Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

bsmith5552 "Behind That Curtain" is notable in that it was the first appearance of Charlie Chan at Fox who would go on to produce the long running series of Chan films between 1931 and 1942. It's rather dated but is not as bad a film as some would have you believe.The story is adapted from an Earl Derr Beggars novel about murder, love and deceit among the well to do. Sir George Mannering (Claude King) has hired investigator Hilary Galt (Edgar Norton) to dig up dirt on his niece's Eve's (Lois Moran) intended Eric Durand (Philip Strange). Explorer Colonel John Beetham (Warner Baxter) has concerns, that are never explained, over Galt's findings. Against her uncle's wishes Eve marries Durand. Then Mannering learns that Galt has been murdered and his files stolen.A pair of Chinese slippers are found on the body which implicates Beetham in the murder. Mannering disowns Eve and the couple go off to India to live. Eric Durand's occupation by the way, is never revealed. Anyway, Durand turns out to be a woman chasing rat, among other things and is caught by Eve fooling around with the house servant Nuna (Mercedes DeValacco).Beetham meanwhile has embarked on an expedition in India and runs into a distraught Eve in the market place. Eve tells him of her troubles and eventually leaves Durand over his affair and a mysterious letter that she has received. She joins Beetham's expedition and over a four month period the two fall madly in love. Beetham you see, has been carrying a torch for Eve lo these many months.Scotland Yard detective Sir Frederick Bruce (Gilbert Emery) meanwhile has taken up the chase in the murder investigation. Eve guarding a deadly secret, flees the camp and disappears. Fast forward a year and Eve turns up in San Francisco still on the run. Both Durand, and Sir Frederick have followed her there. Purely coincidentally, Beetham turns up to deliver a lecture. Sir Frederick working with Chinese Inspector Charlie Chan (E.L. Park) set a trap to capture the murderer and...................Although this is supposed to be a Charlie Chan mystery, he doesn't show up until near the end of the film. The detective work in this story is handled for the most part by Sir Frederick. Chan is portrayed by Asian actor E. L. Park who was a bald middle aged gentleman who has little to contribute to the overall story.Boris Karloff in his first sound film, plays Baxrer's Indian manservant. He would appear in another Chan film, "Charlie Chan at the Opera" in 1936.

stimpy25 i just got done watching this train wreck of a film and it is beyond awful. i've never seen a Charlie Chan film until i saw this one. and i love Boris Karloff as well. his scenes as it's been stated are very brief with him having very little dialog. The Directing is quite good actually. that's about the only nice thing i can say about it. as a film it's badly written, badly acted and for a Charlie Chan film even if it's based off the original books he's not even in the film at all until 78 minutes in and has like 3 minutes of screen time. he's barely even mentioned at all in the film even when he's not on screen. i've seen plenty of films from this era where the acting was really quite good. only other films i've seen from this period that i can think of from the top of my head are some of the crap that Joan Crawford was doing during this era. way before she got famous into what she later became. anyways. the acting is so bad that it reminds me of the B movies that were coming out in the 50's that you'd have to get drunk just to get through watching it cause on how bad they are. i do plan on watching other Chan films of course but please stay away from this one unless you are a die hard Chan fan than watch it. but be warned that it's badly acted, badly written and frankly rather boring as well. my score 1/10

Michael O'Keefe Irving Cummings gets the job of directing this murder mystery involving Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan. Fans of the unflappable detective will be disappointed that Chan, played by E.L. Park, is merely an adviser to a veteran Scotland Yard inspector(Gilbert Emery) and only appears in several scenes. The story begins with a murder in London and the only clue is a pair of Chinese slippers. The investigation moves to Persia then India and ends in San Francisco. The prime suspect is an adventurer(Warner Baxter), who is hiding his long-time friend and heiress(Lois Moran)from her gold digger and womanizing husband(Philip Strange). This movie offers nothing out of the ordinary for this time period; but of note is the introduction of Boris Karloff, who has a very small part as a Sudanese manservant.

brianina The first half of "Behind That Curtain" is a excellent example of the drawbacks of early talkies. Except for Warner Baxter, all the actors indulge in over-enunciation to the extent that they often sound as if English is not their first language. The camera is nailed down in one long interior scene after another with the occasional mike boom shadow crossing faces. The second half, however, is a strong improvement. The lead actress learns how to properly emote and there are a number of excellent exteriors in the desert and in downtown San Francisco of 1929. Also livening events in the last half are cameo appearances by Boris Karloff and the character Charlie Chan, both in their first talkie appearances. Chan is played for once by an actual Asian person and Karloff has a good scene where he has to pretend to be mute, giving a glimpse of his later masterful work as Frankenstein' monster. He is also given the horrible line, "the desert gives and the desert takes away" but imparts a wonderful sense of mystery to it.