Charles Thursday / Mr. Parks
*
George Reeves
George Reeves (born George Keefer Brewer; January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying Superman in the television series '' Adventures of Superman'' (1952–1958).
His death at age 45 from a g ...
as Bill Lydig
*
Ethel Griffies
Ethel Griffies (born Ethel Woods; 26 April 1878 – 9 September 1975) was an English actress of stage, screen, and television. She is remembered for portraying the ornithologist Mrs. Bundy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic '' The Birds'' (1963). Sh ...
as Miss Patience Nodbury
*
Lenita Lane
Lenita Mary Lane (December 16, 1901 – March 15, 1995) was an American stage and film actress. She appeared in several Broadway plays before turning to movies. Her more than two dozen movie appearances include ''The Mad Magician'' (1954) ...
as Dr. Anne Bonney
*
Milton Parsons
Ernest Milton Parsons (May 19, 1904 – May 15, 1980) was an American character actor. He appeared in more than 160 films and television shows between 1939 and 1978.
In 1927, Parsons performed with The Strolling Players of Boston acting c ...
as Gene La Farge, patient of Dr. Bonney
References
External links
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1941 films
American black-and-white films
American crime drama films
American detective films
1941 crime drama films
Charlie Chan films
20th Century Fox films
Films directed by Harry Lachman
1941 mystery films
American mystery films
1940s English-language films
1940s American films
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