Our Monday Evening CCF Chat/Film Viewing: "The Chinese Cat"
“Honorable father once say, ‘Politeness golden key to many doors.’” (Charlie Chan - “The Chinese Ring”)
Humble greetings, as we enter the Roland Winters era of the Charlie Chan film series as we share “The Chinese Ring.” This film marks the first outing for Mr. Winters as Charlie Chan. We still have the inimitable Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown as a part of the regular cast of characters, as well as Victor Sen Yung as Chan’s Number Two Son. However, one interesting change involves Number Two’s apparent name change from Jimmy to Tommy! We can only conjecture about the reason(s) for this alteration. Another change is in the location of Charlie Chan’s Base of operations as well as line of work. Mr. Chan has ceased his wartime work for the U.S. government and is now more of a freelance detective who works closely with the San Francisco Police Department, as he now lives in the City by the Bay.
In our adventure for this week, Charlie Chan and company become involved in the events surrounding the murder of a Chinese princess. It proves to be a daunting task to sort out the suspects and land upon the murderer in this complex danger-fraught case!
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).
FILM NOTES: The title card on this film reads: “Charlie Chan in ‘The Chinese Ring.’” The film's working titles were “The Mandarin's Secret,” “The Red Hornet,” and “Charlie Chan and the Chinese Ring.” ‘Independent Film Journal’ reviewed the picture as “The Red Hornet.” Although Call Bureau Cast Service lists Valerie Ardis as "Stenographer," the ‘Variety’ review and studio production files list Charmienne Harker in the role. This film marked the first Charlie Chan film to star Roland Winters, who was chosen to replace Sidney Toler who had died earlier in 1947.
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, new comers 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.
HAPPY NEWS…this week’s film, “The Chinese Cat,” IS available at DailyMotion at this address: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1674fi_charlie-chan-in-the-chinese-ring-1947_shortfilms
NEXT WEEK (Monday, October 26) we will be sharing “Charlie Chan in Egypt” as we hold our annual CCF VIRTUAL HALLOWEEN PARTY! Also, please note that we will be viewing two episodes from “The New Adventures of Charlie Chan” during the month of November. If you have thought of ordering a set of these 39 TV crime dramas, you may want to do so ASAP!
ROLLER DERBY: If anyone is interested in seeing what I run off to at the conclusion of our Monday Evening Chats, you may want to tune-in to CNN on Sunday evening at 10:00, October 25, to see “Somebody’s Gotta Do It.” I have no idea what the final cut or direction of the piece will be, but it should be fun…
Have a happy and safe Monday, and let’s all get together for another Chan-filled evening of fun and sharing as we view “The Chinese Cat,” shall we?
