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OUR CCF MONDAY EVENING CHAT AND FILM VIEWING FOR DECEMBER 12 “The Sky Dragon”

FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Ideas planted too soon often like seeds on winter ground - quickly die.”

NOTE: PLEASE vote in our DECEMBER Poll! The poll can be reached at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SP2NN9Q

GREETINGS: Murder in the sky brings Charlie Chan, along with Son, Lee, and assistant Birmingham Brown into the search for an answer along a dangerous road toward the solution! Sadly, with this film, we have reached the end of the Charlie Chan film series. However, we will be capping off 2022 with two more weeks of Charlie Chan!

OUR CHAT ROOM is located at: http://www.charliechan.info/id17.html

WE BEGIN OUR EVENING at 7:30 Eastern Time with a 45-minute time for arrivals and greetings. During this time, we also have the opportunity to engage in open dialogue along with one or more extras that relate in some way to our feature presentation. Then, at precisely 8:15 ET, we begin our feature film simultaneously starting our personal or online copies of this week’s feature!

THIS WEEK’S PRESENTATION: “The Sky Dragon” (1949; 64 minutes)

FEATURE NOTES: The working title of this film was “Murder in the Air.” The film's title card reads: “Charlie Chan in ‘The Sky Dragon’.” Although Roy Livingston is credited onscreen as editor, ‘Hollywood Reporter’ production charts credit Ace Herman as editor. Keye Luke: "’Sky Dragon’ was the best thing we made down at Monogram. I finished up the series - the forty-sixth, which is ‘The Feathered Serpent’, and the forty-seventh, which is ‘Sky Dragon’. They liked them so well - especially ‘Sky Dragon’ - that they planned to make three more Chans over in London with frozen funds. I was in New York waiting to go over the Atlantic and got a call from them that said, 'Gee, we're sorry but Her Majesty's government devaluated [sic] the pound and our frozen funds have taken a dive.' So we never made them. ‘Sky Dragon’ was a good story. It worked out very well and the response to it was so strong that they decided to make three more – ‘Charlie Chan in London’, ‘Charlie Chan in Paris’, and ‘Charlie Chan in Rome’, I think were the titles. Of course, we never did." (Adapted from: Hanke, Ken, Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism, p. 251).

FEATURE INTRODUCTION: Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, are passengers aboard a commercial airliner. There are also two insurance couriers who are carrying a shipment of $250,000. Minutes after drinking coffee that was served, everyone on board the plane falls asleep, including the crew. Lee is the first to awaken and he notices a limp hand protruding from the cockpit door. Upon closer inspection, discovers that one of the couriers has been stabbed to death and that the insurance money has been stolen.

CAST (as credited):

Roland Winters: Charlie Chan
Keye Luke: Lee Chan
Mantan Moreland: Birmingham Brown
Noel Neill: Jane Marshall
Tim Ryan: Lieutenant Mike Ruark
Iris Adrian: Wanda LaFern
Elena Verdugo: Marie Burke (also known as Connie Barrett, Constance Jackson, and Constance LaFern)
Milburn Stone: [Captain] Tim Norton
Lyle Talbot: Andy Barrett (alias Andrew J. Smith,also called Andrew J. Barrett)
Paul Maxey: John Anderson
Joel Marston: Don Blake
John Eldredge: William E. French
Eddie Parks: Jonathan Tibbetts
Louise Franklin: Lena Franklin

UNCREDITED CAST (alphabetical):

Ivan Bell: Stagehand
Frank Cady: Clerk
Bob Curtis: Watkins
George Eldredge: Stacy
Suzette Harbin: Second Maid
Edna Holland: Old Maid
Charles Jordan: Assistant Stage Manager
Lyle Latell: Ed Davidson
William O'Brian: Airline Passenger
Frank O'Connor: Airline Passenger
Gaylord Pendleton: Ben Edwards
Lee Phelps: Plainclothesman
Cosmo Sardo: Pilot at Gate
Emmett Vogan: Doctor
Joe Whitehead: Doorman

THIS WEEK’S IMAGE: (Attached) Following the interview at police headquarters of all passengers who were aboard the airliner, Charlie Chan and Lt. Mike Ruark discuss the mysterious in-flight murder and theft of $250,000 with John Anderson and William French.



IF YOU LACK A COPY OF OUR FEATURE: HAPPILY, thanks to the sleuthing expertise of our own MDA (!!!), a copy of our feature IS available online! The link is provided at our Chat Room.
THIS WEEK’S EXTRA:

We have one lengthy extra to share:

As our feature’s plot centers on a Douglas DC-3 airliner, referred to by Charlie Chan as a “sky giant,” our extra presentation will be…

"The Douglas DC-3: The First (Successful) Commercial Plane"

(17:46 – Start viewing at 1:30 to skip the infomercial)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQtkpTDMq_o

OUR MONTHLY POLL: Please take a moment to cast your last-minute vote in our DECEMBER 2022 POLL, right here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SP2NN9Q

LAST MONTH’S POLL RESULT: To see our NOVEMBER 2022 Poll result, as well as ALL of our polls going back to 2003, please use this link: http://www.charliechan.info/id93.html

NEXT WEEK (December 19): Please join us for TWO EPISODES of “The NEW Adventures of Charlie Chan, starring J. Carroll Naish as Charlie Chan.

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

OUR 2022 CHARLIE CHAN FAMILY NEWSLETTER!

This year’s Charlie Chan Family Newsletter, chronicling the year 2021, is still available! Thank you so much, Lou, for your continued, masterfully hard work and dedication! It can be accessed at the following link:

https://thepostmanonholidayhome.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/2021-newsletter-lou-final.pdf

AND, FINALLY, REMEMBER: PLEASE JOIN US for this week’s feature, “The Sky Dragon.”

AS ALWAYS… THANK YOU SO MUCH…

Sincerely,

Rush Glick