Английская Википедия:Castle in the Desert
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:More citations needed Шаблон:Infobox film Castle in the Desert is a 1942 film featuring the Chinese detective Charlie Chan. It was the eleventh film to feature Sidney Toler as the title character, and the last made by 20th Century Fox. The series continued with Toler, though under much reduced circumstances, at Monogram Pictures.
Plot
Mrs. Manderley, an eccentric descendant of the Borgias, lives in a castle in the middle of the Mojave Desert with her husband Paul Manderley, a reclusive scholarly millionaire. Someone is killed after being poisoned. Paul tries to cover up the murder in which Charlie Chan investigates. In addition to Paul Manderley and his wife (who may be insane and not responsible for her actions) other suspects include:
- Walter Hartford, Paul's lawyer who wants to maintain his influence over the Manderley estate
- Madame Saturnia, a local astrologer who takes great pride in the fact that her predictions about the growing number of murder victims are always right
- Watson King, a sculptor who warns Chan to mind his own business and has a connection to the Manderleys
The clues include:
- the poison used which was stolen from a laboratory
- a forged letter sent to Charlie Chan summoning him to the Manderley Castle
- the poisoned cocktail
- a medieval crossbow
Aiding and hindering Chan's investigation is his Number Two son Jimmy, who is on leave with the U.S. Army, and decides to get involved to help his father solve the case, much to the senior Chan's annoyance.
Chan decides that there are two DIFFERENT conspiracies afoot----one involving two faked deaths to convince Mr. Manderley to institutionalize his wife and "leave in sorrow"---giving crooked attorney Walter Hartford control of the estate.
But when Hartford is murdered himself, Chan connects it to an attempt to poison Paul Manderley with "deadly nightshade". The original plotters needed him alive to sign the commitment papers, so Chan reasons it could not have been them. Chan decides that Mrs. Manderley's step-brother, thought deceased, has returned to the house in another identity---and unmasks and arrests him.
One problem remains---Jimmy has worn a suit of armor for protection. After being pushed down a long flight of stairs by the killer, he is trapped inside the badly bent suit.
The location is loosely based on Scotty's Castle, a Spanish Revival style villa built by a Chicago millionaire as a vacation home in Death Valley.
The name "Manderley" is likely an "inside joke" referring to Alfred Hitchcock's classic film REBECCA(1940)
Cast
- Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
- Arleen Whelan as Brenda Hartford
- Richard Derr as Carl Detheridge
- Douglass Dumbrille as Paul Manderley
- Henry Daniell as Watson King
- Edmund MacDonald as Walter Hartford
- Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan
- Lenita Lane as Lucrezia "Lucy" Manderley
- Ethel Griffies as Lily, Mme. Saturnia
- Steven Geray as Dr. Retling
- Lucien Littlefield as Professor Gleason
- Milton Parsons as Arthur Fletcher, Private Investigator
- George Chandler as Station Wagon Driver (uncredited)
- Oliver Blake as Hotel Owner (uncredited)
External links
Шаблон:Charlie Chan Шаблон:Harry Lachman
- Английская Википедия
- 1942 films
- American black-and-white films
- Charlie Chan films
- 20th Century Fox films
- Films directed by Harry Lachman
- 1942 mystery films
- American mystery films
- Films set in deserts
- 1940s English-language films
- 1940s American films
- Страницы, где используется шаблон "Навигационная таблица/Телепорт"
- Страницы с телепортом
- Википедия
- Статья из Википедии
- Статья из Английской Википедии
