PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

A Night To Remember 1942

Sandwiched between my Mock The Week marathon of late I've managed to stick in a few movies that have been showing up from Netflix. A Night To Remember is a 1942 comedy with Loretta Young and Brian Aherne. The movie is based on a novel called The Frightened Stiff by Kelly Roos, the screenplay is by Richard Flournoy and Jack Henley, with Richard Wallace directing. Richard and Jack have a nice lot of credits, including the Blondie series of movies and some other fairly descent comedies. Richard Wallace directed a good number of films but I haven't seen many of them.

Brian is a mystery writer and Loretta is his wife. His next book is going to be set in Greenwich Village and she thinks they should try living there to suck up the atmosphere. She rents the basement apartment in a building. While they are moving in Brian think he remembers the place as a speak easy. Soon after a dead body shows up.

There's a mystery going on in the apartment building. Brian and Loretta figure out what's happening and help out. There's plenty of fun dialog and silly bits going on. I'd seen it before and laughed at the same gags again. Sidney Toler plays a plays the police detective. Interesting to see him out of Charlie Chan makeup. I'd recommend it, you can give it a shot at the link in the title above.

Charlie Chan's Chance

 

I picked up a couple of Charlie Chan dvds from the library on friday and watched them today. I'd already watched the movies when I had gone through that 14 disc Charlie Chan film set that I picked up last year. The Black Camel was released in 1931 and it's the 2nd Warner Oland film as Charlie Chan. It's been restored and looks very nice. I was also interested in the bonus material on the discs. The Black Camel has a commentary by Ken Hanke and John Clark which was ok. There's a short bit on the restoration that wasn't that interesting. There are some stills in a gallery and a recreation of the 4th Warner Oland Charlie Chan film Charlie Chan's Chance. They recreated the 1932 film with actors reading the original script over stills from the original production. There were 4 Warner Oland Chan films that have become lost. I've seen two recreations. Certainly not as good as the original but interesting to see. Better than reading the script at any rate. The other disc was Charlie Chan In London and it looked nice too. There's a short featurette called The Legacy of Charlie Chan. It's only 13 minutes and it's ok. There are a lot of people commenting on the series but the only ones I had heard of were Jon L Breen and Ken Hanke.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 14 - Even the end isn't final

Here's the last of the Charlie Chan discs. It's got the last three Roland Winters Charlie Chan films. There would be another Mexican Chan film in 1955, then Ross Martin would play Chan in the 1973 The Return Of Charlie Chan and lastly Peter Ustinov would play Chan in the 1983 Charlie Chan And The Curse Of The Dragon Queen. I saw the Ustinov film just recently and it's just so awful I can't even talk about it. If you see it on dvd, buy it, break it, throw the parts into the river, toss the cover into the trash, keep the case, you know, in case you need it.

 

The Feathered Serpent was directed by William Beaudine and it came out in January 1949. Charlie and his two sons, Lee (Keye Luke) and Tommy (Victor Sen Young in his last Chan film), are on vacation with their pal Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland). They find a missing archologist. He tells a fantastic tale and is soon murdered. A search party is organized to rescue the team members who are still lost. The Chan clan tag along. They soon figure out what is going on and catch the criminals. There's the usual crime solving yammering and comedy bits.

 

The Golden Eye came out in August 1948 and it was directed by William Beaudine. For some reason the films are out of chronological order on this disc. There's gold smuggling and murder in the west. Charlie, Tommy and Birmingham Brown. The guys are in Arizona and they're undercover. Of course they find the criminals and put them in the can. It's not too bad but like the last of the films in the series it's barely average. They are still watchable but Winters just isn't as interesting a Chan as the guys he replaced were.

The Sky Dragon was released in May 1949 and it's got Charlie and Lee getting knocked out on an airplane. There'd been a murder while they snoozed. They'll figure it out and put the guy away but only after several murders. It's sadly a better film than the other two and then the series is over. I was entertained by the series and glad I picked it up.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 13 - Chan Is Eternal

The last six Charlie Chan films had Roland Winters playing the Chinese detective in the round hat.  Sidney Toler had passed away early in 1947 and the studio had to find a new Charlie. The Monogram Pictures Company is still producing the series and Mantan Moreland and Victor Sen Young still play Charlie's shadows. Even Keye Luke returns for a couple of the films.

