Thank you folks for your replies to "the Best of Charlie Chan." Like other family members, I found it tough to select only four Chan films for our special movie theater.
Like so many other fans, I like "The Black Camel" (1931) because of the same reasons mentioned by Rush. Personally, I feel that Oland's best performance as Chan is in "Charlie Chan's Secret" (1936). I like the structure of "Secret" too.
My Chan choices feature films that include story elements from the original Biggers' novels, and magical whodunit moments that only the movies can provide us. I have selected the following four titles:
1. "Charlie Chan in Shanghai" (1935) with Warner Oland and Keye Luke. This film contains one nice scene after another. As a viewer, I believe Oland and Luke as father and son.
2. "Charlie Chan at the Opera" (1936) with Oland, Karloff, Demarest, and Luke. From the principle players to the minor actors, this great film is full of fun dialogue and quirky characters.
3. "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" (1938). Sidney Toler is fresh to the role of Chan and he appears to be enjoying himself throughout the film. Toler's joyful experience in playing Chan jumps off the screen and into our hearts. This film always brings a smile to my face.
4. "Dead Men Tell" (1941) with Sidney Toler and Sen Yung. Where "CC at the Wax Museum" fails in creating suspense, "Dead Men Tell" hits it on the mark with perfectly timed thrills and chills. "Wax Museum" has all the elements going for it (trapped guests at a spooky place with a unknown murderer among them!), but, in my opinion, the film just bumps around in the dark. There are no great chills. "Dead Men Tell" has the same elements, and brings great atmosphere and suspense to the viewer. There are a couple truly scary moments with Black Hook.
From a fan of Charlie Chan films, I would love to see these four vintage films on the big screen. The big screen is where all great movies need to be seen.
An interesting point, Steve: The big screen is where all great movies need to be seen."
I've never had an opportunity to se evenone of them on the big screen, anyone here done so? I think it would be great to have a series organized, but here in Columbus, there's just no chance...
Like so many "baby-boomers," I was introduced to the films of Charlie Chan via commercial television during the 1960s and 1970s.
During the 1970s, I saw "Dracula" with Bela Lugosi, "Frankenstein" with Boris Karloff, "King Kong" with Fay Wray, and a couple of Marx Brothers films on the big screen. But I do not remember seeing a Charlie Chan film in a movie theater.
If you go to Past Monthly Poll Results on this website, and scroll down to June 2011, you will find the answer to your question.
A couple of years ago, I found the film rental company that holds the 35mm film prints of the Charle Chan series. At that time, I was told that there were about six titles availabe for rental in the 35mm film format. The film prints were made from the film negatives about 40 years ago. Due to rental use, some of the prints have a lot of splices to them. This means that there are jumps in scenes and missing sections in the rental prints.
Instead of renting a 35mm print, the film company representative recommended renting a DVD copy of a Chan title. The company also rents 16mm prints and DVDs of several Chan titles.
Most Chan film run around 70 minutes. Four 18 minute film reels make up a complete Chan film. Given the costs of 35mm film stock and printing fees, it would cost somewhere between $2,000 to $4,000 to create a new print of a Chan film. Based on my past expereince in printing reels of my own films, this is my guess.
