Mystery & Crime Series 30's & 40's (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Flugel]

My favorite Charlie Chan films, in no particular order:

Charlie Chan's Secret
Charlie Chan in Egypt
Charlie Chan on Broadway
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island
Charlie Chan in Reno
Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise
Dead Men Tell

 

[Mysto]

My Top Three:

1) Charlie Chan at Treasure Island.
I love San Francisco been there many times on vacation.
My Uncle use to work on Treasure Island for the Government.
Also I am a sucker for Medium/Seance scam movies.

2) Charlie Chan in Reno.
Love the cast and the setting.

3) Charlie Chan at the Circus.
Love the setting.
Plus we see Charlie's whole family.

Well Scott, I'm thinking that of the Monograms - as I stated, one of my favorites is Meeting at Midnight. I think it is the same as one of your reasons for Treasure Island. I'm gaga for seance movies as well. Charlie was in three seance movies and I very much enjoy them all.

 

[Rustifer]

Film Commentary
Charlie Chan and the Golden Eye
(1948)

I've never seen a Charlie Chan movie where the character is portrayed by Roland Winters. I'm sure author Earl Derr Biggers, if he had his druthers, would prefer Sidney Toler as his title guy. I know I do. When I think Sidney Toler, I think chop suey. Of course, that makes no sense whatsoever, but I had egg foo yung for dinner last night and the reference to Chinese food lingers in the soy sauce puddles of my mind.

It's Chinese New Year, when curio shops begin to mark up all their Chinese gew gaws that get prominently displayed in chow mien establishments throughout the city. Mr. Manning (Forrest Taylor) is visiting such a shop searching for Charlie Chan (as if the detective habitually hangs around such places) when he's shot at. This precipitates a visit to Arizona where Manning owns the Golden Eye mine. Charlie's entourage includes man servant Birmingham (the irrepressible Mantan Moreland) and No. 2 son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung)--whose main purpose is to wring tears of laughter from the audience. Between the two, they're as funny as your grandmother's funeral.

Charlie can smell a fart at 100 yards; He brings a box of Chinese checkers to the party; Charlie gets paid with a bus ticket

The Lazy Y Ranch--which appears to be more of a country club than a depository of cow and horse dung--is the focal location for this mystery because of its proximity to the Golden Eye mine. Manning's mine has nearly run dry but has suddenly and mysteriously turned profitable, spitting out gold like an ATM spits out $20 bills. On the job with Charlie is Lt. Mike Ruark (Tim Ryan) who is undercover (for no apparent reason) as an inebriated overaged playboy. I will say he does a credible job in the role. The bad guys in this story are headed by Manning's mine supervisor Jim Driscoll (Ralph Dunn) who displays appropriate distain to everyone and wears a leather jacket to prove his shadiness.

Roland Winter's Charlie Chan seems to me to be more shifty-eyed than inscrutable, yet still is able to render his character as overly polite if not secretly cunning underneath. He's a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a fortune cookie--totally impossible to decipher or foretell. "Information like high grade ore--velly valuable." Charlie was obviously once apprenticed as a fortune writer in a cookie factory. In the middle of all this is Manning's pretty young daughter Evelyn (Wanda McKay) who dresses as if aspiring to grow up to be Dale Evans. Her role is merely decorative, which is okay by me.

The solution to the mystery has to do with a secret tunnel and the murder of an old prospector. There are more holes in this plot than a 12 lb. block of Swiss cheese. And as we all know, at least from a culinary standpoint, the Chinese have no use for Swiss cheese. If a Charlie Chan movie is on, I'll watch it---but I say thumbs down on this one.

 

[Mysto]

I took you to task when you disparaged my Rathbone Sherlock Russ, but I'll not defend Roland Winter's Chan. I have seen him in other movies where he is actually animated but in the Chan's he plays it like he is part of the Zombie Apocalypse and he is the zombie.

Thanks for adding to the fun.

 

[Rustifer]

I took you to task when you disparaged my Rathbone Sherlock Russ, but I'll not defend Roland Winter's Chan. I have seen him in other movies where he is actually animated but in the Chan's he plays it like he is part of the Zombie Apocalypse and he is the zombie.

