User reviews

A madman loose in an opera house is the background for Charlie Chan to investigate a double murder of leading singers in Charlie Chan At The Opera. Son Lee Chan played by Keye Luke even gets in the act as a member of the chorus with his fraternity buddies.

Boris Karloff is the madman, but if I had gone through what he had been through I'm sure I would have become unhinged myself. Some years back Karloff was trapped in a burning opera house by his cheating wife and her tenor lover. He was presumed dead and burned up, but in fact has been an amnesiac patient in a mental asylum. A glance at a newspaper story about the opera brought his memory and a resolve to escape the asylum and seek out his tormentors.

This probably was Karloff's way of playing and not playing the Phantom Of The Opera. As he was in the Frankenstein films or playing The Mummy, Karloff is both a frightening yet pitiable figure. He truly steals this film from Warner Oland as Charlie Chan.

As for Oland he has to solve a pair of murders that occur while Karloff is on the loose. In that he has to work with thick as a brick police sergeant William Demarest. In fact Demarest makes a few racial remarks in Oland's direction, but in the end he's a convert to the wisdom of Chinese parables.

This is one of the best Charlie Chan features and one of the best of the Oland Chan films which were given much better production than later when the series moved to Monogram.

According to my sources, there seems to be a slight disagreement on the singing in this movie. Denis Gifford's Karloff bio says that Karloff did his own singing (and he could have; he was a fair baritone and sang in the Dulwich College chorus). Oscar Levant's autobiography claims that Karloff was dubbed. Oscar Levant, however, seems to have been writing from an unreliable memory, as he gets other details wrong including the movie synopsis. There are three singing voices heard in the movie: soprano, tenor, and baritone. The tenor was never seen, but was heard onstage while Chan and Number One Son were backstage. Both actresses playing sopranos were synching to the same recording. Karloff may also have been synching to a recording, but it could well have been his own, both for the reason given above and because Levant's opera was written for the movie--no previous recordings existed at the time, and why would the studio have spent extra money on a second singer for a B-budget film when they already had someone on the film who could handle the baritone singing? (Even the Faust costume worn by both baritones onstage was secondhand--it was first worn by Lawrence Tibbett in "Metropolitan", filmed earlier in 1936!)

My favorite of the Warner Oland Chans, Charlie Chan At the Opera, is an excellent entry in the series. It begins like a horror film, on a stormy night, as Boris Karloff overcomes a guard in a sanitarium, then escapes. We are then introduced to a motley group of characters, including a temperamental opera diva, who has been recieving threatening notes, then Charlie and son arrive, and soon the action moves to the opera house, where the film remains. Karloff turns up backstage, where he is hiding, above the dressing rooms, and we soon learn the truth: he is a famous singer who had supposedly died in a fire but escaped, and has been suffering from amnesia ever since. He has only recently begun to remember who is, and is now looking for the person who tried to kill him.

There's a lot of plot in this film, and it isn't brilliantly developed. What makes the movie so watchable is the acting, which is uniformly good (and in Karloff's case outstanding); the music, courtesy of Oscar Levant, who wrote the score; the set design, which is marvelous; and occasionally the dialogue, which is often funny. Director Bruce Humberstone juggles all these elements masterfully, making the movie hum. Karloff brings gravitas and real menace to his part, and elicits pity as much as terror. Oland is his usually Buddha-like self, delivering his fortune cookie homilies with aplomb. William Demarest is the Irish cop this time around. As was so often the case with murder mysteries, a suggestion of the supernatural helps the mood enormously. Karloff isn't quite the phantom of the opera, but people react to him as if they've seen a ghost, since they all assume that he's dead.

The movie is a very accomplished piece of work. Its theatre and backstage atmosphere give it the feeling of a show within a show, and it's a pretty good one whichever way you look at it.

This was my first-ever look at Charlie Chan. It wasn't one of his better adventures but I've seen worse, too. It sports a famous guest actor, Boris Karloff, and a semi-famous, if you will, actor in William Demarest.

Demarest plays a cop and his lingo and his prejudices are very early '30s. He couldn't say those lines (cracks about Asians) on film in this day-and-age.

The usual witty and profound Chan proverbs are in here and the usual loyal son (Keye Luke, number one son) is there to help. The ending left me a bit confused. Granted, I was tired when I watched this but Charlie's last-minute explanation and conclusions came so fast they confused me. I'd have to see this at least one more time to understand it. I think this is coming out on DVD soon and I'll get that and watch it again.

