Those are the same shows that people have been talking abour, yes. From everyone I have communicated with regarding quality in any and all of the DVD sets for "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan," it is a matter of hit-and-miss. The material available to those who put these compilations together is not always of the best quality. However, that said, I have found the set I have - from Old Time Radio, U.K. - to be "watchable" at worst and "pretty clean" at best.
These were, in my humble opinion, well-made little shows, each being 25-26 minutes in length. The first 5 episodes are set in and were filmed in the Los Angeles area, and the remaining 34 were filmed and produced in Great Britain and Europe. In this way, they even outdid the Chan film series, let alone the Monogram portion of the series. J. Carrol Naish, as you will see, does a nice job in the role of, we could perhaps imagine, an older Charlie Chan at the tail end of his career. There is even something of a "pedigree" with Naish's portrayal, as he was in "Charlie Chan at the Circus" with Warner Oland, assuming the television role of Chan about 20 years later! James Hong, as Number One Son, Barry (with a little creative imagination, this apparent anomaly can be, perhaps, reconciled - part of the fun!), offers much to the TV series.
I must admit, that "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" has grown on me over time. I think that the purchase of the series is worth the money, and I feel that you, and anyone else interested, will find them to be a "fun" watch! As these adventures are very short, time-wise, they are not really the mysteries that we are accustomed to. Chan, instead, puts clues together in rapid-fire sequence, revealing the culprit in the end.
Hopefully, this has been of some help to you as well as others reading this post...
If anyone has decent 35 mm copies of the Charlie Chan TV series they might consider getting in touch with my former part-time job employers. Oldies.com are looking for old shows to put out on DVD.
If anyone has decent 35 mm copies of the Charlie Chan TV series they might consider getting in touch with my former part-time job employers. Oldies.com are looking for old shows to put out on DVD.
I fear that these episodes might still exist on 16mm rather than 35mm. Isn't Oldies.com the owner of Alpha Video?
Yes,Oldies.com does own Alphavideo. Sometimnes their qualitty isn't the best, sometimes it's pretty good. Whichever it is I think if Oldies got hold of the Chan TV series it would be available to a wider audience and the quality would be standardized. Not to mention it would benefit from decnet packaging.
