Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)

Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936) is one of the later films in the Twentieth-Century Fox series starring Warner Oland as Inspector Chan. In this film, Inspector Chan’s old friend Major Kent, played by George Irving, has been kicked to death by his horse. Inspector Chan believes foul play may be involved.

Major Kent was kicked to death, while the ship was docked in Honolulu. The Captain of the ship does not want it detained, so Inspector Chan agrees to travel with the racing party back to the mainland United States. Someone on the boat does not want Inspector Chan investigating Major Kent’s death including an attempted assassination.

The excellent cast includes Keye Luke as No. 1 Son Lee, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck Alan Dinehart, Frankie Darro and Jonathan Hale.

According to Wikipedia, Jonathan Hale was born Jonathan Hatley on March 21, 1891 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. His filmography lists over 245 titles including roles as Mr. Dithers, Dagwood Bumstead’s boss in the Blondie series of the 1940s.

I first saw Hale in the Saint movie franchise, when he played Inspector Fernack, the foil, friend and rival of the Saint, Simon Templer played by George Sanders.

Tragically like many stars before him, Jonathan Hale committed suicide at 74 years of age on February 28, 1966.

This film runs about 70 minutes and stars many future “B” film fixtures such as Frankie Darro. However, the film exhibits strong production quality as Twentieth-Century Fox was still strongly invested in the series.

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