I'll always have a fond memory for this since it introduced me to this extremely entertaining film series. I've seen around 20 of them since this one and enjoyed them all.

This is my favorite of the Warner Oland Chan films and my second favorite of the series. This one is loaded with atmosphere and has Boris Karloff in it,too! It starts off with an escape from an insane asylum during a thunderstorm at night and gets better from there! Most of the action takes place backstage at an opera house. The opera "Carnival" was written especially for this film and I wish it would be performed so I could see the entire work. Karloff in his Mephisto costume is impressive. In this film, Chan is assisted by Number One Son, Lee, played by Keye Luke. Luke is at his best in this one. He and Oland make a great team. This is another Chan film that even when you know the identity of the murderer, you still want to see the film again and again just for the atmospheric fun. A real pleasure.

Generally considered the best in this series, and I would agree that it's up there somewhere. Boris Karloff (the screen credits read: "Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff" -- cute!) is a mental patient with amnesia who escapes the sanitarium when he remembers that he was formerly an opera singer who was once locked in his dressing room during a fire and left for dead. He then returns to the opera house to sing again and settle a score, with the famous Charlie Chan on the murder trail.

A brisk and enjoyable installment, playing up big Karloff's infamous reputation as a bogeyman, yet I have to say he sometimes comes off as humorous while mouthing the words to the dubbed opera vocals. Though his contemporary rival, Bela Lugosi, is often slammed for overacting, Boris is no slouch himself in this department here, over-expressing and hamming it up all over the place. Charlie's number one son Lee (Keye Luke) is somewhat underused this time, for some reason. In his place seems to be William Demarest, who is entertaining in this movie, running around as a frazzled American cop also struggling to solve the case and keep up with master detective Chan (Demarest does his own stunts which includes one really impressive comedic fall). With Demarest's occasional quips toward competitor Chan, it felt like this particular entry was more heavy on the "Asian stereotype charge" than usual. But in the end, it's still Charlie Chan who remains most respectable and more brilliant than everyone else. *** out of ****

Fans of Charlie Chan, Boris Karloff or both should find little to dislike about Charlie Chan at the Opera. Count me as someone who likes Karloff a great deal and gets a fair amount of pleasure watching the Charlie Chan film series. The general consensus is that Charlie Chan at the Opera is one of the best of the series, and it is a consensus that I agree with wholeheartedly. If there is anything that didn't work very well, it was that that Boris Karloff's singing was dubbed very obviously with the sloppy lip synch and the singing voice sounds very little like Karloff when he speaks(Karloff probably did have some singing talent, but there is a lot of truth in what has been said already that he probably wouldn't have been an actor if he was THAT good). Tudor Williams does dub him brilliantly though, the dark velvety quality(that is fairly reminiscent of the great baritone Lawrence Tibbett) of his voice makes him captivating and thrilling to listen to. That aside, the film is very pleasing to look at, well shot with effectively used settings. The Mephistopheles costume was really striking and Karloff looks very imposing(he always did though) in it. The music is grandiose, playful and beautiful, the opera Carnival was composed especially and it is well-utilised and is one that you wish made appearances on the opera stage. Apart from the lip-synch, Karloff is still very good here, he is charismatic and formidable but clearly knows how to have a good time. Warner Oland is spot-on as a character that suits him to a tee, in particular he really relishes his hilariously droll lines and it shows in his sly delivery of them. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny, Charlie Chan's lines are like little bon bons and you have to love the nod to Karloff and one of his most iconic roles. All the acting is very good though. The scenes with William Demarest are every bit as fun as those with Karloff and Oland. The mystery parts of the story are well-paced, have good amounts of suspense- not too obvious or predictable- and keeps your "little grey cells"(in the words of Agatha Christie and her immortal creation Hercule Poirot) working, complete with some great atmosphere. Overall, non-stop entertainment from start to finish. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"Charlie Chan at the Opera" is one of the best of the Charlie Chan series. The 1936 film starred Warner Oland as Chan, Boris Karloff as Gravelle, and Keye Luke as Lee Chan.

For this film, Oscar Levant wrote a short opera, "Carnival." It's a very "Phantom of the Opera" type story, with Karloff playing a baritone who 7 years previously was locked in the opera house while it was on fire, in an attempt to kill him by his wife, Lili Rochelle, and her lover, Barelli (Gregory Gaye). He survives, but with amnesia, and is sent to a mental hospital. He is, however, believed dead.

