Il serpente piumato

This is a somewhat entertaining little venture. Charlie's eldest sons accompany him into the Mexican jungle to try to find an archaeologist who has disappeared while searching for an ancient ruin. As it turns out, there are other guys who would like to accomplish the same thing and they are holding him prisoner. He has knowledge they want. An expedition set up by the guy's sister heads into the jungle. Once again, the old "light- goes-out-and-someone-gets murdered" bit is used. This time an oil lamp gets put out. Anyway, the bad guy are knuckleheads. People's lives are simply a part of the landscape. Killing doesn't seem to bother anyone. Two other things. In this one, Birmingham (Mantan Moreland) is really tiresome. His whole fear thing really gets tiresome. Secondly, has anyone ever wondered why Charlie Chan is wearing a three piece suit and tie in the jungles of Mexico. At one point he mops his brow. My goodness, he should be on the point of passing out. Just a thought.

I don't comment on many movies, but felt compelled to on this one. I have nearly every Chan film made, (Oland, Toler, Winters), and Winters doesn't come near par, in this one. Good: Keye Luke & Victor Sen Yung, maybe Mantan.. Bad: Everything else. Seems like actors are simply reading their lines. "Action" scenes look like a elementary school play. This one just dragged on. I've made it through it once.

Here, Charlie and crew (Mantan Moreland; Keye Luke & Sen Yung), are on vacation in Mexico. They stumble upon a man, who is in terrible condition, walking in a nearby field. Charlie takes him into his auto and heads quickly to the nearest city for help. The man is delirious so Chan can get little information out of him other than the fact he was held prisoner and he was on an expedition hunting for a lost Aztec treasure.

Chan arrives in a nearby city and soon meets members of an expedition who are also hunting for this lost treasure. In fact the sick man is a member of their group. The ailing man and another archaeologist went missing during their search. Before the ill man can explain what happened he is murdered.

Charlie and company join the expedition with the purpose of finding the missing archaeologist and perhaps the lost treasure. Much is made out of the fact that this film features the return of Charlie's son Lee (Keye Luke) and the only teaming of Charlie's Number One and Number Two sons. It's interesting but the screenwriters don't pull off the union effectively. Lee is much more domineering here than he ever was in the Fox films. So it is a bit of a miss, but still of interest to a long time Chan fan.

Lastly, I'll comment on the other reviews who need to call the Monogram Winter's films garbage. Yes, they don't have the skilled writers of the Fox series. Yes, the production values don't match Fox, and the plots can be a little oddball. But these are solid little mysteries and quite good compared with other independent studios.

The 'Feathered Serpent' from the title is a reference to Quetzelcoatl, the Aztec reptile god. This is appropriate since the film is set in Mexico and is about evil doers who are trying to steal Aztec treasure.

As usual, Charlie Chan and his entourage (including #1 and 2 sons as well as Birmingham Brown) is on vacation when murders start taking place around him. First, they find Professor Scott dying and they rescue him...only to soon have an unseen hand bury a dagger into Scott! Considering Scott is a member of a missing expedition who was investigating a lost temple, it's a good bet this and further mayhem are the work of some folks trying to steal the treasure for themselves. However, instead of just making deductions, this one ends with Chan and his party catching the baddies in this temple...baddies who seem willing to stop at nothing to get rich.

The film has two huge problems against it. First, Roland Winters is the third and least interesting actor to regularly play Chan (there was a guy who played him in one early film). Second, after dozens of Chan films, the stories are getting a bit old and familiar. Not a bad film....just not up the usual higher standards of the franchise...though it is nice to have #1 AND #2 sons (Keye Luke and Victor Sen Yung) on hand for this one instead of the usual single son assisting their father.

In a Mexican village, a team of Americans plan a trip into the mountains to search for an ancient treasure and two missing scientists. Charlie Chan stumbles into the case and joins their expedition, along with his number one and number two sons and chauffeur. Soon they are all tenting it, spying on each other and sneaking in and out of camp.

Bob Livingston is part of the search party but we soon discover that he actually heads a gang that's after the treasure. They have kidnapped the missing professor and are holding him in a secret temple whose hidden door swings open when you step on a certain big rock.

Roland Winters does okay in a fairly active role as the great detective. Keye Luke is a rather mature and serious Lee Chan. Victor Sen Young and Mantan Moreland, as Tommy Chan and chauffeur Birmingham Brown, are teamed up as usual to handle the comic relief. No explanation is offered for Keye Luke's surprising return to the series; we can only note that at the beginning of the picture the Chans are setting out on a family vacation, and guess that Lee must have been invited.

The plot is a little different from most in this series--we know who the villain is from early on. The production, of course, is cheap and the dialog seems hastily hashed out, although Mr. Chan does offer one or two of his wise sayings. ("Very difficult to estimate depth of well by size of bucket.") Overall it's really not very good...but enjoyable enough for fans.

Note: a fun double feature would be this picture preceded by 1937's Riders of the Whistling Skull. Not only is this Chan picture is a remake of that Three Mesquiteers western, but the earlier movie also featured Bob Livingston--as one of the good guys, in that case.