***SPOILERS***A dead beat and not all that hot looking Warner Olan as Charlie Chan died some six months after the film, his last, "Charlie Chan in Monte Carlo" was released does his best to put some life into the movie that ends up with four of the characters in it dead by the time it's finally over. This has to do with Charlie getting involved in a complicated murder & blackmail scheme that you'll need a slide rule and calculator to figure out. Ther's also Charlie's bumbling #1 son Lee, Key Luke, in it trying to show that he's as good as his famous dad in solving crimes messing things up even more then they already are.This all has to do with some $25,000.00 of missing bonds from the safe of Victor Karnoff,Sidney Blackman, who's a part owner of the Monte Carlo Casino that his wife Joan, Kay Linaker, used to pay off her gambling debt. As things soon turned out that lead to some three murders that in fact had nothing to do with Joan's actions who used the bonds to really pay off a blackmailer who threatens to reveal her not being largely married to her husband Victor. There's also the gold digger Evelyn Fields, Virginia Fields, who's using with her blond bombshell charms and good looks to get a number of suiters to rip off over another $1,000,000.00 from Karnoff's safe to keep her living the high life that she thinks she so rightfully deserves.***SPOILERS***With the bodies piling up and time running out, before the movie audience falls completely asleep,Charlie gathers all the people, or murder suspects, together to exposes the killer among them who, no surprise at all, turned out to be one of the hot as a pistol Evelyn's rejected lovers! Not at all brothering to prove his innocence, how the heck could he, the killer makes a run for it,jumping out of a second floor window, and thus saves the state the trouble of trying him by getting himself run over and killed by a speeding automobile. This to the total shock of Victor Karnoff to whom he was not only a good friend but the person who testified for him in not having stolen the some one million dollars in untraceable bonds!

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and son Lee (Keye Luke)are in Monte Carlo for an art show but of course you know that somehow they are going to get mixed up in a murder or two. An oddity of this film is the extensive use of French without benefit of sub-titles.Victor Karnoff (Sidney Blackmer) and Paul Savarin (Edward Raquello) are rival financiers who are out to destroy each other. When Karnoff sends his courier to Paris with one million in metallurgy bonds, both the courier and Karnoff's chauffeur are murdered. After a harrowing ride with Louis Mercer and his taxi, Charlie and No. 1 son discover the crime and see Evelyn Grey's car driving away from the scene. Prefect of Police Joubert (Harold Huber, who could speak French fluently) leans on Charlie for his advice and assistance.We learn along the way that Evelyn although seemingly in love with Karnoff's secretary (Gordon Chase) she really is using the relationship to convey valuable information to Karnoff's rival Savarin. Meanwhile Karnoff's wife Joan is being blackmailed by sleazy bartender Al Rogers (George Lynn) over their previous relationship. Then Rogers is murdered and .............................................This film marked Warner Oland's final appearance as Chan. He had had a serious drinking problem that had become worse. His wife had divorced him in 1937 and he developed severe emotional problems. He walked off of the set of what was to be the next Chan feature and disappeared. He returned to his native Sweden where he appeared to have regained his health but developed pneumonia and died in early 1938.Although the series would continue with Sidney Toler as Chan, the Chans were never quite the same without Warner Oland.

Traveling from Monte Carlo to Nice, Charlie Chan and No.1 son Lee discover and abandoned car. Inside the car, they find the dead body of a bank messenger who was transporting $1 million in bonds belonging to a wealthy industrialist named Victor Karnoff. There is no shortage of suspects: Paul Savarin – Karnoff's business rival; Joan Karnoff – Victor's wife who was being blackmailed; Al Rogers – a shady bartender; Evelyn Gray – a woman living above her means; or Karnoff himself for the insurance money. It's up to Charlie Chan to discover the truth. Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo would be Warner Oland's last performance as the venerable detective. Unfortunately, it's one of the weakest Chan films Oland would make. It's not his fault – instead the blame can be placed on a weak script and a couple of other factors. Chan films notoriously cheat the viewer in that the solution to the mystery too often relies on facts not available to the audience. Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo is especially guilty of this. Key clues that help trap the killer are known only to Chan and the French Police Inspector. As for the other factors I mentioned, one of these would be Harold Huber. Huber, who appeared in two other Chan films, really lays it on thick here with his over-the-top acting and ridiculous French accent. It gets annoying rather quickly.Still, this is Charlie Chan I'm talking about so it's not all bad. In fact, even a weak Chan film is still an enjoyable experience. It's just a shame that Oland couldn't have gone out on a higher note.

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and Chief of Police Jules Joubert (Harold Huber) track down theft of metallurgic bonds and murder in Monaco. Huber has a great deal of time on screen and he plays his character with the comedy that mars his department. Supporting character actor Louise Mercier does a great job as a taxi driver whose conveyance gets the best of him and son Lee Chan's misuse of French gets him into trouble.Early theme in movie is repeated use of number `25.' Lee points out that their hotel room is 125, he is 25 years old, this is the 25th of August, this is the Chinese Year 9325 - and therefore the number 25 will be lucky at the roulette wheel. Chan point out that Lee had borrowed $25 the week before. Later we learn that the value of the missing bonds is $25,000, one of the suspects borrows an amount equal to $25,000, and heretofore there had not been a murder in Monaco for 25 years. Poor writing fails to capitalize on this theme and the storyline sounds better in movie reviews than as portrayed on the screen.Lots of misdirection and suspicion but in the end, Chan and the police trap (`Questions are keys to door of truth') the guilty party using knowledge that was known only to police and not the viewer. One clue might have been picked up on by an observant viewer, but the other part of the explanation at the end goes beyond what we could have known. When confronted, the guilty party makes a final error in revealing yet another fact known only to police and murderer (again not to viewer). Not one the best of the Chan series.This is the final appearance of Oland live in a produced film - he died the following year. In this movie, as Chan, he says: `Humble presence of no more importance than one drop of rain in cloudburst.' On the contrary - although the Chan series is not high art, this viewer thinks that we are better for Oland having played the role.