OUR CHARLIE CHAN FAMILY MONDAY EVENING CHAT FOR December 18, 2023: “The Sky Dragon”
CHAT NUMBER: 1,234
FROM CHARLIE CHAN: “Justice must be blind to friendship.”
THIS WEEK: Charlie Chan, with Number One Son, Lee, and Birmingham Brown, works to solve the deadly mystery of a killer who stalks the airways!
OUR CHAT ROOM: Go to our “Chat Room” page, and, at the bottom of that page, click on the “Charlie Chan Family Chat Room ENTRANCE” link. You may then enter as a “Guest,” choosing the name you wish to use.
OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION: “The Sky Dragon” (1949; 64 minutes) Sadly, this film IS NOT available online for those who lack a personal copy.
FEATURE SUMMARY: Charlie Chan and Number One Son, Lee, are passengers aboard a commercial airliner. There are also two insurance couriers who are carrying a shipment of $250,000. Minutes after drinking the coffee that was served, everyone on board the plane falls asleep, including the crew. Lee is the first to awaken and he notices a limp hand protruding from the cockpit door. Upon closer inspection, discovers that one of the couriers has been stabbed to death and that the insurance money has been stolen.
FEATURE NOTES: The working title of this film was “Murder in the Air.” The film’s title card reads: “Charlie Chan in The Sky Dragon.” Although Roy Livingston is credited onscreen as editor, ‘Hollywood Reporter’ production charts credit Ace Herman as editor.
Keye Luke: “’Sky Dragon’ was the best thing we made down at Monogram. I finished up the series – the forty-sixth, which is ‘The Feathered Serpent,’ and the forty-seventh, which is ‘Sky Dragon.’ They liked them so well – especially ‘Sky Dragon’ – that they planned to make three more Chans over in London with frozen funds. I was in New York waiting to go over the Atlantic and got a call from them that said, ‘Gee, we’re sorry but Her Majesty’s government devaluated [sic] the pound and our frozen funds have taken a dive.’ So we never made them. ‘Sky Dragon’ was a good story. It worked out very well and the response to it was so strong that they decided to make three more – ‘Charlie Chan in London,’ ‘Charlie Chan in Paris,’ and ‘Charlie Chan in Rome,’ I think were the titles. Of course, we never did.” (Adapted from: Hanke, Ken, “Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism”, p. 251).
THIS WEEK’S EXTRA:
The Green Hornet (Chapter 8 - Bridge of Disaster)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBlJidKT6Rw
OUR MESSAGE BOARD: Please consider visiting our Message Board. Explore nearly two decades of messages and feel free to join in and add a message to a post or begin a new conversation…or state a thought! Our Message Board has been there for YOU since 2004!
AS ALWAYS, WE BEGIN OUR EVENING at 7:30 Eastern Time with a 45-minute block of time for arrivals and greetings, and the sharing of an extra…or two...or even three! (please see above). Then, at precisely 8:15 ET, we begin running our feature film simultaneously starting our personal or online copies of this week’s feature!
OUR CCF NEWSLETTER for 2023: Available soon!
OUR DECEMBER POLL is available on our Bulletin Board or our Home Page…or directly at this address: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NMCVP76
This month’s poll question: How optimistic are you that one or more of the "lost" Charlie Chan films will turn up someday?
NEXT WEEK: Please join us and wrap up the year as we view “The Return of Charlie Chan.”
