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

OUR CHAT ROOM: Our Chat Room can be accessed the same way that we accessed By going to our “Chat Room” link at charliechan.info, or use this direct link: http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html

While our “new” Chat Room is not as “fun” as our old Parachat room (sadly, no sound effects!), still, it is proving to be quite functional as far as the “basics” are concerned, and it seems to be working well for the most part.

THIS WEEK: It’s “Warner Oland v. Boris Karloff” as Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, work with the Los Angeles police to solve a strange murder at an opera house. The main suspect is an unseen escaped mental patient with past connections to individuals in an opera production, who has recently escaped from a sanitarium!

OUR PRESENTATIONS: “Charlie Chan at the Opera” (1936; 68 minutes) AND we have as our “extra” presentation, the TWELFTH chapter of the World War II movie serial, “The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack“ (1943; 20 minutes), which features our Number One Son, Keye Luke AND “Pop,” Sidney Toler in supporting roles!

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 Reporter’ 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.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: For detailed information on our feature, “Charlie Chan at the Opera,” please go to: http://www.charliechan.info/id30.html

TIME: We begin with arrivals and greetings at 7:30 EASTERN TIME. Then, we share our “extra” presentation which will be followed at exactly 8:15 when we roll our feature for our 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 online. Happily, both our feature as well as our extra are available online. Please use the links provided at our Chat Room.

OUR MARCH MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our new MARCH 2019 POLL, located at our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info/index.html)!

OUR CCF CHAT ARCHIVE: Please take a look at our growing collection of CCF Chat Texts from 2018 and this year: http://www.charliechan.info/id630.html

NEXT WEEK: Please join us on Monday, April 1, as we move along on our Charlie Chan Film Tour with “Charlie Chan at the Olympics” (1937).

SO, PLEASE JOIN US for this week’s Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing as we continue our group tour through the entire Charlie Chan film series…and more…with our feature, “Charlie Chan at the Opera.”

DOWNLOAD OUR CHARLIE CHAN FAMILY NEWSLETTER: If anyone has yet to access it, Included is a link where you will find a copy of “The Charlie Chan Family 2018 Newsletter” (Issue No. 1), edited by Lou Armagno, whom we know as HonoluLou. Mr. Armagno, as you will see, put together the contributions of a number of CCF members, creating a masterpiece that will be a shining star in Charlie Chan family lore! If, for any reason, you are unable to access the links provided, please view the copy that was placed into our Study at our Charlie Chan family Home: http://www.charliechan.info/id632.html. You may also access “The Charlie Chan family 2018 Newsletter” at this address online: https://thepostmanonholidayhome.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/2018-newsletter-master.1.pdf.

Sincerely,

Rush Glick