At a banquet that evening in Chan’s honor, as Sir Stanley opens a jade box supposedly containing a scroll for Chan, he is shot by a gun set to go off from inside the box. The box had been in Nash’s possession all day. Later that night, a man sneaks into Chan’s room and, with a silencer on his gun, shoots the figure in Chan’s bed and escapes.

Chan, fortunately, had slept on a sofa in his son’s room and propped pillows to resemble his figure in the bed. The next day, when Chan calls for room service, the switchboard operator telephones Ivan Marloff to inform him that Chan is still alive. Chan next visits Diana and learns that during the previous evening, someone broke into her father’s library and searched through his papers. Chan returns to his room where a man identifying himself as the chauffeur of Colonel Watkins, the chief of police, gives him a note instructing Chan to accompany the chauffeur.

After Chan leaves, Lee, realizing the ruse, tries to follow his father, but he is subdued by a taxi driver and taken to the house where Chan is being interrogated by Marloff, who is hidden in darkness. Chan and Lee trick the gang into believing that the police have followed Lee, and through Lee’s vigorous fisticuffs, manage to escape. Chan then visits James Andrews, a secret agent from Washington, and they discuss Sir Stanley, a secret agent of the British government who was cooperating with the opium committee of the League of Nations and officials in the Chinese government to round up a gang of smugglers who use Shanghai as a clearinghouse.

While they talk, Nash, now Andrews’ secretary, searches through his belongings. Noticing in a mirror a gun at the door, Chan ducks and avoids being shot. When Nash’s fingerprints are found on the gun, he is arrested. In his room, Chan heats the back of a seemingly innocuous letter marked “important” from Sir Stanley to Andrews and discovers a message, which states that Sir Stanley has made an important discovery concerning Ivan Marloff.

Chan suspects Andrews because Andrews earlier did not seem interested in the letter, but Andrews then arrives and shows Chan that he knows the secret method of communication.

Chan and Andrews search the house where Chan was held, and Chan finds a stamp pad in the fireplace.
They then go to police headquarters, where Diana arrives to see Nash, and after she slips him a gun, they escape.

Chan returns to his room to find that Lee has trailed the taxi driver who earlier abducted him to a waterfront joint called the Versailles Café. Andrews calls Chan and says that he has cracked the case. When Chan arrives at Andrews’ room, he sees Andrews beat a confession out of the chauffeur that Marloff is at the Versailles Café.

Andrews leaves with Chan for the café, where, meanwhile, Nash asks Marloff to put him on a boat for America. Calling Nash’s escape from jail a trick arranged by Chan, Marloff hits Nash and tells his men to drop him overboard once the boat sails. Upstairs, Chan and Andrews follow the taxi driver into a room where the gang waits hidden. After Chan discovers opium packets in a wine bottle, Andrews suggests that Chan go and signal the police to run the boat to the government dock.

Chan delays leaving until the police, whom Lee has called, arrive and capture the gang after a shootout. Chan reveals that it was Andrews’ valet who attempted to shoot Chan earlier and that Nash’s fingerprints were put on the gun with the stamp pad because the gang felt Nash knew too much about Sir Stanley’s investigation.

Andrews offers to remove the crooks to his government’s boats, but Chan pulls a gun on him and accuses him of being the real head of the gang. Nash had discovered through Sir Stanley’s correspondence that the real Andrews neither smoked nor drank, yet the man posing as Andrews earlier accepted Chan’s offer of scotch and cigarettes. Lee arrives with a wire photo of Andrews, who was killed three weeks earlier in San Francisco.

Chan then sends Nash to comfort Diana. Although he was earlier annoyed that his son was always tying up the phone talking to a girl, Chan allows Lee one phone call to a female friend.

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Charlie Chan in Shanghai

Sickened by the senseless violence, gang member Johnny Gannon starts to question McQuown’s authority. Now devoid of all law, the Warlock Citizen’s Committee votes to hire infamous gunman Clay Blaisdell to act as marshal and protect the town. After making a deal with the committee for $400 a month plus the management of the Palace Saloon, the local gambling parlor, Blaisdell arrives in town with his storied gold-handled pistols and his partner and close friend, Tom Morgan, a crippled gunslinger.

