This week, we take a slight detour as we pause to celebrate the birthday of the venerable actor, J. Carrol Naish who portrayed master detective Charlie Chan on the "small screen."

"The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" was an Anglo-American co-production consisting of 39 half-hour episodes produced for television in 1957. Besides J. Carrol Naish, this series featured a young actor named James Hong as Number One Son, Barry. Mr. Hong continued and built upon his acting career following this series, a process that he continues to this day as his film and television credits span nearly 60 years.

J. Carrol Naish was known for his many and varied ethnic portrayals in film, television, and radio. He was twice nominated for Academy Awards for his supporting roles in "Sahara" (1943) and "A Medal for Benny" (1945), receiving a Golden Globe for his work in the latter picture. Mr. Naish appeared prominently as Gangor the snake charmer opposite Warner Oland in "Charlie Chan at the Circus" (1936). Two decades later, he, himself, would be cast as Charlie Chan, a circumstance that can be considered, perhaps, to lend a good degree of "pedigree" between the Charlie Chan film series and the Incorporated Television Corporation (ITC) production which was distributed through Television Programs of America (TPA).

The two adventures that we will be sharing are "No Future for Frederick" and "Three Men on a Raft." These two episodes offer two fine examples of J. Carroll Naish’s portrayal of Charlie Chan. In these mystery/crime dramas, we see Naish’s Charlie Chan at his best, working without the assistance of his Number One Son.

What we get in "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" is something of an "updated" Charlie Chan who fits in well in the Atomic Age world of late 1950s. While this is indeed something of a re-tooled Chinese detective, Naish’s Charlie Chan can certainly be seen as an older (by now about James Hong’s present age!), slimmer version of same gentleman who was earlier portrayed on screen by Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters. He still utters his famous aphorisms, speaks in his unique, endearing way, and speaks of his Honolulu home (so he’s obviously headquartered himself once again in his accustomed tropical city since his stay in San Francisco during the final stages of the monogram portion of the series).

As noted above, Chan’s "Number One Son" (whom we don’t see in our featured adventures) is now Barry. Anyone familiar with the original Charlie Chan stories penned by Earl Derr Biggers may recall a younger son referred to by that name. In the films, this could be the same son, Charlie, Junior, who was played by Layne Tom, Jr. in "Charlie Chan at the Olympics." Perhaps we can consider the romanticized "possibility" that this son’s full name might be Charles Barry Chan, a son who would be around the age of 30 by the late ‘50s and, by then, Charlie Chan’s "right hand" Number One?

We will be sharing more of this worthy series in the near future, featuring episodes with James Hong as Barry Chan, Charlie Chan’s Number One Son in the final adventures of the venerable detective’s long and illustrious career.

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 always 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. SAD NEWS, however, as this week’s episodes of "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" ARE NOT available at YouTube…

NEXT WEEK

On Monday, January 27, we will continue our Charlie Chan Film Tour for 2014 as we view The Black Camel, starring Warner Oland and featuring Bela Lugosi as the mysterious Tarneverro!

Also, some have expressed concern regarding changes with the Java program which is an integral part of the functioning of our Chat Room. Currently, I have nor "updated" and have noticed nothing out of the ordinary. However, if any others of you have experienced similarly, please let me know!

Sincerely,
Rush Glick