Dead Men Tell

"Aboard a treasure ship Chan battles his most elusive adversary... the ghost of a pirate 100 years dead!"

Mar 28 1941 Approved 1h 1m
Comedy, Crime, Mystery

When the elderly woman sponsoring a treasure hunt is murdered on board her docked ship, Charlie Chan must deal with a treasure map in four pieces, the ghost of a hanged pirate, a talking parrot, a recalcitrant sea captain and several suspicious passengers - and a second murder.

Plot

Eccentic, elderly matron Patience Nodbury has a treasure map she's inherited from Black Hook, her pirate ancestor. To foil a mysterious thief who has tried to steal it, she divides it into four pieces, three of which she gives to fellow passengers booked to sail on the Suva Star, an old wooden sailing ship chartered for a treasure hunt on an offshore island. She is convinced that, according to family tradition, Black Hook will visit her before she dies. When the peg-legged "ghost" does just that, and she suffers a fatal heart attack, Charlie and Jimmy are faced with a boatload of red herrings including Bill Lydig, an escaped convict, Gene LaFarge, a certifiable neurotic accompanied by a personal psychiatrist, and the embittered Captain Kane, who was marooned on a deserted island by his ex-partner and vows revenge.

Written by

John Francis Larkin, Earl Derr Biggers

Directed by

Harry Lachman

Production Countries

United States of America

Production Companies

20th Century Fox

Languages

English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
1,379
Average Rating
6.9 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA