OUR CCF MONDAY EVENING CHATS AND FILM VIEWINGS FOR December 21-January 6:
“The New Adventures of Charlie Chan,” “The Return of Charlie Chan,” and “Behind That Curtain”

FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Small, but high-storied buildings, rise from gradual accumulation of small bricks.” (“An Exhibit in Wax”)

GREETINGS! This will be a "TRIPLE ISSUE" of our weekly Chat notice! In the next three weeks, we will be sharing two episodes of “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan,” “The Return of Charlie Chan,” and “Behind That Curtain” as we round out 2020 and head into the New Year!

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

OUR PRESENTATIONS for December 21: Two episodes of “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan”: “The Patient in Room 21” and “An Exhibit in Wax” (both 1957; 25 minutes); along with our “extra,” the 12th episode of: “The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack” with Keye Luke…and Sidney Toler! (1943; 20 minutes).

OUR PRESENTATIONS for December 28: We round out this year’s trip through the Charlie Chan series and more with “The Return of Charlie Chan” (1973; 93 minutes); along with our “extra,” the FINAL episode of “The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack” with Keye Luke…and Sidney Toler! (1943; 20 minutes).

OUR PRESENTATIONS for December 21: We kick-off our “Charlie Chan Film Tour, 2021” with “Behind That Curtain” (1929; 91 minutes); along with our “extra,” a vintage Charlie Chan radio mystery: “The Baffling Murder of Col. Willoughby” (Part 1)! (15 minutes).

FEATURE SUMMARIES:

“The Patient in Room 21”: Charlie Chan seeks to uncover the mystery of a doctor at a London hospital who may have been a doctor in Canada who was convicted of committing a mercy killing a decade earlier.

“An Exhibit in Wax”: During a visit to Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London, Charlie Chan and Inspector Duff witness what appears to be a senseless attack on a wax exhibit of a murderer who was convicted three decades before. Soon, Chan uncovers evidence indicating that the wrong man may have been hanged for the crime.


“The Return of Charlie Chan”: 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.


“Behind That Curtain”: Eve Mannering, daughter of a wealthy Englishman, marries Eric Durand, a fortune hunter, who kills the investigator hired by Eve's father to examine his past. Upon discovering the plot, Eve leaves him and joins an old family friend on a desert expedition from India to Persia. Later, fearing that she will implicate him in her affairs, Eve deserts him and travels to San Francisco.

TRIVIA: “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan” stars J. Carrol Naish who appeared in “Charlie Chan at the Circus” starring Warner Oland. “The Return of Charlie Chan,” a made-for-television movie, was a “pilot” for a possible Charlie Chan TV series starring Ross Martin. “Behind That Curtain” offers the first appearance of Boris Karloff in a motion picture with sound. E.L. Park, Charlie Chan in this film, was the father of Bo Ling, who appeared in both “The Black Camel” and “Charlie Chan in Shanghai.”

IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILMS: Often our features can be found online. GOOD NEWS, ALL of our presentations ARE AVAILABLE online!

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our December 2020 POLL, found as you scroll down our Entrance Page (http://www.charliechan.info/index.html)!

OUR NOVEMBER POLL RESULT:

QUESTION: Do you support a return of Charlie Chan to cinema or television, reimagined for today's audience as we have seen with the likes of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and others?

Definetly 79%

Maybe 7%

Not sure 7%

No way 7%

Please cast your vote in our DECEMBER Poll!

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

AND… DON’T MISS THIS GREAT CHARLIE CHAN BLOG!: AND… DON’T MISS THIS GREAT CHARLIE CHAN BLOG!: Continuing strongly in 2020, a great blog site, The Postman on Holiday, is 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." Updated each month, it can be found at this address: www.thepostmanonholiday.com

A BONUS FROM MIKE in DC!

Our stalwart Charlie Chan Family member, Mike in DC has shared a remarkable personal musical project at our Message Board! For those who have not seen and heard it, here is his post as well as the links to his work:

“We (MnR) are sorry to have missed the last several Chan family movie nights. Rachel is up to her ears with work and Mike is hanging out with some improvising musicians these days, and we have a major hangout time on Monday evening with the NY/DC and LA crews getting together to do really fun (i.e. "weird") stuff.

“But staying connected to "our" *extended* family is important. So Mike has been improvising with movies. Here are links to two of his recent efforts.

“(Just tried this out--you'll have to copy/paste the links and possibly download the videos. Apologies, but this is the best we can do. YouTube will zap these because of 'potential copyright violations.' Grrrr. But the links get you to the "stuff.")

“1. A silent animated "cartoon" from the 1920s called "Fantasmagorie." Mike is improvising a solo clarinet sound track.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZNkOZlL9bDAEG76GLKZIllTrHDP-CsTS/view?usp=sharing

“2. Mike's pet project: The opening scene from "The Shanghai Chest." This is one of the Monogram Chans with mediocre music. But the opening sequence is over three minutes of screen time with NO DIALOGUE. Mike left in a few subtitles to illustrate the action--but he stripped out the Monogram music and did a clarinet improv along with Chan. It's a way to connect his work as a musician with his Chan family. And it's just fun to do. Enjoy!

“MnR will be back with "the family" in the new year. In the meantime, keep enjoying the Chan Life, and have a happy and healthy holiday season!

“Best wishes,

MnR in DC”

We ALL thank you so much, Mike!

SO, REMEMBER, PLEASE JOIN US over the next three weeks for all of our worthy features!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and THANK YOU SO MUCH…

Sincerely,

Rush Glick