Charlie Chan's Secret (1935) on Netflix

Plot summary

Chan is looking into the disappearance of Alan Coleby, the heir to a large estate, when word comes that the liner Alan sailed on has gone down near Hawaii. Among the wreckage the detective recovers a diary showing that someone had been trying to kill the young man. Chan sends a cable to Alan's aunt, Henrietta Lowell, in San Francisco, saying her nephew's fate is unconfirmed, then travels there himself. Mrs. Lowell believes in psychic research and arranges a séance, led by the medium Carlotta and attended by Carlotta's husband, Professor Bowan, Mrs. Lowell's daughters Alice and Janice, Alice's friend the reporter Dick Williams, Janice's husband Fred Gage, the servant Ulrich, and Chan. Alan turns up at the family estate and is struck by a dagger as he steps inside.