Thanks for adding to the fun.

It's nice to be back in the thread. I've got a Bulldog Drummond I'm anxious to see...

 

[BobO'Link]

A local station regularly ran the Charlie Chan movies on Friday nights at midnight for many, many years. My wife and I would stay up to watch them (pre VHS days). If it was a Roland Winter movie we'd usually turn the set off and go to bed. Not so much because they were "bad" but that we just didn't much care for his interpretation of the role.

 

[Mysto]

It's nice to be back in the thread. I've got a Bulldog Drummond I'm anxious to see...

Russ, I have a fondness for the Bulldog Drummond series. Especially the John Howard ones. It is unfortunate that there were so many different actors to splinter up the series and then as these slipped into the public domain - decent copies are almost impossible to find. More adventure films than mysteries, they still provide a lot of action and fun in a short amount of time.

 

[Mysto]

A local station regularly ran the Charlie Chan movies on Friday nights at midnight for many, many years. My wife and I would stay up to watch them (pre VHS days). If it was a Roland Winter movie we'd usually turn the set off and go to bed. Not so much because they were "bad" but that we just didn't much care for his interpretation of the role.

Howie, I occasionally watch a Winter's Chan but his performance in the role just leaves me cold. I try to just watch the story. They will never be my goto Chans though.

 

[Mysto]

It's been a while since I posted in this thread. Surprisingly, some stuff has happened. The most notable is the release of all of the Thin Man series in Blu-Ray. I never thought I would ever see them. A VERY worthwhile purchase IMHO.

Last night we were watching Mr. Moto's Last Warning and I was reminded of the wonderful tribute to the Charlie Chan films. In one scene they scan down the billboard at the music hall and the last entry is Charlie Chan in Honolulu starring Warner Oland. Across the image is the tag Last Day. This was an homage to the the Chan star who had recently passed away.

The CC series would go on, of course, with Sydney Toler.

So this thread has been quiet for a while - any fans of these great 30's and 40's mystery series out there?

 

[Matt Hough]

Nothing made me happier than to finally get to complete the six entries in The Thin Man series on Blu-ray. They are all beautiful transfers making the movies even more entertaining if that's possible. I gave my DVDs to a friend and housed the Blu-rays in the DVD slipcase. No, they don't exactly fit, but I kept the bonus disc with documentaries on the careers of Powell and Loy, and it still fits neatly inside that box.

 

[Rustifer]

So this thread has been quiet for a while - any fans of these great 30's and 40's mystery series out there?

I am! But I thought this thread had gone the way of the hoola hoop. I've watched some real nostalgic corkers thinking "Heck, this would be a great one to write up on Marv's thread..."
As you know, I don't care if I see movie on Blu-Ray, Sun Ray, Aldo Ray or X-Ray. If it's good, it's good.

 

[Mysto]

I am! But I thought this thread had gone the way of the hoola hoop. I've watched some real nostalgic corkers thinking "Heck, this would be a great one to write up on Marv's thread..."
As you know, I don't care if I see movie on Blu-Ray, Sun Ray, Aldo Ray or X-Ray. If it's good, it's good.

I've missed ya Russ. I guess neither of us is posting as much right now. I've had some health issues that have slowed me down but I still "read the mail".

I try to revive this thread at least once a year LOL but it seems there aren't many that want to post here. OTOH - every time we post we seem to have a lot of guests enjoying the stuff and I guess that should be enough.

Anytime you want to post - let 'er rip. Always enjoy your wit. I'm going to try to get a review or two in the next week or so.

Cheers

 

[Rustifer]

I've missed ya Russ. I guess neither of us is posting as much right now. I've had some health issues that have slowed me down but I still "read the mail".

I try to revive this thread at least once a year LOL but it seems there aren't many that want to post here. OTOH - every time we post we seem to have a lot of guests enjoying the stuff and I guess that should be enough.

Anytime you want to post - let 'er rip. Always enjoy your wit. I'm going to try to get a review or two in the next week or so.

Cheers

I hear ya, Marv. Health is always an issue at our age.
I've slowed my postings in other threads mainly due to the influx of endless screen caps seemingly replacing any coherent discussion---satiric or straightforward. I really don't need to see frame-by-frame shots eating up all the space on a thread. Take that as my old dude "harrumph" response.
Maybe I'll work up some energy to post a few commentaries in here soon. Some of the old mysteries just scream for a send up.

