Our TUESDAY, January 2 Chat/Film Viewing: "Behind That Curtain"
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Begin at best place - beginning.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR, as we kick-off our Charlie Chan Film Tour for 2018! As always, it should prove to be a fun-filled year-long group journey as we re-encounter Charlie Chan, his family, his sons and daughters, old friends, and, yes, that collection of nefarious villains who plague the law and threaten our famous, world-renowned detective! All of this starts as we gather on TUESDAY, January 2!
Our initial film will be “Behind That Curtain,” with E.L. Park as Charlie Chan. In this adaptation of Earl Derr Biggers’ story of the same name, Charlie Chan, as was the practice in the initial “Charlie Chan” movies, the Chinese detective plays a very minor role in the plot, appearing at the very final stages of the picture. Produced in 1929, this was Fox Films’ first “Chan” film. As we watch this production, we can see, and hear, how we are witnessing the very earliest steps into the sound era, including the opening title music played by an organist, harking to the practice common during the silent era of such musical accompaniment in movie houses. In spite of the apparent shortcomings in “Behind That Curtain,” there are moments of brightness, including the appearance of Boris Karloff in a very early, if not his earliest, speaking role in a movie! Two years later, in 1931, Fox Films, casting Warner Oland in the title role, would finally bring Charlie Chan to main character status with “Charlie Chan Carries On.”
Also, we resume our practice of offering a weekly “extra,” which will be an encore of the 1936 radio dramatization of “The Landini Murder Case,” which was an adaptation, starring Walter Connolly, of Earl Derr Biggers’ “Keeper of the Keys,” which is the only Biggers Chan Story never to have been made into a film. We begin with Episode 9, as the first eight are presently lost to us, unfortunately.
OUR PRESENTATIONS: “Behind That Curtain” (1929; 91 minutes) …AND “The Landini Murder Case, Episode 9” (1936; 15 minutes).
FILM SUMMARY: Eve Mannering, daughter of a wealthy Englishman, marries Eric Durand, a fortune hunter, who kills the investigator hired by Eve's father to examine his past. Upon discovering the plot, Eve leaves him and joins an old family friend on a desert expedition from India to Persia. Later, fearing that she will implicate him in her affairs, Eve deserts him and travels to San Francisco.
FILM NOTES: The novel “Behind That Curtain,” by Earl Derr Biggers, was originally published serially in ‘The Saturday Evening Post’ between March 31 and May 5, 1928. “Behind That Curtain,” a film in which Charlie Chan appears only at the climactic moments at the close of the picture, was later remade as “Charlie Chan's Chance” (1932).
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, our featured film IS available online at this address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ0RpwSO4wo
And, for our Chan radio drama, you may use this link: https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/crime/charlie-chan/charlie-chan-09-landini
OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our January 2018 Poll, located at our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info)!
NEXT WEEK: Join us on Monday, January 8, as we share “Eran Trece” (“There Were Thirteen”), staring Manuel Arbo in the Spanish language version of the “lost” film, “Charlie Chan Carries On.”
SO, again, HAPPY NEW YEAR, may 2018 see you prosperous and happy, and please consider joining in on the fun on TUESDAY as we begin our Charlie Chan Film Tour 2018 with “Behind That Curtain.”
