Honolulu detective Charlie Chan (
Warner Oland
) spends an eventful weekend at an English country estate in this fog-bound series entry. Young Neil Howard (
Ray Milland
) has been accused of murder, but family friend Geoffrey Howard (
Alan Mowbray
) expresses the hope that Chan will be able to locate the genuine killer. The weapons this time include a set of poison darts, while a series of cryptic notes provide vital clues to Chan and his Scotland Yard counterpart Sgt. Thacker (
E.E. Clive
), who insists upon calling the humble oriental sleuth "Mr. Chang" throughout the picture. Crucial to the plot's development is a fox hunt, predating a similar sequence in
John Huston
's
The List of Adrian Messenger
by nearly 30 years. At 79 minutes,
Charlie Chan in London
is the longest of Fox's Chan series -- unnecessarily so, since the identity of the "surprise killer" is obvious from reel one.