Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
1h 3m | PG-13
A wax museum run by a demented doctor contains statues of such crime figures as Jack the Ripper and Bluebeard. In addition to making wax statues the doctor performs plastic surgery. It is here that an arch fiend takes refuge.
Director: Lynn Shores
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Video: 720p
Cast
Sidney Toler
as Charlie Chan
Victor Sen Yung
as Jimmy Chan (as Sen Yung)
C. Henry Gordon
as Dr. Cream
Marc Lawrence
as Steve McBirney
Eddie Marr
as Henchman Grenock
Charles Wagenheim
as Willie Fern, museum watchman
Reviews
C. Henry Gordon is a bit like Leo Genn, or Sir Cedric Hardwicke - you always recognise his voice long before you see his face. In this jolly mystery for "Chan" (Sidney Toler) and "Jimmy" (Victor Sen Yung), they find themselves in a macabre wax museum run by our aforementioned thespian - here playing the bonkers plastic surgeon ("Dr. Cream"). They are on the trail of a murderer who has absconded from justice and hopes to avail himself of the services of our good doctor to change his appearance and then to seek revenge on the sleuth who helped get him convicted in the first place. It all culminates in a radio show that serves as a criminologist's wet dream - and the journey to this entertaining denouement is a sort of hybrid between the "Mummy" and "What's My Line". Again, I feel a little bit sorry for poor old Jimmy, who can never do right for doing wrong - and who is always on the wrong end of honourable father's acerbic tongue, but that just goes with the territory I guess.