A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Fox has put quite a bit of time and effort in cleaning up their Chan films, and the results are very positive.

For the uninitiated, many of the original negatives were either destoryed or damaged, along with whatever dupe materials that existed at the time.

What this means is that the films have not looked good in many, many years.

The image quality on the new discs is a major step forward, which will only be obvious to those who have seen the old elements.

One of my early jobs in the industry was creating an archaeology of the entire Chan series, tracking film elements, rights, etc., so finally seeing these wonderfully entertaining films about the life of the brilliant "Swedish" detective is extremely welcome.

The films in Volume One... Egypt, London, Paris and Shanghai, four of sixteen Chan films starring Mr. Oland, represent his work toward the middle of the series, and are essential Chan.

Oddly typecast as Chinese, Mr. Oland also played Dr. Fu Manchu.

Oddly typecast as Jewish, Mr. Oland also played the role of Al Jolson's father, Cantor Rabinowitz in The Jazz Singer (1927).

My two favorite performances in his long list of characters are that of Henry Chang in Shanghai Express, and Dr. Yogami in Werewolf of London.

My one negative comment about the series, is that Fox should have gone with slim cases and at least two films on each disc for the shorter films. Rather than a large four disc boxed set, this initial offering could easily have in a single case holding two discs.

Other than the space issue, the set comes very recommended. The pure entertainment value of these films has not deminished over the decades.

RAH

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Thanks Robert. Looking forward to getting my hands on this set.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Another great review, Mr. Harris. Sure hope the consumers will support this set, as I assume the release of the remaining Chans on DVD will depend upon the success of these.

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Robert,

Thank you, so much.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Thanks for the early inside look at these four films, and I hope and pray folks will buy this set so we can get them all. These are among the best of the entire series, so I'm glad Fox began with them.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I'm relatively new to the Chan films, but I'll be buying this.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Thank you so much, Mr. Harris.


Absolutely. My love of classic film started back in the 1970s when Saturday afternoon TV consisted of everything from Charlie Chan to Tarzan to the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys. These may not have all been "A" product, but they were (and still are) very entertaining.

If I may be permitted, two questions for Mr. Harris:

1. The few restored Chans/Motos I've seen do indeed look miles better than what was previously available. Does Schawn Belston deserve the credit for these efforts or was someone else at the helm. The work done on these deserves recognition. It is my understanding that Fox invested over $2 million on these restorations.

2. During your years as archaeologist for the Chans, were you able to determine definitively what happened to the 4 missing Oland Chans? I've heard about a fire in New Jersey in 1937 that may have destroyed the only prints of these films, but other reports say they were around as late as the 1950s. Do you believe that it is possible prints of these still exist? You may know that PARIS was lost until about 25 years ago or so when it was found in a European archive.

Thank you,

Steve

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Mr. Belston is the first professional archivist / asset protection executive at Fox. In his short tenure, he has turned the library around, handling everything from silent films like Sunrise to '30s product such as the Chans, '40s three-strip Technicolor titles, major 70mm preservation work on titles like Cleopatra, to modern classics from the '60s and beyond.

He and his staff deserve huge credit and kudos from anyone and everyone who loves the cinema. In a strictly corporate sense, one must then also credit those with the savvy to place him in the position.

We always hope that a print or pre-print element has survived, and one should never give up that hope. Original negatives continue to appear long after they have been assumed gone.

Hopefully, I haven't misled anyone. I was not an archaeologist for the Chans. I was assigned a research project which took some weeks, probably done around 1965-6 for a television syndication company called Seven Arts. I don't recall any of the specifics, but the final project was entitled an "Archaeology." I have a copy filed somewhere, and will refresh my memory.

RAH

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I can't wait to watch this DVD. I enjoyed the Charlie Chan movies when they aired on AMC years ago. Those Charlie Chan marathons were just pure fun to enjoy.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Robert Harris
I watched most of these on AMC years ago and remember that most of these looked pretty bad it wasn't until the late 30's early 40's Chan's that AMC's copies started looking good. Do these hopefully look better than the ones shown on AMC?

