(by classicsoncall on 19 October 2004)

"The Sky Dragon" would be the last of the Charlie Chan mystery films, this one starring Roland Winters who appeared in a total of six films as the Oriental Detective. Keye Luke, who first appeared as Number #1 Son Lee in 1935's "Charlie Chan in Paris" opposite Warner Oland, appears here in a much more mature characterization. So much so, that this is the only film in which Charlie is called "Dad" instead of "Pop" by any of his offspring.
The movie involves an insurance scam aboard a San Francisco bound airline flight, on which all the passengers are drugged, with the perpetrator making off with a two hundred fifty thousand dollar bundle. Chan must make his way through a host of suspects among the passengers, before ferreting out the guilty party with Lee's help impersonating an injured (actually dead) pilot.
Notable among the cast are Tim Ryan in his third Chan appearance as Lieutenant Mike Ruark of the San Francisco Police Department; and future Daily Planet Reporter Noel Neill as an airline hostess. For trivia fans, her TV Superman counterpart George Reeves also appeared in a Charlie Chan film, 1941's "Dead Men Tell", as of all things, a newspaper reporter! For his last appearance in a Chan film, Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown doesn't have much to do, although he does get physical at one point, helping Lee wrestle down a gunman confronting Charlie.
Like many Charlie Chan films, it helps to keep a scorecard to track the characters and their relationships. "The Sky Dragon" has enough going on to keep you guessing, although in the end it's a rather average entry in the Chan series.