A nice article was written and presented in "The Chinese Mirror" from May of this year. It offers some very useful information regarding the Chinese-made Chan films. We have the article available for reading in our Study under the "Charlie Chan" heading.
A quote from a specific book was referenced at the end of the article:
Zhang Wei. Qianchen Ying Shi (Past Movie Matters), Shanghai Dictionary Press, 2004, p.232.
This book could be of further assistance, perhaps, if it could be tracked down. I believe that one can contact Don Marion at that publication/Web site. He was very helpful in refining the information that we have available at our humble site, which you have already seen.
Douglas Wulf, who has posted here in the past, was VERY helpful in uncovering information on these films. It was he who first alerted many of us as to the existance of a number of the "Made in China" Chans.
Many thanks for directing me to The Study
for that article. Trying to
reconcile the 5 films listed in Don's artticle
with the 6 shown in "Other Chan Films" suggests
that there may actually be 7 altogether.
It's sad to read that copies of these films
"are not available to us today." Still, one can always hope that they could surface, especially
if there was a similarly-minded enthusiast
in Shanghai or Hong Kong who could transcend
the difficulties of researching in Asia.
I've been busy with my summer classes and have only now read the new information about the Chinese Chan films.
The most important point is that 'The Disappearing Corpse' (1937) can now be confirmed as a Chan film.
I had found the information listed below earlier, but no plot synopsis. I also could not figure out how to translate the title. I guessed that the first part was a name 'Lan Guifei'. It apparently means 'disappearing.'
Lan Guifei’s Corpse (1937) -- Unconfirmed as Chan
兰闺飞尸 (1937)
If you want to add it into the list before 'The Pearl Tunic', that would be great.
It is interesting that the article does not mention 'Net of Divine Retribution' and 'Hero of Our Time', but these are definitely also Chan films, since Charlie Chan is mentioned specifically in the plot synopses.
Doug
P.S. I wish I knew how to contact people at 20th Century Fox, Warner, and MGM. It is really unclear if any search has been made for any of these films. The article mentions that they are not available, but does that mean they are lost? The article also does not mention two of the seven films. At least if these companies that release Chan on DVD were aware that these films were made, there might be a chance that a search would be made for them.
When you were interviewed for the documentaries on the Chan DVDs, was there someone from 20th Century Fox who you were in contact with via email or by phone? I'd just like to tell some people involved in some fashion with the Chan DVDs that there might be as many as SEVEN more Chan films still out there (beyond the four missing Oland Chans).
These films have received so little attention or consideration that they could still be sitting on a shelf in a row in a film library somewhere and no one would have probably have paid any attention to them for decades. Yes, perhaps no prints of any of these seven films still survive, but has anyone even taken a serious look for them?
It's so interesting to get a look at what Charlie Chan looked like in the Chinese films from that poster.
Notice that Charlie's Number 1 daughter is wearing some sort of weird glasses.
I was pleased to see that this links up with part of the plot synopsis that I attempted to translate...
"Afterwards, Charlie Chan invents spectacles that may possibly reveal the stealth technique used. However, he must wait to use the spectacles when they cannot be found, so the case becomes deadlocked."
Amazing to see the 'spectacles' mentioned in the synopsis.
