Castle in the Desert

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Castle in the Desert
Directed by	Harry Lachman
Written by	Earl Derr Biggers (characters) John Larkin
Produced by	Ralph Dietrich
Starring	Sidney Toler
Cinematography	Virgil Miller
Edited by	John Brady
Music by	Emil Newman
Production company	20th Century Fox
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	February 27, 1942
Running time	62 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Castle in the Desert is a 1942 film featuring the Chinese detective Charlie Chan. It was the eleventh film to feature Sidney Toler as the title character, and the last made by 20th Century Fox. The series continued with Toler, though under much reduced circumstances, at Monogram Pictures.

Plot[]

Mrs. Manderley, an eccentric descendant of the Borgias lives in a castle in the middle of the Mojave Desert with her husband Paul Manderley, a reclusive scholarly millionaire. Someone is killed after being poisoned. Paul tries to cover up the murder in which Charlie Chan investigates. In addition to Paul Manderley and his wife (who may be insane and not responsible for her actions) other suspects include:

• Walter Hartford, Paul's lawyer who wants to maintain his influence over the Manderley estate
• Madame Saturnia, a local astrologer who takes great pride in the fact that her predictions about the growing number of murder victims are always right
• Watson King, a sculptor who warns Chan to mind his own business and has a connection to the Manderleys

The clues include:

• the poison used which was stolen from a laboratory
• a forged letter sent to Charlie Chan summoning him to the Manderley Castle
• the poisoned cocktail
• a medieval crossbow

Aiding and hindering Chan's investigation is his Number Two son Jimmy, who is on leave with the U.S. Army, and decides to get involved to help his father solve the case, much to the senior Chan's annoyance.

The location is loosely based on Scotty's Castle, a Spanish Revival style villa built by a Chicago millionaire as a vacation home in Death Valley.

Cast[]

• Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
• Arleen Whelan as Brenda Hartford
• Richard Derr as Carl Detheridge
• Douglass Dumbrille as Paul Manderley
• Henry Daniell as Watson King
• Edmund MacDonald as Walter Hartford
• Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan
• Lenita Lane as Lucrezia "Lucy" Manderley
• Ethel Griffies as Lily, Mme. Saturnia
• Steven Geray as Dr. Retling
• Lucien Littlefield as Professor Gleason
• Milton Parsons as Arthur Fletcher, Private Investigator

External links[]

• Castle in the Desert at IMDb

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