FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Ancient proverb say, ‘Never bait trap with wolf to catch wolf’."

OUR CONTINUING SAGA… Our Charlie Chan Family Website has, for over 20 years, been supported by Tripod, a Website-building support that offered “Trellix” as a tool by which to build and maintain our site. HOWEVER, Tripod has not fully supported its Trellix tool for some time now, and, as time passes, it is becoming less and less reliable. This has brought about something of an emergency need to move on to some other support ASAP! We are, with the help of some of our Charlie Chan Family members, looking into alternatives. The worst case scenario would be that the entire site would need to be reconstituted painstakingly from scratch. This would be the proverbial mammoth undertaking, and, hopefully, this will not be what eventually happens! It is still hoped that we can “migrate’ our site to another support. Thank you so much for your understanding if you find errors or old information as well as a lack of new information growing at our present site…

AND, ON A HAPPIER NOTE…GREETINGS! This week, a series of gruesome murders changes Charlie Chan’s plans as he arrives in San Francisco, following a very eventful bus trip, with assistants Number Two Son, Jimmy and Birmingham Brown.

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 PRESENTATION: “Shadows Over Chinatown” (1945; 64 minutes); along with our “extra,” a Charlie Chan radio mystery, (1936; 15 minutes).

FEATURE INTRODUCTION: Charlie Chan, Number Two Son, Jimmy, and assistant, Birmingham Brown, are all on a bus heading south to San Francisco to investigate a murder case involving an unidentified armless, legless, headless torso. Chan learns that an elderly woman, Mrs. Conover, is traveling to San Francisco to search for her missing granddaughter, Mary. He tells the concerned woman that he will do what he can to help her find her missing loved one.

FEATURE NOTES: This film's working titles were “Corpus Delecti” and “The Mandarin's Secret.” Shadows Over Chinatown featured the return of Sen Yung (Victor Sen Young) as Charlie Chan's Number Two Son, whose previous appearance had been as a member of the U.S. Army Signal Corps on leave in “Castle in the Desert” (1942). Victor Sen Yung's return to the Chan series, now being produced at Monogram Pictures, in a case of art mirroring life in the case of Jimmy Chan, followed his return to civilian life after having served in the Army Air Forces during the war.

CAST (as credited):

Sidney Toler: Charlie Chan
Mantan Moreland: Birmingham Brown
Victor Sen Young: Jimmy Chan
Tanis Chandler: Mary Conover (alias Mary McCoy)
John Gallaudet: Jeff Hay (alias for Craig Winfield)
Paul Bryar: Mike Rogan
Bruce Kellogg: [Corporal] Jack Tilford (alias Joe Thomas; Corporal Joe Thompson)
Alan Bridge: Captain Allen
Mary Gordon: Mrs. Conover
Dorothy Granger: Joan Mercer
Jack Norton: Cosgrove
George Eldredge: Lannigan
Tyra Vaughn: Miss Chalmers
Lyle Latell: Police Clerk
Myra McKinney: Kate Johnson
Harry Depp: Dr. Denby
Gladys Blake: Myrtle

UNCREDITED CAST (alphabetical):

Kit Carson: Hotel Clerk

George Chan
Jimmy Dugan: Police Driver
Louise Franklin: Maid
Doris Fulton: Angie
Jack Hamilton: Pronnet
Charlie Jordan: Jenkins
James B. Leong: Chinese Curio Shop Owner
Frank Mayo: Police Lieutenant
Jack Mower: Hobart
Bob Reeves: Man Leaving Bus Terminal
Brick Sullivan: Police Officer
FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION ON OUR FEATURE: Please go to http://www.charliechan.info/id53.html

THIS WEEK’S TERM: dizzy - (Slang) Scatterbrained or silly.

Mike Rogan: "Hold it, Boss, that dizzy dame's beating it!"

THIS WEEK’S IMAGE: Following an attempt on his life at the Emigrant Gap bus station, Charlie Chan questions Jack Tillford, a Marine on leave. (Note the misspelling of "Charlie" on this still!)



For a viewing of more than 500 images from ALL films in the Charlie Chan series and MORE, please visit our Gallery: http://www.charliechan.info/id48.html

IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FILM: Often our features can be found online. With profound regret, this is NOT the case this week as “Shadows Over Chinatown” IS NOT AVAILABLE online.

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your vote in our SEPTEMBER 2021 POLL, right here: September 2021 Poll

OUR AUGUST POLL RESULT:

QUESTION: In honor of Earl Derr Biggers' birth month: Had the author lived to write a seventh Charlie Chan mystery following Keeper of the Keys (which was set in the locales of Lake Tahoe and Reno), where, in your opinion, would it have taken place?

Back in Honolulu 43%
San Francisco (perhaps on his way back home from the previous case) 29%
Elsewhere on the U.S. mainland 21%
In a more distant, foreign location 7%

NEXT WEEK (September 20): We will be traveling to the South Seas to share a viewing of “Dangerous Money.”

AND… DON’T MISS THIS GREAT CHARLIE CHAN BLOG!: AND… DON’T MISS THIS GREAT CHARLIE CHAN BLOG!: 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

SO, REMEMBER, PLEASE JOIN US for this week’s feature, “Shadows Over Chinatown.”

THANK YOU SO MUCH…

Sincerely,

Rush Glick