Our Monday Eving Chat/Film Viewing: "Charlie Chan at the Opera"
“Honorable father once say, ‘Politeness golden key that open many doors.’” (Charlie Chan – “Charlie Chan at the Opera”)
Our film for this week is “Charlie Chan at the Opera,” starring Warner Oland with Keye Luke. A madman escapes and Charlie Chan with Number One Son, Lee, is called on to assist the LAPD unmask him as murders plague the opening night at the opera!
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).
FLIM 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 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.
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.
GOOD NEWS…this week’s film, “Charlie Chan at the Opera,” IS available at YouTube at this address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-CDDLc6D3k
NEXT WEEK (March 30) we will be sharing “Charlie Chan at the Olympics.”
Please take care, have a pleasant Monday, and let’s all get together for another Chan-filled evening of fun and sharing as we watch “Charlie Chan at the Opera.”