 

The Chinese Ring came out December 1947 which was about a year after the previous film. Roland Winters does an ok job playing Charlie. He's a bit more low-key than the previous character. A Chinese Princess is murdered while visiting Charlie Chan and you know he's not going to let that go unpunished. He puts his mighty thinker to work with the help of his nearly able assistants. They chase down the baddies and have them arrested. It's one of the public domain titles and you can watch it at the link above. It's not near the top of the list of great CC films but it's watchable and familiar. This is the first Chan film directed by William Beaudine. He directed hundreds of movies over decades. Then hundreds more tv shows. He worked fast and all the time. There are some quite interesting bits of work in his filmography, while others, not so good.

 

Docks Of New Orleans came out in March 1948. There's crime in the chemical business. The head of a large chemical company comes to talk to Charlie Chan who is visiting New Orleans with number 2 son Tommy and chauffeur Birmingham Brown. The worried man is soon murdered. Charlie and the gang work to figure out who did the deed. The murdered men are killed with an elaborate trick involving vacuum tubes and sound. Another that is about the same, you know, average. Not great but it's still fun to be with the characters.

 

Shanghai Chest was released July 1948. That's a more normal schedule, 2-3 films a year, for this type of series picture. Very few film series never got this many titles. It's the second Chan film directed by William Beaudine. A judge is stabbed to death. Birmingham and Tommy see a man breaking into the house. They are arrested when the man, the owner, catches them. Turns out he's the San Francisco DA. Charlie comes to get the two of them out of jail and the DA asks him for help on the murdered judge's case. The knife had prints of a long dead man. A man who had been sentenced to death by the murdered judge. Well, Charlie will soon figure out how that trick works. Like the other two movies on this bootleg disc Shanghai Chest has a pretty talky script. Cheaper than shoting action. I'm still enjoying the movies but I'm just not as excited about these later films as I am seeing the better ones in the first half of the series.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 12 - Crime Happens Anywhere Anytime

Here's another of the three movie discs that came in the Charlie Chan 14 disc set that I got from that online dvd bootlegger. The quality of the movies varies but the version of the first movie really sucked. The other two were much better.

 

Shadows Over Chinatown came out July 1946 and we have our usual gang back. Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Young and Mantan Moreland return as Charlie Chan, #2 son Jimmy and assistant Birmingham Brown. The trio are on a bus heading to San Francisco to investigate a dead woman who was found with no limbs or head. They meet an older lady who has a missing granddaughter. Charlie offers to help her. The bus has some trouble at a stop and Charlie is shot. He's ok, his watch stopped the bullet. In San Francisco there's more running around and clue finding. They find the granddaughter and she's on the run from some criminals. Charlie catches them and saves the granddaughter, Jimmy gets knocked out and Birmingham runs around yelling. Life is good. As I said the copy on the disc isn't that good. The copy on the link is a bit better. It's about as entertaining as the majority of the series. 

 

Dangerous Money came out in October 1946. Charlie and Jimmy are travelling on a ship heading for Samoa. Willie Best is Chatanooga Brown. Charlie meets a detective who is murdered shortly after the meeting. The dead mand's room has been searched. The Captain had some of the detective's papers that give Charlie some clues. Charlie starts investigating with the help of Jimmy and Chatanooga. The assistants actually find something that helps Charlie. There's a big pile of stolen cash and a pile of valuable artwork involved. People get murdered for less, huh. Another one that delivers a nice quickly told story with some fun dialog and characters.

 

The Trap came out in November 1946. Birmingham is woken by a frantic caller and he thinks Jimmy is dead. Charlie gets Birmingham to drive him to the Malibu address the caller gave Birmingham. Jimmy comes home, finds the address on the nightstand and follows. Some show people are resting at the big house by the beach. There are some tensions in the group of actors. Minerva Urecal plays the stern housekeeper and Kirk Alyn plays the Patrol Sgt who is first on the scene. One gal has been murdered and another is missing. There's are the usual suspects and Charlie works his discoverin' magic and soon figures out who the killer is. The story is about average and that still spells fun. The slightly over an hour length is just right for the story.