One day he sees a newspaper article about Lili (Margaret Irving) singing in town and some of his memory returns. He escapes and goes to the opera house, intending to get revenge. He overpowers Barelli and puts on his costume, which includes a mask. Later, both Lili and Barelli are found stabbed...it's up to Chan to find out if Gravelle is truly the killer.

The sets for this film were originally used for the Tyrone Power-Loretta Young film "Cafe Metropole," and the costume worn by Gravelle was worn by Lawrence Tibbett in the film "Metropolitan."

The question came up as to whether Karloff, who could sing, was actually dubbed as it is claimed, or whether he did his own singing. Someone on the board made the point, since he could sing, why go and pay someone to dub? Well, put it this way - Dana Andrews was trained as an opera singer and doesn't do his own singing in State Fair.

Karloff was most definitely dubbed - he may have been a good baritone but the dubbed voice was a dramatic operatic baritone. If Karloff could have sung like that, he would have been an opera singer.

Really fun and enjoyable, with the wise-cracking William Demarest giving good support. Oland was a delightful Charlie Chan, full of energy and a twinkle in his eye. Highly recommended.

Given that Boris Karloff is one of my favorite actors, it's no surprise this is my favorite Charlie Chan movie. Now, of course since Karloff is here, we have to start the movie with an atmosphere akin to that of a horror film. Karloff plays an amnesiac opera singer named Gravelle. He regains his memory and escapes from a sanitarium on a stormy night to go find his daughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a child. The police are desperate to catch Gravelle, so they call in Charlie Chan (Warner Oland).

Oland is pitch-perfect as always. Keye Luke as "Number One Son" Lee gets to have lots of fun running around in costume backstage at the opera, trying to help his father on the case. William Demarest plays a police sergeant jealous of Charlie who makes several bigoted remarks throughout the movie but comes to respect the superior detective by the end. Boris Karloff gives a terrific performance, which should come as a surprise to no one familiar with his work. He's the only actor in the entire series to be able to match Warner Oland's screen presence.

Fast pace, interesting setting, great performances, and a particularly nice atmosphere make this an exceptional entry in the always delightful Charlie Chan series. I'm not big on opera but the music written by Oscar Levant for this film is pretty good and adds to an overall excellent production. As I said before, this is my favorite Charlie Chan film and I see by many reviews here I'm not alone. It's definitely a highlight of the series, with a top-notch guest star (Karloff) and an exciting story, helped greatly by the opera backdrop and music.

Based on characters created by Earl Derr Biggers. We recognize the characters from other Chan movies. In this movie Warner Oland gets to play the notable Charlie Chan.

This movie has a big surprise with the cast of actors for just a standard Chan production. We get to hear Boris Karloff sing and prove that he can act in roles other than Frankenstein's monster. Keye Luke plays Lee sone of Chan. Keye Luke looks quite different as Master Po in the Kung Fu TV series.

A noisy singing amnesiac sees a paper that jogged his mind. Now with his memory back it is reeving time. Can Charlie figure it out before there is no one left in the opera house?

Murder, mayhem, and a load of Chinese maxims flood an opera house in San Francisco where a star baritone and a star diva are killed. The police are on the case and they also have asked for the help of Honolulu detective Charlie Chan. This is a real entertaining, fun film to watch. Warner Oland goes through one Chinese proverb after another to remain enigmatic, and yet shed some light on the proceedings. Oland does a nice job as Chan and adds subtlety to not so subtle occurrences. A mad man has escaped from an asylum and has hidden himself within the opera house for reasons unknown to the police. The man is played by none other than the great Boris Karloff. Karloff is a bit restrained in his performance but does add some menace and depth. Watching Karloff sing baritone(with someone's dubbed voice) is quite a sight! Keye Luke is back as Chan's over-eager beaver son. William Demarest plays a somewhat annoying policeman who discredits Chan's abilities really for being an Oriental. The subtle prejudicial undertones of his actions are a bit disturbing. A good script with plenty of humour and lots of Chan!

This entry in the long-running and hugely popular 'Charlie Chan' series takes us into the distinguished - and a bit decadent - world of grand opera: famous soprano singer Lilli Rochelle, eccentric and somewhat conceited, is on the brink of hysteria because she's received a death threat for the very same day - her opening night in Los Angeles, after being away for seven years. And on exactly the same day, an amnesiac breaks out of a mental asylum after seven years; because, as soon as he sees her picture in the papers, he seems to remember something...

