The only Charlie Chan films that I have seen are the ones starring Warner Oland, Sidney Toler and Roland Winters, but there have been other actors playing Chan. What is everyone's opinions on the the following: 1.) J. Carrol Naish played Charlie Chan in the TV Series "The New Adventures Of Charlie Chan"(1957). 2.) Ross Martin played Charlie Chan in the TV Movie "Return Of Charlie Chan"(1973). 3.) Peter Ustinov played Charlie Chan in "Charlie Chan And The Curse Of The Dragon Queen"(1981). How do these actors stack up against the old veterans,Oland, Toler and Winters? I have seen Peter Sellers play a Charlie Chan type of Detective in the movie : "Murder By Death"(1976) and I thought he did a good job spoofing Chan.
I've not seen the Ross Martin movie and have only seen brief moments of the Naish TV show, but I have watched the other two.
One can enjoy the Ustinov movie if you don't treat it as a Chan movie but view it as '70s kitsch/fluff. It has some good actors in it that make it a tolerable viewing experience. Had the script been written straight Ustinov might have been a good Chan, but I can not in good conscience call him Chan in the sense that Oland was. The DVD cost me something like $6 and it had some interesting featurettes about the low budget studio that made the movie so I feel I got my money's worth.
Murder By Death is one of my favorite movies and despite some qualms with the language in it, I can watch it repeatedly. The only downside to the Sellers portrayal is that some unenlightened folks have taken his farcical over the top portrayal & make-up and assumed that this applied to the Chan series proper. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to see papers like USA Today and others say that the Chan movies featured an actor in yellow make-up and buck teeth.
Steve
PS - got your e-mail...thanks, if you ever change your mind, the offer is still open.
