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Re: CC's Greatest Case

John,

Let me try to answer your questions and give you some direction.

First, it bugs me that IMDb does not give credit to the source(s) of the material posted on their site. Having worked in the film industry for 15 years (1979-1994), I have found many errors on IMDb. But as a friend of mine says, "One can spend a lifetime correcting the mistakes on IMDb." Life is too short. Let the folks at IMDb figure it out for themselves.

Second, "Charlie Chan's Greatest Case," the 1933 film, is "lost". Gone. Not to be found in American film vaults. No film print of this Chan title is available. All prints (film footage) of this title were destroyed years ago.

Third, all sound films ("talkies") have a shooting script, a dialogue script, or a production script attached to them. Even short subjects. "Draft" refers to a script of a film, not the film (movie on the screen) itself.

A "shooting script" refers to the actual script used during the making of the film. A "final shooting script" refers to a completed script used during the making of a film. A "revised final script" refers to re-writes that were done during the actual shooting of the film. For example, here is a brief sample. The screenwriters for "Casablanca" (1942 Bogart) were re-writing the script during the filming of the movie. Ms. Ingrid Bergman has stated that, at times, the cast receive new pages of dialogue on a daily basis. There were two different endings to the film. In one version, Rick gets to girl. In the other version, Victor gets the girl.

"Revised final shooting draft" may indicate that there were several changes to the direction of the script. These "revisions" are suppose to make the script better. I suspect that CC's Greatest Case may have been a difficult shoot.

If you visit the Los Angeles area, please stop by the Performing Arts Library at UCLA. All production material (scripts and stills) related to early Fox Films are held here. This is where you will find the "revised final shooting draft" of Charlie Chan's Greatest Case. It is best to call for an appointment before you go there. Please be aware that there may be a charge to retrieve this rare material.

I hope that you find this information helpful.

Steve

Re: CC's Greatest Case

Thanks, Steve. I know this film is considered to be "lost" but I did not know what IMDB was referencing in their comments. Thank you for the valuable information.

Re: CC's Greatest Case

Dear John,

You may be aware already, but one can read through the illustrated scripts for all four "lost" Charlie Chan films here at this site. Just go to our "Lost" Chan Scripts section.

Sincerely,
Rush

Re: CC's Greatest Case

Thanks so much for the information. It was very enlightening. It was nice of you to take the time to write such a detailed explanation for those of us outside the film world.

I have eternal hope that someday these lost films will come to light.

Do you know of The Mexican Suitcase? It went missing in the late 30's and was returned to Mexico via France. It was full of photograph negatives.

Re: CC's Greatest Case

Just stumbled across this. Not related to Charlie Chan's Greatest Case, but I wonder what they might find next in a dusty collection somewhere out there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqDnZHL4ZkY

Charlie Chan Carries On trailer

The video posted on YouTube is a locally produced trailer for "Charlie Chan Carries On" (1931). This trailer was produced for movie theaters in the San Francisco area. It was not to be shown nationally.

Since 1970, I have been collecting film prints of usual titles. As the owner of a large film collection, I have about 200 film titles, out of about 900 titles, that have never been released to the public on DVD or VHS.

Many of the films in my collection are in public domain and are not listed on IMDb.com. I am an example that there are film buffs holding rare films in private collections.

Thanks for the link.

Re: CC's Greatest Case

When I go to that youtube link it says "not available." Was it a trailer for the missing Oland film or for the Spanish version?
By the way, there's always hope. I see on another board that the long-missing mystery "The Monkey's Paw" was recently found. Wouldn't it be great if the same thing happened with the missing Chans!