***SPOILERS*** Looking tired and almost out of it Sidney Toler playing the Chinese detective Charlie Chan practically sleep walks through the movie "Black Magic". In fact theses a scene where Charlie is hypnotized by the killer and directed to jump off a 15 story building where he seems to look far more awake then is was when he was totally conscious.
Charlie on vacation in San Francisco is summoned to the local police station where he's told by Sgt. Matthews, Joseph Crehan, that his daughter Frances, Frances Chan,was picked as a possible suspect in William Bonners, Dick Gordon, murder. Bonner a well known medium was mysteriously shot and killed during a séance he was giving where Fances was present. Reluctant at first Charlie takes the case of the "murdered medium" and zeros in on the very important clue that seemed to be overlooked by the police a certain date and city: October 5, 1935 London.
Getting involved in Bonner's murder has Charlie Chan targeted by his killer who later has Mrs. Justin Bonner, Jacqueline DeWitt, hypnotized and made to jump to her death off a downtown San Francisco office building. The killer now plans to do Charlie in the same way that he did in Mrs. Bonner. Charlie gets the drop on Mr. & Mrs. Bonner's killer by letting himself get kidnapped by him and risking his life in doing it. Unknown to the killer Charlie had taken this antidote supplied to him by his good friend Dr. Dawson,Edward Earle, that snapped him out of his hypnotic state just in time before he was to jump to his death like Mrs. Bonner did earlier in the movie.
In the end Charlie solves the very baffling case, that was nothing but a piece of cake to him, by finding out from Londons Scotland Yard just what the significance of that mysterious date, 10/5/35, was. Charlie also figured out how Bonner was murdered by an invisible bullet when he was giving his séance by someone in attendance who seemed to have used his foot, instead of his hand, to shoot the medium.
Besides Charlie Chan there's also his ,what seemed to be, sidekick the bumbling Birmingham Brown played by Mantan Moreland who just happened to show at at Bonner's place as his new butler at the time of his murder. Scared out of his wits at whats going on, with ghosts and spirits all over the place, Birmingham is anything but interested in his new job. Doing his best to disappear Birmingham tries to abracadabra his way out of the film and for a while it looks like he succeeded. It's in the last few minutes of the movie, after we almost forgot that he was in it, that Birmingham pops up in "Black Magic's" most outrageous sequence. Birmingham takes center stage with his eyes popping out of his head and his stomach bouncing up and down from a box on Mexican Jumping Beans that he swallowed thinking that they were vitamin pills!
Charlie on vacation in San Francisco is summoned to the local police station where he's told by Sgt. Matthews, Joseph Crehan, that his daughter Frances, Frances Chan,was picked as a possible suspect in William Bonners, Dick Gordon, murder. Bonner a well known medium was mysteriously shot and killed during a séance he was giving where Fances was present. Reluctant at first Charlie takes the case of the "murdered medium" and zeros in on the very important clue that seemed to be overlooked by the police a certain date and city: October 5, 1935 London.
Getting involved in Bonner's murder has Charlie Chan targeted by his killer who later has Mrs. Justin Bonner, Jacqueline DeWitt, hypnotized and made to jump to her death off a downtown San Francisco office building. The killer now plans to do Charlie in the same way that he did in Mrs. Bonner. Charlie gets the drop on Mr. & Mrs. Bonner's killer by letting himself get kidnapped by him and risking his life in doing it. Unknown to the killer Charlie had taken this antidote supplied to him by his good friend Dr. Dawson,Edward Earle, that snapped him out of his hypnotic state just in time before he was to jump to his death like Mrs. Bonner did earlier in the movie.
In the end Charlie solves the very baffling case, that was nothing but a piece of cake to him, by finding out from Londons Scotland Yard just what the significance of that mysterious date, 10/5/35, was. Charlie also figured out how Bonner was murdered by an invisible bullet when he was giving his séance by someone in attendance who seemed to have used his foot, instead of his hand, to shoot the medium.
Besides Charlie Chan there's also his ,what seemed to be, sidekick the bumbling Birmingham Brown played by Mantan Moreland who just happened to show at at Bonner's place as his new butler at the time of his murder. Scared out of his wits at whats going on, with ghosts and spirits all over the place, Birmingham is anything but interested in his new job. Doing his best to disappear Birmingham tries to abracadabra his way out of the film and for a while it looks like he succeeded. It's in the last few minutes of the movie, after we almost forgot that he was in it, that Birmingham pops up in "Black Magic's" most outrageous sequence. Birmingham takes center stage with his eyes popping out of his head and his stomach bouncing up and down from a box on Mexican Jumping Beans that he swallowed thinking that they were vitamin pills!