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Monday Evening (3/26): "Charlie Chan at the Opera"!

FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Man who ride on merry-go-round often enough finally catch brass ring.”

THIS WEEK, Billed as “Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff,” we find Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, on the trail of a madman who stalks the passageways and back rooms of a Los Angeles opera house! How many will perish before “Gravelle sings tonight”?

Preceding our Charlie Chan feature, our weekly “extra,” will be another chapter, episode 22) of the 1936 radio dramatization of “The Landini Murder Case,” an adaptation, of Earl Derr Biggers’ “Keeper of the Keys,” the only Biggers Chan Story never to have been made into a film, starring Walter Connolly.

OUR PRESENTATIONS: “Charlie Chan at the Opera” (1936; 68 minutes) …AND “The Landini Murder Case,” Episode 22 (Radio Drama: 1936; 15 minutes).

FILM SUMMARY: Gravelle, a former baritone believed dead after an opera house fire seven years before, has been confined in a mental institution, suffering from amnesia. His memory, rekindled when sees a news story about his former wife's current appearance in an opera in Los Angeles, escapes and seeks revenge for the failed attempt on his life years earlier. When those involved in the crime are found stabbed to death, Charlie Chan and son Lee try to find out if the fugitive Gravelle is the one responsible.

FILM NOTES: The film's title card reads: "Twentieth Century-Fox presents Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff in Charlie Chan at the Opera." Although contemporary reviews call Margaret Irving's character "Lucretia Barelli," she is called "Anita Barelli" in the film. A ‘Motion Picture Daily’ news item noted that the picture was banned in Germany for having "too many murders." The ‘Hollywood Reporte’r noted that public response to the film's preview was so positive that Twentieth Century-Fox planned to up the production and advertising budgets for the Charlie Chan series, and that future films would see "Warner Oland co-starred with a top name opposite." The first star the studio was said to be approaching to star with Oland was Peter Lorre. According to another ‘Hollywood Reporter’ news item, this film marked the first time that a DeBrie camera, which was lighter and more quiet than other models, was used in the United States. According to modern sources, director H. Bruce Humberstone borrowed some of the sets from “Café Metropole” for this film. Oscar Levant, in his autobiographical writings, states that he was assigned to write an operatic sequence that would take advantage of a Mephistophelian costume that had been created for Lawrence Tibbett in a previous Twentieth Century-Fox film (presumably “Under Your Spell”). Levant also relates that the words for the opera were written originally in English by William Kernell and then translated into Italian by "studio linguists." Benson Fong, who later portrayed Number Three Son, Tommy Chan, briefly appeared unbilled in this film as one of the opera extras (the third "soldier" from the left as they are first seen lined up). Baritone Tudor Williams provided Boris Karloff's operatic singing voice.

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, “Charlie Chan at the Opera.”

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. Once again, we are blessed by good fortune as our feature IS available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km3bVSDR5o4

And, for our Charlie Chan radio drama, you may use this link: https://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/crime/charlie-chan/charlie-chan-22-landini

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our March 2018 Poll, located at our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info/index.html)!

NEXT WEEK: Join us on April 2 as we join Charlie Chan and Olympian son, Lee, in “Charlie Chan at the Olympics.”

SO, PLEASE JOIN US this week as we share “Charlie Chan at the Opera”!

Sincerely,

Rush Glick