This would be the last of the Charlie Chan films with Sidney Toler. He'd been getting sicker and sicker for a while and in February 1947 he passed away at home. Roland Winters will take over for the last 6 pictures produced by Mongram Pictures. He's not bad but I prefer the previous two fellows as Charlie. I'll get to those Winters films soon. I want to finish the series and put the discs away. They have been sitting out for so long now. Just so much to watch or read, you know how that is.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 11 - Asia Is Mysterious And Deadly

The holidays have been a nice opportunity to catch up with some of the dvds piling up around here. I finally got around to the next Charlie Chan disc in that collection I'd picked up. There's the next 3 adventures.

 

The Shanghai Cobra was released September 29th 1945. Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland and Benson Fong return as our heroes Charlie, Mantan and Tommy. When a third victim in New York dies, from what looks like a cobra bite, Inspector Davis wires Charlie Chan about it. Charlie had reported on a similar murder some years before in Shanghai. Charlie comes to New York and sets his skills to work. There's plenty of suspects and criminal activity. There's even more walking about and chatting to people. The murder ties in with the previous cobra killing and a long dead man comes back to life. Birmingham and Tommy get trapped in the sewer at one point. Don't worry, it's a nice sewer. Charlie rescues them, captures the real killer and sets everything to rights. There's a weird murder weapon that seems overly gimmickly. The story drags a little bit but for the most part it was fun to watch.

 

The Red Dragon came out February 2 1946. Sidney and Benson are back, this time in Mexico. No Mantan Moreland, he's probably working on another picture, so they got Willie Best playing Chattanooga Brown. The film makers fail to apply their imagination to certain aspects of the story but use it to come up with a goofy remotely controlled murder weapon. Charlie is called in to help solve a murder of a US Governement agent. The man had been undercover and assigned to keep an eye on a scientist who has discovered the 95th element. The scientist thinks it could be used to make a bomb more powerful than an atomic bomb. That can't be good, huh. The scientist's house is filled with suspects and Charlie stirs them up with his usual conversational methods. Benson and Willie bumble around and supply the comic relief. There are some Nazi's involved in there somewhere too. Everyone always likes the Nazis to get a beating. Charlie figures out who did it and is nearly killed for his work. Criminals suck, huh. Another one that was enjoyable. These films are usually 60-65 minutes long and that makes them ideal to gobble down like the hot buttered popcorn they go so well with.   

   

Dark Alibi was released May 25 1946. A man is arrested for bank robbery and murder. His daughter thinks he's innocent and she asks Charlie to help prove it. Charlie agrees with her and agrees to help find the real killer. Benson Fong is Charlie's son and Mantan Moreland returns to the series as Birmingham Brown. There's a boarding house filled with suspects and Charlie puts his detecting techniques to work to find the real bad guy. The usual antics from the guys gets the job done and it passed the enjoyability test. This is one of the movies that fell out of copyright so you can find it on the internet for free. You can get it as a dvd in one set or another. I did get some of the films from the library. Many of those dvds have restored films on them and they look much better than the bootlegs I have. Some of those dvds also have extras that were worth watching at least the one time. If I had an unlimited budget I would buy them but I'll stick with the bootleg dvd set I got off the internet.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lesson - Lesson 10 - Magic & Spying Lead To Death

 

Black Magic was later released as Meeting At Midnight and it came out September 9 1944. Sidney Toler is still Charlie Chan. The story starts with a seance. The psychic is murdered after a disembodied voice asks a question. Charlie's daughter is one of the group at the seance. Charlie, who was planning to leave town, gets called in by the LA police to lend a hand. Mantan Moreland plays the chauffer to the pyschic. He had been driving Charlie around and needed a new job since Charlie was leaving. He provides much of the comic relief along with Frances Chan who plays Charlie's daughter Frances Chan. The seance was crooked and there are plenty of suspects. The police jump to conclusions and Charlie has to catch the right killer before he can leave town.

 

The Jade Mask came out January 26 1945 and Sidney is back rockin' that black hat. That's Edwin Luke, real life brother of Keye Luke, as Eddie Chan. The setting is New York City and Charlie is still working for the Secret Service. Mantan Moreland is back driving Charlie around and commenting on the action. There are several murders and a dead man is made to walk. The usual gang of suspects fill the murdered man's mansion. Charlie digs right in and puts the collar on the killer.

