Our TUESDAY, December 26 Chat/Film Viewing: "The Return of Charlie Chan"
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Have never met Santa Claus...yet accept gift from same.”
Merry Christmas, as we come to the conclusion of our Charlie Chan Film Tour for 2017! And, speaking of Christmas, as it falls on Monday this year, this means that our Chat and Film Viewing will take place on TUESDAY, December 26!
Our film for this concluding week will be “The Return of Charlie Chan,” starring Ross Martin as Charlie Chan. In this movie, we see an “updated” Charlie Chan who comes out of retirement at the urging of a friend, to solve a murder case, taking him to Vancouver, British Columbia. This picture was a made-for-television movie that was meant to be a pilot for a possible future Charlie Chan television series, which, sadly never materialized.
Also, as our weekly “extra,” we will be sharing another of the cartoons from the 16-episode cartoon series from 1972 which featured KEYE LUKE as the voice of Charlie Chan, “The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan.” The episode we will be sharing is “The White Elephant.”
OUR PRESENTATIONS: “The Return of Charlie Chan” (1971; 91 minutes) …AND “The White Elephant” (1972; 22 minutes).
FILM SUMMARY: The patriarch of the ultra-wealthy Hadrachi family, Alex Hadrachi, shipping magnate and fifth-richest man in the world, is shot at aboard his luxury boat one evening as he is talking with Richard Lovell, one of his guests. Refusing to report the incident to the nearby Vancouver police, writer Andrew Kidder, a friend of Charlie Chan, suggests that Hadrachi call on the famous detective for assistance.
FILM NOTES: “The Return of Charlie Chan” was the pilot film for a projected Charlie Chan TV series. However, the project was shelved due to pressure-group complaints over the casting of a Caucasian in the lead. Although the film was released theatrically in Europe in 1973, it was not seen by American audiences until it was finally aired on U.S. television by NBC in 1979.
TIME: We begin with arrivals and greetings at 7:30 EASTERN TIME. Then, we share our special short “extra” which will be followed at exactly 8:15 when we roll our feature for this Monday evening, “The Return of Charlie Chan.”
LOCATION: Our Charlie Chan Family Chat Room, which is accessed at http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html.
IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILM: Often our features can be found available online. Happily, good fortune shines her face, as our featured film IS available online at this address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0WDtcPVRUw
And, for our Chan cartoon, you may use this link: https://watchcartoonsonline.to/watch/the-amazing-chan-and-the-chan-clan-episode-13-the-gypsy-caper/
OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our December 2017 Poll, located at our Entrance Page (www.charliechan.info)!
NEXT WEEK: Join us on TUESDAY, January 2, as we kick-off our Charlie chan Film Tour for 2018 with our feature “Behind that Curtain,” with E.L. Park, briefly, as Charlie Chan, and featuring an early “talkie” appearance of Boris Karloff.
SO, please, following a very Merry Christmas, please join in on the TUESDAY fun as we wind up 2017 and watch and share “The Return of Charlie Chan.”
