Return to Website

The Charlie Chan Family Message Board

Welcome to our Message Board. Please feel free to post your thoughts, questions, or information.

The Charlie Chan Family Message Board
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Tonight's Monday evening Chat/Film Viewing" "Charlie Chan att he Opera"

We now enter the month of April! I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter and Passover, and, with the First of April, we will not be fooling to note that our Chat and Film Viewing for this evening’s Monday Chat will feature Warner Oland versus Boris Karloff as they go head-to-head in “Charlie Chan at the Opera.” Can Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, outwit an apparent madman who lurks among the many passageways and dusty old sets of an opera house? Murder takes center stage as detective father and assisting son seek out the killer’s identity! “This show MUST go on, even if Frankenstein HIMSELF shows up!”

NOTES: The film's title card reads: "Twentieth Century-Fox presents Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff in ‘Charlie Chan at the Opera’." Although contemporary reviews call Margaret Irving's character "Lucretia Barelli," she is called "Anita Barelli" in the film. A ‘Motion Picture Daily’ news item noted that the picture was banned in Germany for having "too many murders." The ‘Hollywood Reporter’ noted that public response to the film's preview was so positive that Twentieth Century-Fox planned to up the production and advertising budgets for the Charlie Chan series, and that future films would see "Warner Oland co-starred with a top name opposite." The first star the studio was said to be approaching to star with Oland was Peter Lorre. According to another ‘Hollywood Reporter’ news item, this film marked the first time that a DeBrie camera, which was lighter and more quiet than other models, was used in the United States. According to modern sources, director H. Bruce Humberstone (note his trademark demonstration of then-state-of-the-art technology!) borrowed some of the sets from ‘Café Metropole’ for this film. Oscar Levant, in his autobiographical writings, states that he was assigned to write an operatic sequence that would take advantage of a Mephistophelian costume that had been created for Lawrence Tibbett in a previous Twentieth Century-Fox film (presumably “Under Your Spell.”). Levant also relates that the words for the opera were written originally in English by William Kernell and then translated into Italian by "studio linguists." Benson Fong, who later portrayed Number Three Son, Tommy Chan, appeared unbilled in this film as one of the opera extras (the third "soldier" from the left as they are first seen lined up). Baritone Tudor Williams provided Boris Karloff's operatic singing voice.

So, please join us in our Chat Room which is located at our Charlie Chan Family Home: www.charliechan.info, and use any of the “Chat Room” links to join us. We begin with arrivals and greetings at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and we roll our personal copies of our film exactly 15 minutes later (8:15).

Even if you cannot access a copy of the above-noted film, please do join us anyway, 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. (Many of our films, such as this week’s entry, may be found available for viewing online through such outlets as YouTube, etc. A check at YouTube reveals that “Charlie Chan at the Opera” IS available for viewing.)

Thank you so much, and let’s meet for yet another fun Monday evening as we gather to watch “Charlie Chan at the Opera.”

(PLEASE NOTE: If you would like to receive weekly email announcements regarding our Monday Evening Chats, as well as receive high-quality scanned movie still images (one per week) from our films of the week, please email us at: charliechanfamily@yahoo.com.)

Sincerely,
Rush Glick