Charlie Chan definitely has a place among the pantheon of famous fictional detectives. He is certainly one of the more controversial ones. Although Chan is undoubtedly a hero, many Asians resent the character as an ethnic stereotype. Chan is polite and soft spoken, never lacking an appropriate old Chinese proverb to suit the occasion.
The character of Charlie Chan was created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1923 as a rebuttal to the “Yellow Peril” stereotypes so common in literature of the day, such as Fu Manchu. Biggers lived in Hawaii and resented the unflattering Asian clichés so he invented a benign Chinese Investigator working for the Honolulu Police Force. He wrote several Chan novels. The honorable Chinese Detective became so popular that he was soon adapted into film. There were many Chan films, starting in the silent film era. Early films actually starred Chinese actors but the Audience didn’t respond to Asian Leading men. Once Caucasian actors in Asian make-up started playing the role, Charlie Chan became one of the cinemas most popular detectives.
Warner Oland, who starred in a series of films by 20th Century Fox, was the most popular of the actors to play Chan. The character inspired several rip-off franchises like the Mr. Moto series starring Peter Lorre and the Mr. Wong series starring Boris Karloff. Sidney Toler took over the role after Oland died, becoming a worthy successor in the part. Soon, the rights for the character were bought out by Monogram Pictures and the quality of the films started to degenerate. Roland Winters would finish out the series in the title role after Toler died. The four films covered in this collection are some of the later, lesser entries in the long-running franchise.
Dark Alibi is the first of the four films, and probably the best of the Lot. When a bank is robbed and the guard shot to death, fingerprints lead the police to the Foss family hotel where we naturally find a group of unsavory suspects. One of those suspects is Thomas Harley who lives at the hotel with his pretty daughter June. It was Harley’s fingerprints which were found at the scene of the crime. Harley claims he was locked in a theatrical warehouse at the time but has no witnesses to verify this. He produces a note from an old friend asking Harley to meet him there but the police can prove that this unseen friend died eight years ago. Things don’t look good for Harley. His daughter and lawyer are on the verge of despair until Charlie overhears their plight and offers his services. The whole thing seems too pat and convenient for him, so he begins his investigation, which leads to the State prison where three of the suspects did time together.
Charlie Chan is helped (or maybe hindered) in his investigation by his eager “Number Three Son” Tommy, played by Benson Fong, and his comedy relief servant Birmingham Brown, played by Mantan Moreland, an embarrassing black stereotype. The film was directed by Phil Karlson and written by George Callahan.
Dangerous Money is up next, and it utilizes the old murder on the cruise ship plot. The action takes place on a vessel traveling from Samoa to Australia. Chan investigates a pair of murders related to an art theft. A passenger named Rona Simmons (played by gorgeous Gloria Warren) is hiding a secret, and she is being blackmailed because of it. She’s traveling with false papers, and was smuggled on board by the ships Purser in an attempt to identify art stolen from her banker father. Evil businessman P.T. Burke uses his influence to extort a valuable necklace from lovely Rona. However, there is another villain masterminding events behind the scenes. The plot is a bit difficult to follow and you probably really won’t care about who the bad guys are. Everything about this film is very mediocre.
Victor Sen Yung plays Charlie’s “Number Two Son” Jimmy. A new clichéd black assistant named Chattanooga Brown (Willie Best) replaces Birmingham Brown. Prepare for some uncomfortable racial humor in the walkie-talkie scene where Jimmy and Chattanooga refer to each other by the code names “Chop Suey” and “Pork Chop”. The movie was directed by Terry O. Morse and written by Miriam Kissinger.