 

The Scarlet Clue was released May 11 1945. Toler is still Charlie and he's still spying for the government. Benson Fong is Tommy Chan and Mantan Moreland is Birmingham Brown. They're ready to help no matter how much trouble they get into. There's a spy ring operating in a big office building where a scientist has his lab. He's working on radar and the spies want his plans. They have a deadly rigged elevator and poisonous cigarettes. Charlie has to work hard to capture that bunch of enemy agents. The master spy nearly gets away but is done in by his own trick elevator. He plummets 7 floors to his doom. Ow, huh.

The bunch of them are all pretty entertaining and they might even be slightly better than some of the previous Monogram Pictures. I'm still getting a kick out of them and plan to work through the rest of the 14 disc set as I get the time.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 9 - Suspicion Walks Among Us

Castle In The Desert came out February 27 1942 with Sidney Toler in the Charlie Chan role and Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan. It was Toler's 11th Chan film and his last at 20th Century Fox. A rich scientist lives a reclusive life in the Mojave Desert with his wife who is a decedent of the famous Borgia family. When one of their guests dies of poisoning the husband covers it up, with the help of his doctor, by moving the dead man to the hotel in town. Charlie is in San Francisco on vacation where he's joined by #1 son Jimmy who's on leave from the Army. Jimmy is restless and wants a mystery and  he doesn't have to wait very long. A note from the wife arrives for Charlie inviting him to the castle in the desert. Jimmy is disappointed when he's told the note tells Charlie to come alone. Well, we know by now that it's only for a little while, soon enough Jimmy will be right in the middle of things, and he'll be suspicious of everyone. More people will die at the isolated desert castle before Charlie puts the right guy behind bars. There are some nice stock footage shots of the desert but most of the action is in the large castle like mansion. Occasionally there are some scenes in the small nearby town. There's a psychic lady there who predicts murder. Like we didn't see that coming, huh. It's about average. I enjoyed it.

 

It would be nearly two years before the next Charlie Chan film came out. February 14 1944 saw the arrival of Charlie Chan In The Secret Service which was the first of the Monogram Pictures Chan films. After 20th Century Fox stopped making the Chan films Sidney Toler bought the rights to Charlie Chan. He went to Monogram Pictures who took on the series. They were made with less of a budget than the productions were used to, dropping from $200K to a tiny $75K, but the story is still about the same quality. Benson Fong appears as Charlie's #3 son Tommy and Mantan Morland appears as chauffer Birmingham Brown. Tommy and his sister Iris (Marianne Quon) are in town to see their dad and the city. Of course they get involved with the murder investigation of an electrocuted scientist. He's developed a new torpedo and his plans disappear. It's because of theose plans that Charlie gets involved with the case. He meets the murdered man's family and business acquaintances. We know one of them did it and they're a suspicious lot. There's are two electric murder traps that worked pretty well. There's some comedy with the Chan kids and Birmingham running about. Benson and Marianne are a bit wooden but kind of amusing. I usually like Mantan's work thought I understand that he gets a pretty bad rap for some of it. He's a pretty entertaining comedian with great timing. He'd return to the Chan series. 

  

The 2nd Monogram Pictures Chan film The Chinese Cat came out May 20 1944. Sidney, Benson and Mantan team up to help with an old murder. There's a diamond smuggling ring in there and some more murder. It doesn't stand out but it's rather fun to watch. You can watch it on YouTube below. It's one of the public domain movies. Maybe you'll like it. I'll be tackling the next disc soon.

 

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 8 - Cash & Love = Death

   

Murder Over New York came out in December 13 1940. Sidney Toler is still Charlie and Victor Sen Yung is still Jimmy. Charlie is in New York for a police convention and Jimmy is going to school in the area. When a Scotland Yard Inspector is murdered Jimmy spots the made up poisonous gas that did him in. Charlie gets to nosing around and that leads him to some people involved in the military aviation business. There's a Hindu mixed in there somewhere and the police round up all the ones in New york. Shemp Howard turns up as a fake faquir. He's really a crook who specializes in religion scams. In fact most of the Hindu's were played by white people. Trevor Burdette is in there too. There probably weren't many people of Indian descent in Hollywood in the 1940's. Eventually Charlie springs a trap and snags the murderer. Cast does a good job with the ok script. Some fun jokes and some lame ones too.