Blaisdell immediately warns his employers that they will soon come to hate and resent him. That night, McQuown’s gang rides into town to challenge Blaisdell, and the taunts of Curley, one of the cowboys, prompts Blaisdell to draw his gold-handled Colts. After getting the drop on Curley, Blaisdell holds his fire and then warns that he will kill anyone who draws on him and that troublemakers will not be allowed in town. Defeated, McQuown and his boys leave and Johnny decides to quit the gang.

Impressed by the marshal’s nonviolent approach, Jessie Marlowe, the pretty daughter of one of the town’s founders, apologizes for misjudging him. Later, Morgan learns that the stage is carrying Lily Dollar, his former lover, and her companion, Bob Nicholson, and gallops out to overtake it before it can reach town. From a ridge, Morgan watches as McQuown’s men stop the stage to rob it. Training his rifle on Nicholson, Morgan shoots and kills him and then disappears into the hills.

Upon reaching town, the stage driver identifies one of the robbers as Billy Gannon, Johnny’s brother, but Lily insists that a third man killed Nicholson. As Blaisdell leads a posse to San Pablo, Lily goes to the Palace and contemptuously accuses Morgan of murdering Nicholson. Years earlier, Lily fell in love with Nicholson’s brother Ben, compelling the obsessively jealous Morgan to manipulate Blaisdell into killing Ben in a gunfight.

When Blaisdell returns with his prisoners, the blood-thirsty crowd calls for a lynching and breaks into the jail. After Blaisdell disperses the crowd, the county sheriff arrives to take the prisoners into custody. Castigating the town for hiring a high-priced gunman, the sheriff challenges one of them to accept the job of deputy sheriff, and Johnny eagerly volunteers.

After the San Pablo boys are acquitted by a crooked judge, Blaisdell warns that he will kill them if they step foot in Warlock. Touched by Johnny’s earnestness, Lily invites him to dinner and asks why he left McQuown. Johnny, troubled, traces his decision to the day that McQuown and his men massacred 37 helpless Mexicans.

One day, Jessie seeks out Blaisdell to warn him that Billy and the others are headed for Warlock. When Blaisdell calls her an angel, Jessie discloses that she is restless and unhappy and they kiss. The next morning, Morgan, anxious to finish their business in Warlock and move onto the next town, tells Blaisdell that the McQuown gang has reached Warlock, and Blaisdell informs him that he has decided to settle down and marry Jessie.

As Blaisdell and Morgan march out to meet the outlaws, Johnny asks to speak to Billy. Johnny’s attempts to reason with his brother fail, however, and Billy calls out Blaisdell. After Billy fires at Blaisdell, the marshal guns him down and Billy dies in his brother’s arms.

In retaliation, Skinner, one of McQuown’s men, institutes a council of “regulators” to deal with Blaisdell. Forecasting that an army of cowboys will soon come to wreak havoc on the town, Morgan urges Blaisdell to move on but Johnny asserts that it is his job to keep the peace.

After Blaisdell delegates his authority to Johnny, Johnny rides to San Pablo to warn McQuown to stay out of Warlock. Although McQuown vindictively slashes Johnny’s gun hand, Johnny is undeterred and returns to town to face down the gang. Fearing for Johnny’s life, Lily asks Blaisdell to help him, asserting that Blaisdell owes her for killing Ben Nicholson.

When McQuown’s men appear, Morgan pulls his gun on Blaisdell and holds him prisoner, rendering him unable to come to Johnny’s aid. Johnny impassively faces McQuown, but when one of the gang tries to shoot him in the back, Skinner kills the man, assuring a fair fight. McQuown, a slow draw, is then outgunned by Johnny, who arrests the regulators. Finally realizing that Morgan goaded him into killing Nicholson, Blaisdell breaks with his long-time partner.

Insane with hatred, Morgan gets drunk, shoots up the saloon and then staggers into the street, gunning for Johnny. Claiming that Morgan is his responsibility, Blaisdell locks Johnny in a cell and then commands his old friend to leave town. When the crowd begins to jeer at him, Morgan boasts that he can beat Blaisdell and draws his gun. Blaisdell fires back, killing him, and then carries Morgan’s lifeless body to the saloon.

In pain over his loss, Blaisdell sets the saloon on fire and Johnny tells him that the time has come for him to move on. Blaisdell vows he will never go without a fight, and when Jessie pleads with him to stay with her, he muses that he is nothing without his guns. The next morning, Blaisdell faces Johnny. After drawing first, Blaisdell holds his fire, throws down his golden-handled pistols and then rides out of town.

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Warlock