Please join us as our Monday Evening Chat and Film Viewing for “The Chinese Ring,” starring Roland Winters. This was Mr. Winters’ first appearance as Charlie Chan. In this picture, Chan, Number Two Son, Tommy (Jimmy), and Birmingham Brown seek to find a killer, following a clue left by the first victim, a Chinese princess. Who is “Captain K”?

We begin, as usual, at 8:00 p.m., EASTERN time with arrivals and greetings and a trip to Virginia’s virtual beverage cart. Then, thirty minutes later, we begin running our personal copies of this very worthy film, which allows us to watch it together as our evening’s discussion progresses.

Our Chat Room is located RIGHT HERE at our Charlie Chan Family Home. Please use any of the “Chat Room” links to join us.

Even if you do not happen to have a copy of our featured movie, please do join us, as you will NOT be left out of our ongoing chat and festivities. Also, as is our custom, newcomers are offered the seat of honor at our humble table.

Let’s get together for much more fun as we watch Charlie Chan in “The Chinese Ring”…

Sincerely,
Rush Glick

Dear Rush: What can be said about The Chinese Ring that we don’t already know. That Roland Winters lacked the charisma of Warner Oland and Sidney Toler. Everybody knows and agrees with that. The truth is that Mr. Winters did do a credible job. Much better then the Radio Chans and their exaggerated delivery. Better then both TV Chans J. Carroll Naish and Ross Martin with their stilted way of talking and foreigner-type personas. He suffers by comparison to his illustrious predecessors. Its kind of like being George Lazenby’s James Bond after Sean Connery. The “lack of charm factor” alone does not explain the lesser quality of this film. Personally, despite the lower production values of the latter Sidney Toller entrees, I still rather like them. Why? It is because they have many tiny elements, bits of business, that keeps the character lovable. The mysteries are quite good fare. I particularly like the murder gimmick in The Shanghai Cobra. Then there is the family connection. Charlie mentioning his family, talking to his family, working with them. Whether a son or a daughter, one or more of his children got a lot of screen time. None of that was true in The Chinese Ring. Yes, Jimmy Chan was around and contributed importantly to the story, but he simply wasn’t there for long sections of time. Lets face it, somebody wasn’t paying attention to continuity and that is how Jimmy ended up being called “Tommy”. And then there is the simple fact that Victor Sen Yung had outgrown the role. He was too old to be the crazy kid running around getting into mischief as comic relief. The writers realized this and wrote him serious and the film suffered because of it. One of the younger Chan children should’ve been brought in to fill the void the Jimmy character could no longer fill. Jimmy should’ve been written out or changed into a junior partner to Charlie. Kind of like the role the local police chief or inspector usually had in the stories. Mantan Mooreland was not at his best. He appeared to be just filling space, he was not his usually animated self. In fact he looked rather thin. Was he ill at the time? Whatever the reason he was not up to par and should either have been dispensed with or given his usual more humorous antics to do. I suspect he too had outgrown his role. There also seemed to be no explanation as to why Charlie was in San Francisco. Usually at the top of the film we are told why Charlie is in town. Despite it all it is still a decent mystery. Frankly, I didn’t guess the villain and Philip Ahn made a fine red herring. It could’ve been a nice little entry in the series if not for a dearth of those warm little moments that make Charlie Chan much more then just another detective.