The Trap is our third outing. This is Sidney Toler’s final appearance as Chan. He was ill with cancer while filming, which explains his lackluster performance throughout. The plot revolves around Impresario Cole King and his performing troupe, which consists of a bevy of showgirls, a press agent named Rick Daniels and a physical therapist named George Brandt. The whole gang of them go to a secluded seaside Inn to unwind after a hectic tour. We learn that one of the girls, Adelaide, is collecting dirt on all the others. Marcia, the stuck-up star of the show is threatened by this, so she in turn blackmails another girl, Lois, to steal the metal box which holds Adelaide’s secret info. Marcia knows Lois is underage and Lois will be fired if this information gets out, so Lois reluctantly agrees to commit the theft. Bad choice, Lois! Lois is strangled while trying to obtain the box. Marcia, who is universally hated by everyone else in the troupe, becomes the main suspect by Police Officer Sergeant Reynolds (Kirk Alyn) until she turns up dead, too. Suspicion turns to a young Chinese girl named San Toy. San calls her boyfriend Jimmy Chan (a.k.a. “Number Two Son”) for assistance, which leads to the arrival of papa Chan, who comes to keep his son out of trouble. Jimmy and Sergeant Reynolds convince Chan to investigate while he’s there. Chan agrees and begins to unravel the mystery.
Victor Sen Yung is back as the game but inept Jimmy, and Moreland is unfortunately back as that walking cliché Birmingham Brown. Most of the rest of the cast is merely adequate. One annoying girl spends the entire film shrieking with terror at every little thing. Kirk Alyn, who portrays Reynolds, would soon go on to greater fame playing Superman in a pair of movie serials. The Trap, which was directed by Howard Bretherton and written by Miriam Kissinger, is the weakest of the four films.
The Chinese Ring was Roland Winters’ first time up as Chan. Judging by his performance here, he isn’t a very good substitute for Toler or Warner. And the Chinese make-up is so unconvincing he is never for a moment believable as a Chinaman.
The plot: beautiful Princess Mei Ling (Barbara Jean Wong) arrives at Chan’s House. She won’t give her name but she gives Birmingham a ring which she thinks Chan will recognize. While awaiting an audience with the great detective, the Princess is shot through the window. Before she dies, she scribbles the words “Captain K…” on a convenient piece of stationary. Charlie investigates with the help of Sergeant Bill Davidson (Warren Douglas) and an overzealous female reporter named Peggy Cartwright (Louise Currie). He learns that Mei Ling had brought One Million Dollars to America (a huge sum back in the 40s) in order to buy airplanes for the Chinese struggle for freedom. (You couldn’t put gas in a plane with that today.) The mysterious “Captain K” has stolen the money and is trying to divert the planes into enemy hands.
The plot is an almost scene-by-scene remake of Mr. Wong in Chinatown, starring Boris Karloff as the titular detective. Ironically, the Chan series was getting so stale that it was starting to steal material from its imitators.
Chan has apparently moved from Honolulu to San Francisco for this film and forgotten to bring his large family with him, except for Number Two son (played by Victor Sen Yung again) who has inexplicably changed his name to Tommy (which was the name of Number Three Son, played by Benson Fong in Dark Alibi.) The mystery is mildly entertaining but was done better in the Mr. Wong film. The Chinese Ring was directed by William Beaudine and written by Scott Darling.
You can decide for yourself whether Chan was a positive or negative force regarding the way Asians were viewed. However, as much of a stereotype as the Asian characterizations were, they were mild compared to the embarrassing racial clichés depicted here by Mantan Moreland as Chan’s servant Birmingham Brown. Birmingham is stupid, cowardly and superstitious. He speaks in a babbling Amos and Andy dialect and always wants to run away. Whenever he’s scared, we see a close up of his knees knocking together. He’s meant as comic relief and maybe this was considered funny at the time but its cringe-inducingly uncomfortable today.
DVD Bonus Features
There are no extra features in this DVD set.
"TCM Spotlight: The Charlie Chan Collection" is on sale June 8, 2010 and is not rated. Mystery. Directed by Howard Bretherton, Phil Karlson, Terry O Morse, William Beaudine. Written by George Callahan, Miriam Kissinger, Scott Darling. Starring Benson Fong, Roland Winters, Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung.
