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Re: Movie of Charlie in basement

Dear Walt,

The scenes that you describe are not from any of the Charlie Chan films in the series. There were no actual ghosts in any Chan movie, and it is possible that you have combined a couple of different movies.

HOWEVER...since the film you talk about was viewed in the 1950s, this brings an intriguing thought to my mind. In the "lost" Charlie Chan movie "CHARLIE CHAN'S GREATEST CASE," there is a scene in the early portion in which John Quincy Winterslip and his uncle Roger search an attic in an old San Francisco house for a box. In this scene, a shadowy figure attacks the two, knocking the flashlight from John Quincy's hand in the process. (The illustrated script for this film can be seen elsewhere at this humble site.) Here is the text of the scene I mention:

SCENE 35
ATTIC
A faint ray comes through a window high in a gable. We can just discern the movement of a shadowy figure, crossing the center of the room.

Then we hear Roger and John coming up the stairs, the light of the flash preceding them. The next moment they appear.

ROGER: I guess that's the trunk over there.

As Roger flashes the light on the trunk, the flashlight is suddenly struck from his hand. He shouts. John finds himself struggling with an unseen assailant. Roger joins in the scrap and the flashlight rolling crazily across the floor, throws weird circles of light on the struggle. Finding himself outnumbered, the mysterious stranger makes a break for the stairway. We can hear his feet pattering on the steps as he runs down. Roger picks up the flash and turns it upon John who is starting after the intruder.

There is also an eerie scene in the Paris sewers at the climax of "CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS" that may have influenced your memory with ghostlike images.

But, the former possibility brings up the idea that the four Charlie Chan movies that are now considered "lost" due to a film vault fire in the early 1960s at Fox studios may have been aired during the early years of television.

I hope that this has been of at least a little help to you in beginning to solve the mysteries of a distant memory.

Sincerely,
Rush Glick