FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Man who ride tiger cannot dismount.”

THIS WEEK: We usher in the Roland Winters era of the Charlie Chan film series, proper with our film, “The Chinese Ring.” The detective is now based in San Francisco, Jimmy is now called “Tommy” (there are “theories on that!), there is no mention from here on out about the detective’s honorable wife (has she joined her venerated ancestors?), but we still have Birmingham Brown, and surprises abound as the series moves toward its conclusion!

OUR PRESENTATIONS: “The Chinese Ring” (1947; 68 minutes) AND we continue our “extra” presentation with another cartoon episode of “The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan,” starring Keye Luke, who provides the voice of Charlie Chan: “Captain Kidd’s Doubloons“ (1972; 20 minutes). (Unfortunately, with our online versions of our Chan Clan cartoons seen through YouTube, commercials are sometimes automatically inserted at the beginning and each 5 minutes.)

FILM SUMMARY: Mei Ling, a Chinese princess, arrives in San Francisco aboard the boat Shanghai Maid, and, several weeks later, visits Charlie Chan at his home. She gives Chan's butler and assistant, Birmingham Brown, an ancient Chinese ring, and while she is momentarily alone, an assailant kills her by shooting a poison dart through the window. As she is dying, the princess is able to write "Capt. K" on a piece of paper, but is unable to finish the full name. Chan, with the help of Number Two Son, Tommy, and Birmingham, soon finds himself in the midst of international intrigue and danger as he seeks to discover the identity of the mysterious Captain K and the murderer of Princess Mei Ling’

FILM NOTES: The title card on this film reads: “Charlie Chan in "The Chinese Ring.’" The film's working titles were “The Mandarin's Secret,” “The Red Hornet,” and “Charlie Chan and the Chinese Ring.” Independent Film Journal reviewed the picture as The Red Hornet. Although Call Bureau Cast Service lists Valerie Ardis as "Stenographer," the ‘Variety’ review and studio production files list Charmienne Harker in the role. This film marked the first Charlie Chan film to star Roland Winters, who was chosen to replace Sidney Toler who had died earlier in 1947.

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 Chinese Ring.”

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, and, happily, this week’s feature IS available for viewing at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esPUhV9TRrs&t=1227s

For our Charlie Chan cartoon, “Captain Kidd’s Doubloons,” you may use this link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4204nd

(Unfortunately, with our online versions of our films and Chan Clan cartoons, commercials might be automatically inserted throughout.)

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

NEXT WEEK: Join us on Monday, October 28, as we hold our Annual Charlie Chan family Virtual Halloween Party! This is always one of the most popular of our weekly gatherings! Our spooky feature will be “Charlie Chan’s Secret,” featuring séances, a mysterious old house with many secret passages, and, of course…MURDER! Come “costumed” as any character from the Charlie Chan film series, proper: good or evil, human or animal (signing in – incognito – as the character you have chosen)!

THE COMPLETE 39-EPISODE COLLECTION OF “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CHARLIE CHAN”…A BARGAIN ON EBAY: What I consider to be the best collection available of "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" is now being offered at The Nostalgia Merchant Store on eBay for $25.98 with FREE POSTAGE! This is your chance to purchase all 39 episodes of this 1957 TV crime series starring J. Carroll Naish as Charlie Chan with James Hong as his Number One Son, Barry. That's just 65 cents per episode!

At different points during our yearlong tours through the entire Charlie Chan series, we share a pair of these half-hour-long adventures. (These are RARELY available for viewing online, and even then, perhaps one or two random episodes at best!) This is a great opportunity for anyone who lacks these adventures in their personal collections to pick up one of these nicely produced box sets, which is one of the two versions that I have.

Here is the link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Charlie-Chan-Complete-Series-TV-Classics/123258830834?hash=item1cb2cc7ff2:g:UX8AAOSwAOdbT~Pk

SO, PLEASE JOIN US for our Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing as we share “The Chinese Ring.”

Sincerely,

Rush Glick