***SPOILERS*** Chinese/American P.I Charlie Chan, played by non Orientel Scandinavian Warner Oland, has his hands s full here getting shot and kidnapped by a gang of bookies as he uncovers a sinister plot to make a big and illegal score by them in switching horses in the up and coming rich Santa Juanita Handicap for three year old's and ups. It's the favorite in the race Avalanche who's been switch with another horse during an arson fire on the ship taking him from Honolulu to L.A for the big race. That's after the horses owner Major Kent, George Irving, was found dead in Avalanche's stall after he got Charlie Chan to investigate why his horse was made to get disqualified in his last race the Melbourne Cup in far off Australia.Charlie gets the help of his #1 bumbling son Lee, Keye Luke, in doing all the leg and dirty work for him in uncovering the plot for the bookies to make a major killing at the race track. Charlie himself escapes from his captors, the bookies, together with #1 son Lee to get to the Santa Juanita Park to re -witch the two horses. That while Lee disguised as a Chinese laundry boy distracts the security guards by exploding his laundry truck just before the big race started. Still determined to pull off their scheme in winning the race the bookies plan to stop the now real Avalanche from winning by shooting him with a blowgun just before he hits the finish line.***SPOILERS*** It's after the race that the truth comes out to who was responsible for all the crimes, including two murders, that lead up to it. Charlie in his unique way of explaining the facts behind the case was so boring and mechanical in explaining them that the person responsible just without as much as a whimper turned himself into the police. That in him knowing that life behind bars or even being executed was far better then being Chinese water tortured or talked to death by Charlie Chan.

The famed detective Charlie Chan(Warner Oland) is on board a steamer when a prominent horse breeder is found stomped to death and possibly by his own horse. When Chan investigates he discovers his friend may not have been killed by his horse after all, but actually a ring of ruthless gamblers. Number One Son Lee(Keye Luke)helps prove that the smallest clues lead to the biggest answers. Charlie and son will have to match wits with kidnapping gamblers. The races at Santa Anita make a busy backdrop for murder gone bad. H. Bruce Humberstone directs this caper that also features: Helen Wood, Paul Fix, Gloria Roy, Thomas Beck , George Irving and Robert Warwick.

I spend a lot of time working with old detective films because I believe them to have contributed to, indeed profoundly changed, how we manage narrative. Some detective films (and those that reference them) are clever or important, fossils that indicate how our imagination evolved. Others are some other agenda wrapped in the detective label. The Chan series started out, I think as a genuinely interesting detective. The idea here was that some "otherness" was in our designated observer on screen. The fellow who unraveled reality for us was something like us, but wiser in an inscrutable way.But the movies quickly became a lowbrow entertainment, which meant jokes at someone's expense. And because of the era, that means a main thread is jokes about race. Its inevitable, since the main device is racial: a white actor playing a superwise Chinese man. There are two secondary devices you will find in most Chan films:— the son (usually a son) is played by a real Chinese man, and lest we forget that the detective is an icon, this Chinese fellow is a buffoon. He sometimes gets things right, but never by intent.— the black man. Often this is the "driver." Here it is a stablehand. His job in the story is always the same, to indicate another fold in the reality of the characters. His demeaned demeanor is bug-eyed, retarded, subservient. He plays someone as iconic as Chan, but at the bottom of the stack, with the otherwise 100% white folks in the "real" story.Oh. The story? Adapted from the Sherlock Holmes tale "Silver Blaze." Swapped racehorses with a "gambling ring" thrown in. I'm curious. Where there ever famous gambling rings like this in real life, or are they just movieland confabulations?Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

An interesting film with much in its favor, especially the team of Oland and Luke. I particularly like the scenes aboard ship en route from Honolulu to the mainland. Keye Luke has many funny scenes. A fair portion of the beginning of the film involves the other characters before Chan gets involved in the mystery. This makes it seem more like one of the Earl Derr Bigger's novels. This film makes a good double feature with the Marx Brothers' film, "A Day At The Races".