Monday Night: "The New Aventures of Charlie Chan" (Happy Birthday, J. Carrill Naish!)
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “As Mr. Barnum once said, ‘When buying calf for sideshow, two heads better than one.’” (“The Secret of the Sea”)
WELCOME. This week we are celebrating the birthday of “Charlie Chan Number Four,” J. Carroll Naish, who played the detective on the 1957 television crime drama, “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan.” Interestingly, 20 years before he was Charlie Chan, Mr. Naish appeared in a very prominent role in “Charlie Chan at the Circus” with Warner Oland. The Chan TV series consists of 39 half-hour episodes, most of which were filmed on location throughout Europe and Great Britain. The two episodes that we will be viewing; “The Secret of the Sea” and “The Lost Face” were shot in the Los Angeles, California area.
Along with our Charlie Chan feature, our weekly “extra,” is the 1936 radio dramatization of “The Landini Murder Case,” which is an adaptation, starring Walter Connolly, of Earl Derr Biggers’ “Keeper of the Keys,” the only Biggers Chan Story never to have been made into a film. We continue the adventure with Episode 12.
OUR PRESENTATIONS: “The Secret of the Sea” and “The Lost Face” (Both: 1957; 25 minutes) …AND “The Landini Murder Case, Episode 12” ( Radio Drama: 1936; 15 minutes).
FILM SUMMARIES: “The Secret of the Sea”: Charlie Chan is asked by a wealthy Chinese merchant to investigate the death of his son, a worker on a ship soon bound for Hawaii. The mystery deepens when acts of sabotage begin to occur and some of the crew's lives may be in danger.
“The Lost Face”: Charlie Chan is involved in a grand jury investigation in Los Angeles. He soon becomes personally involved in the case when the wife of one of the police officers he is working with is attacked by an assailant at their home, blinded by acid thrown in her face.
FILM NOTES: Both “The Secret of the Sea” and “The Lost Face” were shot, in great part, on location in Los Angeles. In “The Secret of the Sea,” we see two familiar faces from the Charlie Chan film series: Victor Sen Yung (our Number Two Son!) and Phillip Ahn (the Chans’ son-in-law in “Charlie Chan in Honolulu” and Captain Kong in “The Chinese Ring”).
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 features for this Monday evening, “The Secret of the Sea” followed by “The Lost Face.”
LOCATION: Our Charlie Chan Family Chat Room, which is accessed at http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html.
IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILMS: Often our features can be found available online. Sadly, our featured features are NOT available online.
However, for our Charlie Chan radio drama, you may use this link: https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/crime/charlie-chan/charlie-chan-12-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/index.html)!
NEXT WEEK: Join us on Monday, January 29 for “Charlie Chan in London” starring Warner Oland.
PLEASE JOIN US as we share “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan”!