Meanwhile, we learn that second soprano Anita Barelli is madly jealous of Lilli - not only because she's the star, but mainly because she's got an affair with her husband! And then there's a young couple hanging around backstage all the time, for some reason trying by all means to get to Lilli - but then the opera performance starts, and very soon a murderous drama REALLY worthy of any opera libretto begins to take its course...

Except for the comic relief provided by Lee Chan and the cops, this film is pretty earnest, at times dramatic, if not even melodramatic; but we must undoubtedly admit that Boris Karloff probably plays one of the BEST roles of his life here: mad, full of hatred, and then again pitiful and sympathetic... While in other movies he usually only showed parts of his full acting range at a time - here he demonstrates them all in one!

Another good film in the Charlie Chan's series. Warner Oland and Boris Karloff are both excellent in their roles. One is the famous detective, the other a madman that escape from an asylum. Once again, Charlie uses old chinese proverbs to make us laugh and think. Entertaining movie.

Out of 100, I gave it 76.

Of all the mystery detectives who made their mark on the big screen, the most easily recognizable was Charlie Chan. Originally created by Earl Derr Biggers, he went on to star in some thirty or forty episodes, Although Warner Oland appears in this film " Charlie Chan, at the Opera " this would become his last as Sidney Tolar would later replace him. Director H. Bruce Humberstone makes much of the great talent he assembles when the late great Boris Karloff plays Gravelle. Keye Luke from 'Kung Fu' fame plays Charlie Chan's son. The story has Karloff playing a dark sinister character who seems quite mad. Escaping from an Insane asylum Gravelle promises to get revenge of the individual who tried to kill him in a fire. Besides the magnificent operatic voices, there is dark drama and intrigue in the film as the audience enjoys Karloff at his best as he matches wits with the great Honnlulu detective when murder and mayhem visit the Opera House. William Demarest makes for an appearance as a police officer. All in all, this is but one of the many movies, which intrigues audiences in the 30 and 40's. Recommended. ****

I've seen at least half of the Chan movies, and this one is easily the best. First of all, the pacing is incredible. This movie doesn't let you catch your breath for the first 50 minutes or more. No slow, dragging plot or padding. It starts off with an ominous thunder storm at an insane asylum, moves to a violent escape (did Gravelle kill or just knock-out the intern?), then moves to a cavernous opera house that provides an opportunity for Karloff to play his own version of phantom of the opera.

I love how the movie starts out with opera music under the credits. It's extremely powerful, moving music and literally sets the stage, warning viewers that this is no regular Charlie Chan movie. It's big, it's powerful, and you better hold on tight because the foot's on the pedal and we ain't slowin' down!

Next is Karloff's performance. This is my favorite role I've ever seen him in. He was perfect as a quirky, amnesiac. I loved the way he always had a far-away look in his eyes when he talked, kind of like members of the Manson family when you would see them on TV. He always seemed like he was in another world (a world of music, right?) - kind of spaced-out, detached, and disoriented. And near the end, he was a very sympathetic character with Kitty. If you think about all that Gravelle had to endure, it was heart-breaking. I think Karloff did a top-notch job!

The only thing that detracts from this film is Uncle Charlie's (Wm. Demerest) relentless abuse of Mr. Chan. A little bit would be OK, but it became nauseating after awhile. I'm not one these politically correct types, but it's just too much here. Demerest reminds me of cranky Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies, when she's in one of her moods where nothing makes her happy.

If you've never seen a Chan film, don't start with this one. You'll be disappointed with the rest...

An amnesiac madman seeks revenge on the members of an opera company when he suddenly regains his memory. "Everybody thinks I'm mad!" cries an emotional Boris Karloff before going on to prove everybody's suspicions are bang on the money in this average Charlie Chan entry. With infinite good grace, Chan endures repeated racist abuse from William Demarest's inept cop, who, at some time or another, refers to him as virtually every imaginable dish to be found on a Chinese menu. Karloff makes for a dapper madman, but the film fails to provide the sparks one might expect from pitching him against Chan.

Charlie Chan At the Opera is one of the better Chan movies I've seen and is worth having in any collection as Boris Karloff is in it.

Boris plays an opera star, Gravelle who escapes from an asylum where he was due to suffering amnesia. He heads to Los Angles where he turns up at an opera. It's not long before people start being murdered though and Gravelle is the chief suspect but as always in these movies, the murderer is the least person you would expect... Charlie Chan and his No1 son help with the investigation.

We also get to see Boris singing in this (if it is his voice) and also includes the opera "Carnival".

