Inspector Duff of Scotland Yard gets a call about the murder of wealthy Hugo Morris Drake, who was strangled with a suitcase strap while on an around-the-world tour with a party of other Americans. Dr. Lofton, the tour conductor, discovers that the strap came from his bag. Duff interrogates Walter Honeywood, a theatrical manager occupying the room next to Drake’s, who hopes to meet his estranged wife, actress Sybil Conway, at San Remo and persuade her to join him on the trip. Duff then realizes that he cannot hold the twelve remaining tourists because he has no evidence or motive, and after they leave for Paris, Duff learns that Honeywood paid a hotel servant not to reveal that he and Drake exchanged rooms the night Drake was killed. That night, as the party stops over in Nice, a gloved hand fires a shot from some bushes and puts the gun in the hand of the deceased, Honeywood. When Duff arrives the next day, he learns that Honeywood is dead, apparently a suicide. Duff calls Sybil, who meets him at San Remo and says that the murderer is Jim Everhard, a jewel thief to whom she had been unhappily married. Years earlier, when Honeywood and Sybil ran away together, taking two bags of diamonds, Everhard vowed to kill them both. Sybil agrees to point out the killer, but the figure with the gloved hand shoots and kills her. During the next part of the trip, Mark Kennaway, the traveling companion to Patrick Tait, an elderly criminal lawyer, becomes fond of Drake’s granddaughter, Pamela Potter, who is continuing the trip to help track down the killer. In Hong Kong, Pam and Mark pass a street merchant who calls out Everhard’s name as he passes. When Pam tells the tourist party that Everhard has been spotted, Mark realizes that she has placed herself in danger. As she sends a telegram to Duff, the gloved hand fires a gun at her, but Mark pulls her aside in time. Duff travels to Honolulu, the party’s next destination, and after visiting his friend, Inspector Charlie Chan of the Honolulu police, he is shot in the back. Chan prepares to join the party on their voyage to San Francisco, and asks his chief to tell Duff “Charlie Chan carries on.” In his cabin on the ship, Chan hears movement by his window and, grabbing a gloved hand holding a gun, pulls the glove off. After clues implicate various male members of the party, the ship approaches San Francisco, and Chan writes identical letters to the suspects. At a party, Chan explains to the guests that Drake was murdered by mistake, for Everhard intended to kill Honeywood. Chan says that in order to save Everhard embarrassment, he has informed him in a note that he will not arrest him until they dock at San Francisco. The tourists then find the letters Chan left for them, while Chan fixes a dummy in front of the window of his own room. As he and Mark wait in the lifeboat, he turns on a switch rigged to light his room. The murderer enters the room and, after shooting at the dummy, is apprehended by Chan and Mark. As the others enter, the murderer is revealed to be John Ross, a limping lumberman who expresses regret over killing Drake, but not Honeywood or Sybil. He then asks Chan how he knew it was him, and Chan reveals that he did not know, but that he wrote the letters to draw the murderer out. Chan then dictates a cable to Duff and, seeing Mark and Pam together, says that they have decided “two shall be one–more later.” More on Wikipedia
Watch Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
