Movie review - Chan#13 - "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (1936) ***

Terrific fun, mostly due to the fact Boris Karloff plays a crazed opera singer who escapes from the loony bin to torment an old flame at the opera house. Boris is wonderful in a sort of Phantom of the Opera role, getting revenge on his unfaithful wife and lover, and this gets off to a flying start. It gets bogged down around the middle when the story loses momentum, but it's a decent mystery, and I couldn't guess the killer. We do miss out on a  final scene with Karloff when it feels as though we need it. But backstage opera house is a fun playground (Number One sun gets roped in as an extra), William Demarest leads a strong support cast, Warner Oland is excellent. The series really hit is stride around now.