Moviecut—The Sky Dragon

source: The Sky Dragon

The Sky Dragon

As an avid collector of all Charlie Chan films except for the Fox Four, I have avoided getting Roland Winters 6 films but finally purchased the Sky Dragon. It will end there. There is no magic at all it is a stilted film with no imagination and a story line to match

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.

The Charlie Chan series at Monogram comes to an end with this picture. The plot sees Charlie (Roland Winters) and "Number One Son" Lee (Keye Luke) on an airplane where all the passengers are drugged. While they're out, a man is murdered and a quarter-million dollars stolen. Also appearing in this one is bug-eyed comic sidekick Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). The rest of the cast includes Milburn Stone (Doc from Gunsmoke), Noel Neill (Lois Lane from Adventures of Superman), and Lyle Talbot (movie star extraordinaire). Winters is weak as usual but the plot is surprisingly fresh for Monogram. Keye Luke is fun and the supporting cast is decent. It's ironic that the Winters series ended after its two strongest films. But it was a case of too little too late, I think.

The last Chan film made by Monogram and Roland Winters is a sad final bow for the great detective and great film series. The supporting cast is good for a Monogram picture. The best thing about it is that Keye Luke is back as Lee Chan. Great title. Poor picture! Sorry Charlie!

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.