Inspired with 1930s series of detective Mr.Wong movies, I decided to check out something even older, the movie character that was actually even more famous than Mr.Wong, namely detective Charlie Chan who had his own following and even more movies made about. Both were Asian detectives (Charlie Chan from Honolulu) and were representatives of curious trend where ethnic minorities slowly found their way into mainstream cinema without being servants or such. Since I knew next to nothing about Charlie Chan, I was curious what was all the fuss about.
Well, its an old movie.
There are other, even older movies like "Nosferatu" or "Metropolis" that are still hugely enjoyable and deservedly considered masterpieces but "The Black Camel" rusted all over. Even the fact that its mostly filmed (completely unnecessary) on exotic Honolulu locations means only that we hear more wind than elsewhere. What was probably cute and funny back than (Charlie Chan's quasi philosophy and his accented English phrases) today comes off just as silly. If producers wanted to give his character some dignity, it all goes wrong with insufferable supporting character of his feeble minded assistant. The plot goes all over the place with way too many people involved, to such degree that we hardly remember who is who. The only interesting thing is fact that Hollywood back than constantly used very much same team of people so in this otherwise not very memorable movie we recognise two actors from "Dracula" namely wonderful Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye - Lugosi with his frightening eyes and foreign accent is obviously trapped in a typecast hell and for the first time you almost feel sorry for him as a human being destined to play freaks. Frye is equally fascinating as a butler, he basically walks trough two scenes and has more presence than anybody around. These two are the main reason why you should watch this movie.
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