Charlie Chan in Reno
Directed byNorman Foster
Screenplay byFrances Hyland
Robert E. Kent
Albert Ray
Based on"Death Makes a Decree" by Philip Wylie
Produced byJohn Stone
StarringSidney Toler
CinematographyVirgil Miller
Edited byFred Allen
Music bySamuel Kaylin
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • June 16, 1939 (1939-06-16)
Running time
71 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Charlie Chan in Reno is a 1939 American mystery film directed by Norman Foster, starring Sidney Toler as the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan, based on an original story "Death Makes a Decree" by Philip Wylie.

Plot

Mary Whitman has arrived in Reno to obtain a divorce. While there, she is arrested on suspicion of murdering a fellow guest at her hotel (which specializes in divorcers).

There are many others at the hotel who wanted the victim out of the way. Charlie Chan travels from his home in Honolulu to Reno to solve the murder at the request of Mary's soon-to-be ex-husband. On arrival in Reno, Chan spars pleasantly with Sheriff Tombstone Fletcher, an old-timer who isn't up-to-date on modern police methods.

No. 2 Son Jimmy Chan's part in the case gets off to a rocky start. Driving to Reno to meet his father, he picks up some "friendly" hitch-hikers who steal his car, strip him to his underwear, and abandon him in the middle of nowhere. He is picked up for vagrancy, and his father first encounters him in a police lineup.

But Jimmy's friendship with a Chinese maid at the hotel later proves invaluable. Choy Wong had hidden a carpet burn in the murder room, fearing she would be discharged for carelessness. But it develops the burn is an unusual one caused by acid. Charlie exposes the murderer by revealing an acid burn on the arm that had been hidden by unfashionably long sleeves.

Chan also exposes the "respectable" Dr. Ainsley as a fortune hunter who had sought to poison one of his female patients for inheritance money.

Cast


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