The Charlie Chanthology (MGM/Monogram)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C Extras: D Films: B-
One of
the best known literary detectives only had six books written on him, yet
Charlie Chan will not go away. First,
Fox Films began adapting the character into a series of successful B-movie
detective films, then when they merged with 20th Century Pictures,
the series got even more ambitious. When
20th Century-Fox dropped the character after 14 years of profitable
releases while he was still hot, a huge mistake that “poverty row” studio
Monogram took full advantage of.
Bringing Sidney Toler over, the series ran for eight more years, leaving
Fox outfoxed. MGM has issued the first
six films in their Charlie Chanthology box
and it is not bad at all.
A few
changes included weaker production values and screenplays, lower-still budgets,
a son who was more of a cartoon and the odd addition of black stereotypes, the
latter two of which were a very poor substitute for and distraction over the
rest of what was missing. Nevertheless,
Toler was still in good form and it was that above all else that carried this
last leg of the series as long as it did.
He died towards the end and Roland Winters was the final vintage Chan
until the series folded.
Another
twist no studio could have held back is that this was an era for Chan where he
happened to be fighting World War II, a predicament many of the great
detectives found themselves in. Even
Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes was transported top the modern day to outwit
the Nazis. The films are listed slightly
differently here than on the box, which may be referring to production order,
but our list is the release order as follows:
Charlie Chan In The Secret Service (1944) has Chan onto the killer
of an inventor who may have had greater value to the U.S. Government and its
enemies than first thought. This set the
tone for the rest of the Monograms and even though it was noticeably poorer in
production values, it looks good as compared to some later entries. The mystery has to compete with some
propaganda and elements that are more like Action films, which is odd
considering that Chan does not move all that physically fast.
The Chinese Cat (1944) is a formulaic Maltese Falcon-like tale, except, this
cat has more value busted, as it contains a particularly valuable uncut
diamond. A young woman tries to track
down the killer of her father, now infuriated a book is out accusing her own
mother of the murder. The George
Callahan screenplay tries to recreate the mystery style of the Fox films, but
still does not succeed as much as it could have.
Meeting At Midnight (aka Black Magic) (1944) is a fan favorite because it plays so well when
the 1970s revivals of these films were shown on the late, late show broadcast
of hundreds of TV stations and theatrical film bookings back in the day. Though it is not a great mystery or a great
film, the atmosphere created by the low budget makes this a unique entry in the
series, no matter what its shortcomings.
The Jade Mask (1945) repeats The Chinese Cat somewhat as a scientist
who could reinforce wood to be as strong as steel is killed, but the twist is
the murder victims are made to seem like they are actually still alive. A novel idea that Callahan’s screenplay again
never fulfills.
The Scarlet Clue (1945) brings Chan back to the
world of radio dramas, but despite sending up that world, this is not as good
as the Fox entry Charlie Chan At The Wax
Museum (1940), but is still one of the better films here as a secret radar
set up might offer the biggest surprise of all.
The Shanghai Cobra (1945) continues to try to pick
up the momentum of the series as the pre-Noir detective tries a Noir twist (via
cinematographer Vincent Farrar), something the Fox films missed out on
completely. (Noir began in 1941). An interesting entry, even when it does not
work. A deadly cobra is on the loose,
but the deadlier killer might be stolen nuclear radium. You’ll love the special request jukebox.
As you
can see, when Monogram realized they had a much-needed hit on their hands, they
began to get creative in entries when old formulas failed. Unfortunately, the team of writer George
Callahan and well-known journeyman director Phil Rosen kept running into other
problems that might have been avoidable if a bigger, richer company had taken
over. As it stands, there are some very
interesting failures here, some fun successes, and many lessons in effective
low-budget filmmaking in parts.
The full
screen image on all six DVDs are not bad for the age of the prints and the
transfers being a couple of years old.
Video Black on all six are consistent enough and remarkably, these
Monogram films survived in decent shape, which is amazing for a studio that
disappeared over a century ago. The
prints tell us that these were from the United Artists catalog, which has a ton
of films that need fixing more than most, so this is the best these are going
to look until MGM (who owns all the United Artists holdings) does them in
digital High Definition. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is not as full as it could be, sounding a bit on the small
side on all the DVDs, but you can turn it up with no major problems, but be
careful when turning it off and switching to another audio source. The menus are nicely designed and
surprisingly colorful, but there are sadly no extras. Where are the trailers?
Fox
recently cancelled a marathon of their Chan films on their Fox Movie Network
over silly, politically correct complaining, while a Fox DVD executive said
he’d love to see the films on DVD except he did not think they would sell. I think the former is ridiculous, while the
latter will be proven wrong by this set.
Though it will not set any records, I believe it will do better than
expected and we will hopefully get both companies to eventually release all the
existing films from the series (yes, some of the earliest films are lost for
good, unless they miraculously surface) completely for the first time ever,
once and for all. MGM could give us two
more boxes and Fox even more. The Charlie Chanthology is fun and
worth a look. As a matter of fact, it
could likely start a whole new revival of the character for new generations to
appreciate and enjoy. We’ll be there for
that!
- Nicholas Sheffo
