C Chan Movies | TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection (Dark Alibi / Dangerous Money / The Trap / The...

On the Way Down | TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection (Dark Alibi / Dangerous Money / The Trap / The Chinese Ring) | Sidney Toler, Roland Winters

DVDs:


	• TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection (Dark Alibi / Dangerous Money / The Trap / The Chinese Ring) Sidney Toler, Roland Winters Warner Home Video, 2010 average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Even bad Chan better than no Chan

These aren't the "cream of the crop" among the Chan films, but they're fun to watch just the same. I'm waiting for TCM to release the remainder of the Chan films that have yet to find their way to DVD. When they do, I'll buy them!

C Chan Movies

Got these as a gift for my wife. She loves watching Charlie Chan movies.

On the Way Down

Last night I watched the first of the four Charlie Chan movies in the new set, DARK ALIBI. I gave it one star. The story is absurdly convoluted and unconvincing in its resolution. Sidney Toler was getting on in years and wasn't in very good health (only a couple of years away from his death), and lines that are fluffed were simply not reshot. Benson Fong was fine, though under- or misused in the role of Number 3 Son, Tommy Chan. And then there's the dreadful Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown, whose presence destroys every film he's in. However, he's paired off with someone named Ben Carter (playing a character called Carter, though he's supposedly Birmingham's brother), and they do a brilliant set of vaudeville turns where each one interrupts the other. This appeared first in an earlier Chan film, THE SCARLET CLUE. Here it was milked for all it was worth...which turned out to be the highlight of the film.

Somewhat less convoluted, DANGEROUS MONEY concerns smuggling and extortion on a passenger ship bound for Samoa. Charlie Chan and Number Two Son, Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) are on hand, as is Chattanooga Brown (Willie Best), another of those stammering, wide-eyed black characters, though hardly so obnoxious as Mantan Moreland but still afraid of his own shadow. Just who the guilty party is is up for grabs until the final three minutes. As for why he (dressed in drag) is killing is a bit muddled. Not one of the best, certainly, but superior to the previous film.

THE TRAP is the last Charlie Chan film to star Sidney Toler, who was in the process of dying of cancer and barely made it through his final films. He died six months after the completion of this turkey. It's painful to watch him in these last films. One might wonder why he kept making them, when he was so obviously in pain. But he owned the series, having bought the screen rights to the franchise when 20th Century Fox decided to drop the series after Toler's first 11 Chan films. Perhaps he was obligated? (An article I read online says that he bought the rights to the stories from the author, but that Fox sold the screen rights to Monogram. Whatever.) Maybe he was just one of those workhorses who refuse to be put out to pasture. At any rate, it's sad to watch him.

THE CHINESE RING is the first of the Chan movies to star Roland Winters as Chan...and a less convincing Asian would be awfully hard to come by. Okay, Warner Oland was from Sweden and Sidney Toler was from Missouri...but they come across as real Asians compared to Roland Winters. I mean, look at him! Aside from the eyebrows and the little beard under the lip, there's nothing remotely oriental about that face...or the accent or the physicality of the performance. Pathetic! Also pathetic is his final summation, which ought to be inscribed on every feminist's marching banner: "Woman not made for heavy thinking but should always decorate scene like blossom of plum."

Anyway, that boxed set is now on the shelf, along with the other Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto and Mr. Wong films...and there it will stay! I do hope, however, that someone will put out a set of the remaining Toler films, THE RED DRAGON and SHADOWS OVER CHINATOWN.

for more information click here

Tcm Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection

The first 3 films were the classicCharlie Chan ( Sidney Toler) style. Very funny ! Light mystery, But true to form with all the other Chan movies. I did not care for the last movie maybe because of the different actor who played Chan.

On the whole I enjoyed this collection.

Sincerely,

Christine

Charlie Chan Collection

I have been a Charlie Chan fan since my teenage years. These take me back to the days when movies were entertaining acting instead of computer generated antics.
Some things cannot be replaced and these are great.

I highly recommend Charlie Chan for the mystery buffs out there who may not be old
enough to remember those good days at the theatres. These are truly, like all Charlie Chan Movies, worth the time to relax and enjoy.

for more information click here

TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

hot