Joining Boris in the cast is Warner Orland as Charlie, Keye Luke, Margaret Irving and Guy Usher (The Devil Bat).

Charlie Chan At the Opera is a must for all fans of Chan and Boris Karloff. Excellent.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Another day. another Charlie Chan mystery. This time, Walter Orland is paired up with Boris Karloff, an interesting combo to be sure, as Chan tries to figure out who bumped off a pair of philandering opera singers(!!) Boris Karloff is, of course, prime suspect #1, as he is cast here as a crazed opera singer who just escaped from the looney bin lusting for revenge on the people who tried to kill him in an opera fire many moons ago! This one is a bit strange with it's premise, so therefore it's fun as Chan tries to make sense of it all. Karloff looks to be having a ball in this strange casting as an opera singer, he lip syncs horribly. I think he knows his fans know it, so just adds to the fun.

According to the extended credits on here, Boris Karloff's singing is dubbed by someone named Tudor Williams.

He sounds very much like Lawrence Tibbett, the most popular baritone at the Metropolitan Opera in the mid-1930s, and a singer who would have been known to general movie-going audiences then through radio, recordings, and his own movies. One of the other posters mentions that the dumpy costume worn during the performance by Boris Karloff and the baritone he replaces was a costume of Tibbett's. Tibbett's movie studio was Fox, and he made what was probably his most successful movie for them, Metropolitan, the same year as CC at the Opera.

Is it possible that "Tudor Williams" was a cover for Lawrence Tibbett?????

1936's "Charlie Chan at the Opera" found Hollywood's resident monster Boris Karloff forsaking a vacation in his native Britain for filming at Fox in mid Sept.-mid Oct. Under the direction of H. Bruce Humberstone, 13th of Warner Oland's 16 entries in the popular series. Boris was no stranger to the Chan character, as he and Chan both made their talkie debut in equally miniscule roles in 1929's creaky Warner Baxter vehicle "Behind That Curtain," but here he enjoys second billing behind Oland as the amnesiac opera singer Gravelle, his singing voice dubbed by Tudor Williams, Oscar Levant composing the opera "Carnival" especially for the film, William Kernell writing the words in English before being translated into Italian, Boris required to don a costume of Mephistopheles designed for Lawrence Tibbett from the just completed "Under Your Spell." After wasting away as a sanitarium charity case for many years, his baritone often displayed at the piano, Gravelle suddenly recovers his memory after spotting a photo of his wife in the local paper, Lilli Rochelle (Margaret Irving) guilty of conspiring with her married lover, Enrico Barelli (Gregory Gaye), to rid themselves of her husband by locking him in his dressing room during a blazing theater fire. Chan becomes involved when Lilli and Enrico require police protection from a death threat against her as both are about to perform that night, their humiliated spouses topping the list of suspects, Frank Conroy as Mr. Whitely warning the baritone to keep away from Lilli, and Nedda Harrigan as Enrico's long suffering Anita Barelli, working behind Lilli as second soprano. Stalking the opera house is Gravelle, long believed dead by those involved, determined to usurp Barelli in his cherished role of Mephisto, scaring the daylights of the wardrobe mistress (Hilda Vaughn) but not deterring stage manager Mr. Arnold (Maurice Cass): "this opera is going on tonight even if Frankenstein walks in!" His performance goes on without a hitch, but Madame Lilli faints dead away as he brandishes his knife, both her and Enrico found stabbed shortly afterwards with Whitely inadvertently handling the murder weapon hidden in a bouquet of flowers. As was usually the case with Oland, Keye Luke as son Lee Chan offers up some lighter moments but is genuinely helpful and intelligent in his father's investigation, and would later replace Karloff for the 1940 Mr. Wong finale at Monogram, "Phantom of Chinatown." The much anticipated 'Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff' showdown arrives at the 52 minute mark, Gravelle lamenting that his teenage daughter Kitty (Charlotte Henry) doesn't remember him, the crafty Chan biding time to keep him calm with one of his famous Chinese proverbs: "madness twin brother of genius because each live in world created by own ego, one sometime mistaken for other." Karloff's actual singing voice would not be heard until roles on Broadway and television, happy to keep busy during what was destined to be a rough patch of non horror vehicles that gave him star billing yet would be quietly forgotten once Universal revived the genre with "Son of Frankenstein." Oland would only live long enough to complete three more Chans before his untimely death at age 58, Sidney Toler gamely carrying on in 22 before Roland Winters closed out the long running series in the final six.