Along with your guys, I have purchased the DVD collection of "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" starring J. Carrol Naish. To tell the truth, I have mixed feelings about this series. Let me explain myself.
At first, I was disappointed with "New Adventures" because I was expecting mysteries similar to the Charlie Chan films.
What we have here are crime dramas, circa 1950s, with Charlie Chan as a retired police detective from Honolulu. To me, this series is closer to an old police drama, like "Dragnet" of "Peter Gunn", than to a Charlie Chan 20th Century-Fox mystery.
Some of the TV episodes play like daytime soap operas, i.e. confined sets, back-and-forth cutting between characters. This is not a bad thing. It is just a different interpretation of the Charlie Chan character.
The European episodes are better than the US episodes. In the early US episodes, Mr. Naish is trying to find his character. His make-up changes a bit from episode to episode. Once we get to England, James Hong, and the British actors, add greatly to the stories.
As we get deeper into the series, there is nice interplay between J. Carrol Naish and James Hong, but I don't believe them as father and son. Mr. Naish is shorter than Mr. Hong. In the 1950s, Mr. Hong is a young, good-looking, talented actor. In my opinion, Charlie should have been an uncle to Mr. Hong's character, not his father.
It is most appropriate to include a couple episodes from "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" in our Monday night internet viewing.
