I'd be the first to admit that "Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum" offers a remarkable strain of noir atmospherics. It's real hard to beat a spooky wax museum for a murder mystery setting. Unfortunately, while the movie is certainly long on weird effects, and is most competently directed by the mysterious Lynn Shores (just try to find out something about the man and see how far you get!) it falls somewhat short of an action climax. The mystery itself is not all that attention-grabbing either. One reason is that too much attention is paid to people (like delightfully dotty Charles Wagenheim and the attractively sleek Joan Valerie), who are obviously not the disguised killer. (I was going to award this splendid Fox DVD only 8/10 due to a quickly repaired image break-up during an unimportant Sen Yung sequence, but let's give it 9/10 because what we have here is the complete Australian version of the movie, not the USA theatrical or TV prints, both of which were censored by 2 or 3 minutes).

A convicted murderer (Marc Lawrence) escapes and vows revenge on Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler). He receives help from an unscrupulous doctor who lures Charlie to his wax museum for a radio show on criminal cases. I realize that sentence doesn't make a lot of sense but trust me it works out okay. "Number Two Son" Jimmy (Victor Sen Yung) is especially high-strung in this one. Chan series vet C. Henry Gordon plays humorously-named villain Dr. Cream. Joan Valerie and Marguerite Chapman provide the pretty. Spooky wax museum backdrop is a plus. This one's got lots of suspects and atmosphere to spare. There are also quite a few implausibilities so be prepared to suspend disbelief more than usual. Still, it's good fun.

The Wax Museum is a classic murder mystery setting, so it's no surprise that Charlie Chan eventually ended up in one. The ominous lighting on the faces provides high-quality atmospherics, but the acting gets in the way in this one. Son Jimmy 'sneaks' around the Wax Museum - opening doors wide, and somehow not being seen or heard by the people within plain sight, and within spitting distance. While B movies always require that we stretch our suspension of disbelief, Jimmy folds, spindles and mutilates our credulity to the point of breaking. While the sons were a popular part of the Chan series, I find that all to often, any camera time given to the sons just subtracts from our Charlie time, with negative consequences. The live radio show setting is another classic - think Poirot. I can't help but think that with more time and money, this could have been a much better movie in the Chan series. As it is, I put it in the bottom 20% of Chan episodes.

Of all the Chans that I know, this is both the best and the most interesting.The setting is really cool. Its a wax museum where contemporary crimes are displayed, using personalities that are alive and are among the statues of themselves. It is also a plastic surgery where crooks get their faces changed. And thirdly it is the site of a broadcast radio show where unsolved crimes are re-enacted on-air.It sounds complicated, and it is. But it is all done very matter of factly, so that these three very clever notions overlap and sometimes merge. Regular readers of my comments know that I love this sort of stuff, stuff I call "folding." Folding is stuff that plays with the notions of representation, and the fun is in how the movieness can play with itself, presenting to us and at the same time noodling with what it means to present. Detecting in folds has always been a way of discovering narrative. Charlie Chan mysteries aren't the most cerebral of things along these lines. And the actual mystery here is impossible for the audience to anticipate. Its just revealed. But in just the form of the thing, its great fun. It even has a chess-playing machine, a pretty savvy reference to a fourth fold. (One of the earliest Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.