It is a remake of the 1927 silent film The Chinese Parrot, based upon the novel by Earl Derr Biggers.

[1][2] An audio recreation accompanied by still photographs from the original film is included as a special feature on some DVD collections.

[3] Hired to deliver a valuable necklace for Sally Jordon (Virginia Hammond), a wealthy Honolulu resident for whom Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) had worked as a houseboy decades earlier, the detective shows up at the desert ranch estate of P.J.

Madden (Paul Harvey), posing as a servant.

In his servant guise, Charlie monitors the comings and goings of a number of suspects as it becomes apparent that a murder has taken place at the Madden estate.