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OUR CCF MONDAY EVENING CHAT AND FILM VIEWING FOR December 30, 2019: "The Return of Charlie Chan"

OUR CCF MONDAY EVENING CHAT AND FILM VIEWING FOR December 30, 2019:
"The Return of Charlie Chan"

FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Thousand friends too few.” (“Charlie Chan in Panama”)

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

THIS WEEK’S PRESENTATIONS: As we round out our Charlie Chan Film Tour, 2019, with “The Return of Charlie Chan” (1973; 91 minutes) along with our “extra,” the Charlie Chan radio drama, “The Romantic Engineer“ (26 minutes).

“THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN” CAST:

Ross Martin: Charlie Chan

Rocky Gunn: Peter Chan

Virginia Ann Lee: Doreen Chan

Leslie Nielsen: Alex Hadrachi

Richard Haydn: Andrew Kidder

Louise Sorel: Ariane Hadrashi

Joseph Hindy: Paul Hadrashi

Kathleen Widdoes: Irene Hadrashi

Don Gordon: Lambert

Peter Donat: Noel Adamson

Soon-Taik Oh: Stephen Chan

Ernest Harada: Oliver Chan

Pearl Hong: Jan Chan

Adele Yoshioka: Mai-Ling Chan

Otto Lowy: Anton Grombach

Pat Gage: Sylvia Grombach

William Nunn: Fielding

Ted Greenhalgh: Dr. Howard Jamison

Graeme Campbell: McKenzie

Neil Dainard: Richard Lowell

John Juliani: Gian Carlo Tui

FEATURE SUMMARY: The patriarch of the ultra-wealthy Hadrachi family, Alex Hadrachi, shipping magnate and fifth-richest man in the world, is shot at aboard his luxury boat one evening as he is talking with Richard Lovell, one of his guests. Refusing to report the incident to the nearby Vancouver police, writer Andrew Kidder, a friend of Charlie Chan, suggests that Hadrachi call on the famous detective for assistance.

FEATURE NOTES: “The Return of Charlie Chan” was a pilot film for a projected Charlie Chan television series. However, the project was shelved due to pressure-group complaints due to the casting of a Caucasian in the lead role. Although the film was released theatrically in Europe in 1973, it was not seen by American audiences until it was finally aired on U.S. television by NBC in 1979.

TRIVIA: “The Return of Charlie Chan” was filmed in 1971 but was not broadcast on American television until 1979. This American TV film was shown on British television in 1973, several years ahead of its first showing on American TV; it was shown under the title, "Happiness Is a Warm Clue."

WORD OF THE WEEK: “Happiness is…” Starting in the mid-1960s and running through the remainder of the decade was something of a cultural “happiness is…” fad. This may have begun with the “peanuts” comic strip book by Charles Shultz, “Happiness is a Warm Puppy.” Kent cigarettes made use of this phrase in a series of television commercials (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9jGRFJXmfU), and even the Beatles used the phrase in their 1968 song, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvnOH060Qg). When “The Return of Charlie Chan” was produced at the dawn of the next decade, it had the secondary title, “Happiness is a Warm Clue.”

TIME: We begin with greetings at 7:30 EASTERN TIME. Then, we share our “extra” presentation, “The Romantic Engineer,” which will be followed at exactly 8:15 when we roll our first feature for our 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 online. Fortunately, OUR FEATURE IS AVAILABLE ONLINE, so please use the link provided at our Chat Room.

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in the closing hours of our DECEMBER 2019 POLL, found as you scroll down our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info/index.html)! This month’s question: “In your opinion, who (of two Chan sons) provided the better ‘pairing’ with Birmingham Brown?” VOTE!!

OUR NOVEMBER POLL RESULT:

Would you like to see the revival of a collaborative group-produced Charlie Chan script project?

Yes 90%

No 10%

DO YOU HAVE A POLL QUESTION? Please feel free to suggest a Monthly Poll question! Send your ideas to: charliechanfamily@lyahoo.com.

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

NEXT WEEK: Please join us on Monday, January 6, as we kick-off our Charlie Chan Film Tour for 2020 as we view “Behind That Curtain,” with E.L. Park (briefly!) as Charlie Chan, and a very early appearance of Boris Karloff, who would later square off against Warner Oland in “Charlie Chan at the Opera.”

DON’T MISS THIS GREAT CHARLIE CHAN BLOG!: Continuing strongly in 2020, great blog site, The Postman on Holiday, offered by our own Charlie Chan and Earl derr Biggers expert, Lou Armagno which is: "A place to explore all things surrounding Detective Charlie Chan, his creator Earl Derr Biggers, and their connection with Hawaii, Cleveland, and mystery fiction." It can be found at this address: The Postman on Holiday, a place to explore all things surrounding Detective Charlie Chan, his creator Earl Derr Biggers, and their connection with Hawaii, Cleveland, and mystery fiction." It can be found at this address: https://thepostmanonholiday.com/

SO, PLEASE JOIN US for this week’s Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing as we share “THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN.”

THANK YOU SO MUCH…

Sincerely,

Rush Glick