   

Dead Men Tell came out March 28 1941. This time we have Charlie in Los Angeles. Most of the movie's action takes place on board a ship that never leaves port. Jimmy is trying to sneak on board that ship, he's interested in going on a sea voyage for the adventure. Charlie is chasing after Jimmy and on the ship he meets Miss Nodbury. She's organizing a treasure hunt. She's got a map and that's what leads to her death. Someone scared her to death. Charlie takes on the case and Jimmy falls into the water a lot. At least he hasn't been arrested much lately. There are the usual cast of characters, some look suspicious and some look innocent, no matter, Charlie gets his man. Future Superman George Reeves is in the cast with a silly little mustashe. It's a fun one and well directed and shot in and about the ship.

  

Charlie Chan In Rio was released September 5 1941 and it puts Charlie and Jimmy in the South America city after a woman murderer named Lola Dean. Harold Hurber is the local chief of police. Victor Jory is a psychic who has a drug which when mixed with tobacco and coffee will put the user under a trance like state where they speak the truth. He has a recording of Lola, while under a trance, that has her admit to the killing. Before Charlie can get the cuffs on Lola she is murdered. Bummer for her, huh. Oh, well now Charlie has a new case to work on and Jimmy has the pretty Chinese maid to work on. Charlie won't let him bring her back to Honolulu though. He hands Jimmy his draft notice in the closing scene. It's another fun one.

The movies all score a 7.2 on the IMDb and that's a bit high. They aren't that great but they are fun. I'm still enjoying them and will be back in Charlie's world soon enough.

Charlie Chan In 14 Easy Lessons - Lesson 7 - Murder Never Rests

  

Charlie Chan In Panama was released in March of 1940. We find Charlie undercover in Panama City, as a hat shop keeper, when the US Fleet is going through the Canal. The city is filled with spies from all over the world. Charlie is on the look out for a certain spy, one no one has ever seen. Oh, hard to catch. A plane full of people all show up and they all go about their business. Some of that business seems suspicious and some of it involves Charlie. One of the people in the group comes into Charlie's shop and drops dead. It's murder and Charlie gets tossed into jail where he finds his son Jimmy. Victor Sen Yung plays Charlie's son Jimmy who seems to get arrested a lot. There's the usual lookin' for clues and such. We know Charlie will find that spy out and catch the killer. Maybe they were the same person. There's a ticking time bomb on top of all the murders. Lionel Atwill and Jack La Rue appear in the film. I always liked those guys. The film was about average for a Chan film which is to say it has an entertaining story and bit of humor and murder.

  

June of 1940 saw the release of Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise which is the new version of Charlie Chan Carries On. That was one of the few lost Chan films. Scotland Yard detective Duff comes to visit Charlie. He's murdered in Charlie's office and Charlie vows to continue on the man's case. He gets on the cruise ship that Duff was taking undercover. There's more murder and Jimmy antics. Lionel Atwill, Charles Middleton and Leo G Carrol are some of the cast I recognized. Most of the action is ship board with the usual bunch of suspects. Charlie gets his murderer and we're onto the next one.

  

Charlie Chan At The Wax Museum is a bit more goofy than the last film. It came out in September 1940 and the movie opens with Charlie in New York at a trial. Charlie had uncovered evidence that convicted the killer. After he's sentenced the killer escapes from the courthouse. He hides in the secret surgery of Dr Cream. The crime themed wax museum is Dr Cream's front. It's also the setting for a radio program that pits Charlie against another criminologist. That guy is real unlucky and he gets murdered during the broadcast. There's plenty of running about as Charlie works out who killed the criminologist. Victor Sen Yung returns as Jimmy Chan and he gets up to his usual dumb bits of business. It's about the same quality but the setting is more fun than most and that adds a lot to the movie. Charlie bags his criminal of course.

I'm half way through the 14 disc set of Charlie Chan films. They all seem about the same to me and while they aren't something I'll be getting really excited about it is fun to watch them. I'd certainly rewatch them and am glad to have them.