Genres

In this musical, Little Joe, an inveterate gambler, promises his wife Petunia he'll reform and confess his sins at church, but he slips out the side door to play craps at the Paradise club; he's shot and brought home with a mortal wound. Petunia offers powerful prayers, and Joe gets a six-month reprieve. Heaven's forces, led by the General, and those below, led by Lucifer Jr., try to pull Joe their way. Lucifer Jr. has a not-so-secret weapon, the sultry Georgia Brown, and his idea men cook up a great scheme to win Joe's soul. The General has Joe's good intentions and Petunia's inventiveness. Will she and Joe reach their cabin in the sky?

Eccentric scientist Harper lives in a spooky mansion with all the trimmings: hidden lab, secret panels, inscrutable butler, and greedy relatives with unusual talents. When Harper seems to be murdered, Charlie Chan (with the uninvited help of No. 4 son) tries to answer such questions as Where's the body? How can a dead man walk? And how can a secret murder be done in full view of detectives and witnesses?

A scientist working on an important new invention which will protect Allied shipping from U-boat torpedoes has been assigned Secret Service security protection. Amazingly, despite the fact that his laboratory and experiments are located on the upper floor of his Washington mansion, he decides to host a dinner party for friends on the first floor. Even though several of his guest are foreign nationals with shadowy pasts, he refuses to allow his bodyguards to attend because their presence might offend his guests. When he is killed by unknown means before he can join them, the resultant summary investigation includes Honolulu detective Charlie C...

The LaFontanne Chemical Company is shipping out a load of we're not sure what, disguised as something entirely different. Mr. Pereaux and Mr. Grock don't want that shipment to ever arrive anywhere, and they and a man named Aquirre mean to stop it at any cost. The ship's owner, Mr. Fontanne, smells a large rat and calls Chan in on the case, since the famous detective is in New Orleans because, well, because he felt like being in New Orleans, I guess. Chan gets what facts there are from LaFontanne, who is promply set upon by a gang who attempt to kidnap him, but fail. Mr. LaFontanne's partners come up with some insurance; just by chance they te...

Thomas P. Manning, businessman and chess expert, mysteriously shot in a locked room, dies clutching some chess pieces. Police are baffled, and finally abandon the case. Six months later, victim's daughter Leah Manning, stung by a scurrilous book about the case, enlists the aid of Charlie Chan and Number 3 Son. Additional murders follow, leading to a climactic confrontation in a seemingly deserted "Fun House."

When three employees of a bank are found murdered with cobra venom, Charlie Chan connects the homicides to a case that he had worked on in Shanghai in 1937. Even though he arrested the alleged murderer, Charlie wouldn't be able to recognize him because at the time of his apprehension, his badly burned face and hands were swathed in bandages and he later escaped from the police. Although Chan believes that he is involved with a gang that is stealing valuable radium from the bank vault utilizing tunnels that connect to the area sewer system, his new identity remains a mystery. When a detective disguised as a bank guard is found dead in a tunnel...

Because Charlie Chan plans to return to Honolulu, he no longer needs the services of Birmingham, who gets a job as butler for William and Justine Bonner, two apparently phony psychics, who regularly host occult activities in their home. When Charlie's pretty daughter Frances attends a seance out of curiosity, Mr. Bonner is shot, and she becomes an immediate suspect. Charlie postpones his trip home to help with the investigation, which is made problematic when no bullet can be found in the wound and a hypnotized Mrs. Bonner is compelled to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of a downtown building.

In a dilapidated rural mansion, the last generation of the degenerate, inbred Merrye family lives with the inherited curse of a disease that causes them to mentally regress from the age of 10 or so on as they physically develop. The family chauffeur looks out for them and covers up their indiscretions. Trouble comes when greedy distant relatives and their lawyer arrive to dispossess the family of its home.