Murder Over New York


Murder Over New York is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Harry Lachman and starring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan. The cast also features Marjorie Weaver, Robert Lowery and Ricardo Cortez. Chan must solve a murder mystery while attending a police convention. Shemp Howard plays "Shorty McCoy" in an uncredited appearance.

Plot

On a flight to New York for an annual police convention, Chan encounters his old Scotland Yard friend, Hugh Drake. Drake is now a member of military intelligence trying to track down what he believes is a sabotage ring led by a Paul Narvo. A bomber and its pilots crashed the day before. Chan offers his assistance.
Chan is welcomed at the airport by New York Police Inspector Vance and, to Chan's surprise, his number two son Jimmy Chan.
Chan goes to see Drake the next day at the apartment of George Kirby, where a dinner party is in progress. He finds his friend dead of poison gas in Kirby's library, where he had gone to do some work. Drake's briefcase, containing all the information he had gathered about the sabotage ring, is missing. The window is latched, so Chan concludes one of the guests is responsible. Chan discovers that Drake asked that his Oxford classmate Herbert Fenton, actress June Preston and Ralph Percy, chief designer at the Metropolitan Aircraft Corporation, be invited to the party. Kirby himself is the company president. The lost bomber crashed at the company's plant. Also present is stockbroker Keith Jeffery. A servant reports chemist David Elliot insisted on seeing Drake, so he showed him in.
Chan learns that Preston also spoke with Drake that night, on behalf of a friend, Patricia West. West, it turns out, married Narvo in India. When she found out Narvo was involved in sabotage, she fled, only to be pursued by her husband and his assistant, Ramullah.
Ramullah is eventually tracked down, with West's help, and taken into custody.. Fenton cannot be Narvo, as the latter is known to be a younger man. He refuses to identify his leader. When Chan asks for a glass of water for Fenton, Jeffrey gets it for him, falling into Chan's trap. The detective samples the water and identifies the same poison that was found in Kirby's brandy.

Cast