A tomb is opened in the Valley of Kings, an archaeologist dies quickly, another disappears, and artifacts from the tomb begin appearing mysteriously on the black market. Charlie Chan is called in to investigate the whole business by the French archaeological society. Everybody looks suspicious except the pretty young woman and Stepin Fetchit as "Snowshoes", who claims to be descended from Ameti, the recently disinterred King.Actually, what the French Archaeological Society has to do with anything is just as big a mystery. Egypt was in British hands at the time, and they shouldn't have been fiddling around with three-thousand year-old tombs either without the most careful supervision, which was never provided.I lost the thread of the narrative once or twice because my attention drifted and the plot is a little convoluted, but I enjoyed the mumbo jumbo and the fake ghosts and the violin with the deadly gas concealed in its belly, encased in thin glass designed to shatter when the instrument emits sound of a certain frequency.Stepin Fetchit wasn't very amusing. The stereotype wasn't bothersome. Mantan Moreland appeared in some of the later episodes and was often quite amusing. It's just that Fetchit has little to do and nothing funny to say. Rita Hayworth appears in a secondary role but you'd never recognize her if you didn't know who it was. Her hairline was far lower at the time. Not as bad as the wolfman's, but you know what I mean. It peaked down the middle of her brow and had yet to be electrolyzed or electrocuted or whatever it is that Hollywood does to permanently remove hair and restore its line to where they believe Nature intended it to be. I kind of like stories like this about ancient Egyptian tombs -- the narrow passageways, the confusion of multiple rooms, the profusion of hieroglyphics, the fake ghosts gleaming in the darkness, the underground streams. I wish they'd worn pith helmets.The pyramids had uncountable numbers of corridors and shafts going this way and that like a carnival maze. Some years ago, after the invention of fiber optic photography, an investigator ran a tube a few dozen yard up a dead-end shaft that was square and about a foot in diameter. Of course there was nothing IN the tiny shaft -- except a few dangling threads of an old spider web. No one has explained what the spider was seeking at that depth, or why the spider was stupid enough to look for anything at all in a dead-end three-thousand-year-old granite-lined shaft.

Some unbearable racial stereotyping colonialist style mars this already weak entry to the pulpy, but sometimes agreeable Charlie Chan canon.Throw all the Egyptian clichés you can come up with together with all the usual whodunit ingredients, add a predictable plot with bland love interests and a boring denouement, and you get this silly murder mystery. There are certainly many stronger early episodes preferable to this.Oland is as great as always.Not even good enough for rainy Sunday afternoons.3 out of 10 secret tombs

I can highly recommend this delightful entry in the Charlie Chan series for its good story, fine sets and photography and all around good atmosphere. Warner Oland was by far the best of the Chans and his performance is thoughtful, introspective and, simply, a joy.And I am not going to offer any sanctimonious (and very tiresome) criticisms of the role played by that wonderful comedian Stepin Fetchit, whose appearances in any film, very much including this one, were fun to watch. His skills and his ingratiating personality are always welcome in my home.Seek this one out on a late Friday night with a bowl of popcorn and just have a good time.

I enjoyed watching this. Had no idea that Rita Hayworth(!) was the young Egyptian girl(she was all of 17 at most there), thought the 'real killer' wasn't as believable as perhaps Red Herring #1-Ahmadi or Dr. Kenosha Racine, and like the rest here, had some real problems with Stepin Fetchit.Mantan Moreland, 'Feets Don't Fail Me Now', whether you like him or not, was at least funny and not so grating. Fetchit's just hard to take, listen to, watch. And that's a shame, you can tell the guy was a decent comic and physical comedian. Anyways, others have already beat this one to death here.I liked the donkey-riding scene, the Scooby Doo business inside the tomb is eerie, and there's some fine atmospheric setpieces here and there. Parts of the movie just don't hang together well w/ it-and you wonder(besides the obvious cheesecake shots) just why they spent so much time on the Hayworth character watching Chan and the Violin test. Seems like they cut some scenes out or just never got around to tying up the loose ends.It's still worth watching of course. Just be ready to wince whenever they bring in 'Snowshoes'.**1/2 outta ****