After almost four dozen films, this was the final installment in the Charlie Chan series from Twentieth Century Fox and Monogram Pictures. Like the final six, this one starred Roland Winters as the detective...and his version of Chan was far weaker than the one played by Warner Oland as well as Sidney Toler. The story begins on an airliner. Chan and #1 son, Lee (Keye Luke), are aboard and things seem pretty normal. After all, Charlie had just finished a case and they're heading home. However, something evil is afoot....and Lee realizes it when he awakens to find everyone either asleep or dead! One of the pilots was stabbed and someone obviously knocked everyone else out by lacing the drinks with something....and a fortune in money being transported in the plane is gone!Like all the later Charlie Chan films, this one is weak...but still watchable. Roland Winters simply isn't as fun as Sidney Toler and the solution to all this was telegraphed. When baddies all 'accidentally' get shot and killed by the same person, it doesn't take Charlie Chan to figure out they are evil! Fair...at best.

Also known as MURDER IN THE AIR, this is the sixth Chan film starring Roland Winters. To be exact, this is the last in the Charlie Chan franchise that began at Fox Films about 19 years earlier with Warner Oland playing the American-Chinese detective from Honolulu. The series pretty much began declining in substance and popularity when Winters took over for Sidney Toler as Chan in 1947. This film has Charlie on board a flight to San Francisco with #1 son Lee(Keye Luke)and his bug eyed chauffeur Birmingham Brown(Mantan Moreland). Before arriving at their destination passengers and pilots are drugged and upon waking up an insurance courier is found dead and the quarter-million-dollars he was carrying is missing. Winters is lackluster in performing his duties as the honorable detective. Moreland provides some rib splitting comic relief as usual and Luke gets to fly the plane to the closing credits. (Did they not plan this to be the end of the series? You would figure the lead character would close out the string of murder mysteries). Also in the cast: Milburn Stone, Noel Neill, Tim Ryan and Lyle Talbot. Ah so, Charlie Chan.

This film, along with The Shanghai Chest, is my favorite of the Roland Winters films. Here, Charlie is on board a late night flight home to San Francisco. He awakens to find that everyone on the plane has been drugged, $250,000 has disappeared, and a detective hired to guard the money has been murdered.There are a couple of subplots that at first seem to be distractions, but ultimately tie in to the murder case. The cast is filled with familiar faces, including Iris Adrian, Elena Verdugo, Lyle Talbot, Milburn Stone, and John Eldredge. The skill of these character actors adds immeasurably to the film. There is a little less comedy in this one and that is fine by me. And the presence of number one son Lee (Keye Luke) is always welcomed.There is no denying that these Monograms lack the technical expertise of the earlier Fox films. But if one accepts them for what they are, low budget B mysteries, you will enjoy the 65 minutes.

Spoilers herein.Yes, this stuff is racist, and poorly produced to boot. But originally, the idea was to annotate the game of detection - that strategic movement between writer and reader - with Chinese sayings. Those were really pretty apt, both so far as the mystery and the denoting of wisdom. In the hands of a good writer, it was innovative and useful. In the hands of a hack, its Saturday morning skit quality.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.