 

[BobO'Link]

I'm still here - but my viewing of qualifying films goes in spurts and sputters...

I *have* watched the new blu rays of the first 3 Thin Man movies during the past couple of months - man, those look excellent! I have the others in the wings but spread them out so as not to dilute the experience too much.

 

[BobO'Link]

I hear ya, Marv. Health is always an issue at our age.
I've slowed my postings in other threads mainly due to the influx of endless screen caps seemingly replacing any coherent discussion---satiric or straightforward. I really don't need to see frame-by-frame shots eating up all the space on a thread. Take that as my old dude "harrumph" response.
Maybe I'll work up some energy to post a few commentaries in here soon. Some of the old mysteries just scream for a send up.

Thank you for saying that Russ! When I attempted to offer suggestions to make those less of an intrusion it was seemingly received with a negative reaction (basically an unwillingness of anyone to take the minimal effort via spoiler tags to make those posts less intrusive). That's pretty much kept me out of that one for some time and why I rarely post there these days. I've not commented about it again as it seemingly falls on deaf ears... And that's *all* I'll say here...

FWIW - I *have* been watching the 50s/60s TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents which is pretty much *all* mystery/crime stories. It's been quite fun watching those with their little twist endings (which I often predict but they're fun nonetheless). I've grown to really get a kick out of Hitch's verbal tags of how the criminal really didn't get away with anything - mainly due to it being there, I'm 100% sure, because of the then production code that a criminal *never* gets away with the crime. There have been more than a few of those which feel quite contrived as the crime, otherwise, was rather "perfect" with, at least IMHO, no way they could have been caught unless they walked into the police department and confessed.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've been watching the first Superman serial with Kirk Alyn as Superman. Not really a mystery (they show the Spider Lady early on without her mask), but it's fun to see this early attempt at a live action Superman (with animated flying sequences).

I had heard that the Superman serials (being Warner Bros. DVDs) were rotting and were causing problems. So far so good with my set, but I've only watched five episodes and the problems always start with the second layer.

 

[Rustifer]

I've been watching the first Superman serial with Kirk Alyn as Superman. Not really a mystery (they show the Spider Lady early on without her mask), but it's fun to see this early attempt at a live action Superman (with animated flying sequences).

I had heard that the Superman serials (being Warner Bros. DVDs) were rotting and were causing problems. So far so good with my set, but I've only watched five episodes and the problems always start with the second layer.

Wow. I'm like 145 years old and I've never heard of Kirk Alyn as a Superman character. Nice bit of trivia.
Live long and learn.

 

[BobO'Link]

Wow. I'm like 145 years old and I've never heard of Kirk Alyn as a Superman character. Nice bit of trivia.
Live long and learn.

Wow! You need to watch those serials (there are two - the 2nd features Lyle Talbot as Lex Luthor). They're very well produced and also feature Noel Neill as Lois Lane! Alyn came "this close" to being Superman/Clark in The Adventures of Superman series but turned it down. He was a dancer and it shows in how he does the take off and landings.

 

[David Weicker]

Wow. I'm like 145 years old and I've never heard of Kirk Alyn as a Superman character. Nice bit of trivia.
Live long and learn.

Both Kirk Alyn and Noelle Neil show up in a deleted scene in Superman '78 - they play the parents of a young Lois Lane (who is on the train that Clark runs faster than).

 

[Rustifer]

Wow! You need to watch those serials (there are two - the 2nd features Lyle Talbot as Lex Luthor). They're very well produced and also feature Noel Neill as Lois Lane! Alyn came "this close" to being Superman/Clark in The Adventures of Superman series but turned it down. He was a dancer and it shows in how he does the take off and landings.

Howie, Howie, Howie...
You've known me long enough to know I don't do DVDs or other forms of tech beyond what I watch in my very comfortable recliner that affords me access to cable and streaming services.
My viewing universe is limited to that and sitting on my porch to watch squirrels happily pilfer our bird feeders.
But you guys show me what I miss. Not.