Last of the Fox Chans are Surprisingly Good
Sidney Toler's Chan was nothing like Warner Oland's characterization. But if the truth be told, it's Toler who comes through in the pages of Earl Derr Biggers novels, not Oland. I know because as an inveterate Oland fan, I tried very hard to see my hero in the six Chan novels but, alas, it was Toler who showed up in my mind's eyes and ears. As for the Toler films, it took Fox awhile to reposition the series to capture Toler's strengths. If Oland's Chan was like a stately mandarin, Toler's was more of a gritty, Sam Spade-like characterization.
By late 1940, Fox had tailored the scripts to suit Toler's personality and replaced the globe-trotting Oland formula ("At the Race Track," "At the Olympics," "On Broadway") with a compact film noir-like mystery format that was closer stylistically to "The Maltese Falcon" than to "Sherlock Holmes." And it worked too. "Wax Museum" and "Dead Men Tell" are especially adroit little films that benefit from the Fox studio's top technicians,...
The Great Charlie Chan Collection Continues
With the release of Volume Five, the great Charlie Chan series from 20th Century Fox is at last complete. For those interested in watching these classic Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan films in their original order of release, "Charlie Chan In Panama" (1940) is a well crafted , tightly scripted visit to the world famous Panama Canal directed by series veteran Norman Foster. Much of the credit for keeping the suspense high in this cautionary tale regarding the welfare of our fleet goes to the superb supporting cast to include the lovely Jean Rogers along with the very reliable Lionel Atwill and Mary Nash. Another all star supporting cast highlights "Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise" (1940) featuring the great character actor Charles Middleton along with Chan series regulars Robert Lowery and Lionel Atwill with Cora Witherspoon and Leo G. Carroll. Considered something of a rewrite of creator Earl Derr Biggers orginal story,"Charlie Chan Carries On," Murder Cruise manages a few surprises of...
Most Inscrutable
You could almost feel the gentle trade winds of Hawaii during the 1920's in the first Charlie Chan novel by Earl Derr Biggers. Romantic and full of atmosphere, Biggers was always a great romance writer who simply incorporated mystery into his books to propel the story forward. His detective was wise and humorous, his take on American life sometimes a riot. Nothing got by Chan, however, and it was his intelligence which always brought justice in the end.
The adaptations to film lost some of the more romantic aspects of the early Chan novels, centering more on Chan as a detective, as to be expected. Enough humor and atmosphere remained, however, to propel Chan into the top tier of film detectives. Warner Oland's Chan was more refined and subtle, Sidney Toler's more outgoing and amused. Both were excellent. This set features Toler in the final "A" Charlie Chan mysteries before it became a "B" series which, while enjoyable at times, did not have the production values or stories...
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