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I'm not Mr. Harris and don't presume to answer for him, however I can tell you that having watched the AMC versions of Egypt, Shanghai et al and also having seen the restored versions on FMC the restored versions show significant improvement. Egypt still appears to have replaced titles, but I think you will be pleased. Naturally the DVD will be even better than the TV version.

More good news keeps coming in about this set...Scarlet Street reports that a short PSA Warner Oland made in character requesting repeal of a Pennsylvania law barring movies from being shown on Sunday is also included. The specs did not list this.

Steve

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I received the set from FOX yesterday. I only watched Charlie Chan in Egypt so far, but some of the transfer does look nicely cleaned up. I do agree with RAH that they should have went with slimline cases.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

This is great news! I also remember seeing this on AMC years ago and hope there will me more similar "surprises" in the box.
On a related note, does anyone have any more details on the Mr. Moto collection specs?

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

One remarkable thing I've seen so far in the Chan box is the original theatrical trailer for "Charlie Chan In London", with beautiful quality. That was the first Oland/Chan trailer I've ever seen anywhere ...

http://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Thank you, so much, Mr. Harris for your comments about the Charlie Chan Collection.

These films really are highly entertaining and bring back vivid memories of my childhood when I couldn't wait for the next Chan movie being broadcast on the local Bavarian TV station on Sunday afternoons.

The restored DVD releases look fantastic considering the age of the prints. Highly recommended!

It should be noted that the spanish version of the lost Chan feature "Charlie Chan Carries On", "Eran trece" is included as an extra on the "Shanghai" disc.

Too bad they did not include the early Oland/Chan film "The Black Camel" (1931) in this first collection. Please Fox DO NOT FORGET this one!

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Others exist, but they're rare. I believe the CIRCUS trailer ran on AMC. As good as the restored LONDON looks, there are scenes on the trailer that look almost pristine (others not quite so much). While it's a shame that Fox didn't have original materials to work with they still did a great job.


This was not included as Fox does not own the North American/Canadian DVD rights. Warner Home Video does. They said at the last chat that Camel is on their future release schedule (date TBD).

This set is fantastic. Everything from the cover art (not original one sheets but great facsimilies) to the contents is first class.

Here are thumbmails of coverart (click to enlarge)








These are beautiful. While I would second Mr. Harris' request for slim cases, I am more than ok with 1 film per DVD after seeing the beautiful job they did with creating these authentic looking poster art. Checking some of the bit rates, I see that they are encoded at near maximum rates so Fox did their best to make the presentation as appealing as possible.

Great job Fox and a huge "thank you" to Steve Feldstein for releasing Mr. Belston's great restorations.

Steve

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

"It should be noted that the spanish version of the lost Chan feature "Charlie Chan Carries On", "Eran trece" is included as an extra on the "Shanghai" disc."

Did Warner Oland play Charlie Chan in the Spanish version as well?

I grew up in New York watching old movies on WPIX and on the 4:30 Million Dollar movie and maybe I just missed them but I never even remember the Charlie Chan films being shown, so I have never seen any of them. This is going to be the first time I have seen any of these films, and I am really looking forward to it.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

No, he didn't. An actor named Manuel Arbo did. He's a charming fellow that resembles Oland a bit. However Oland does make an appearance of sorts in that a Chan family picture that is shown has Oland in it.

Steve

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Richard,
I grew up in the NYC Metro area too and those films played a lot on the Late and Late, Late Show on channel 2. Also, they played on channel 9 (Million Dollar Movie) and might have made appearances on both channels 5 and 11. The time period I'm talking about are the 1960s to early 1970s.




Crawdaddy

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Thanks Steve ..O for the name of the lead in the Spanish version.

And Robert, my interest in classic films began around the mid to late 70's, I guess maybe that's why I missed them. And yes, it was via the Million Dollar Movie on Channel 9 at 8 PM.

I don't know why I thought it was on Channel 7 at 4:30 PM!

In any case, I am really happy to finally be able to see them in what sounds like first class presentations.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Gary Tooze at DVDBeaver has just posted his review of the box here.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Even with the relative lack of promotion of this title I see it was in the top 20 at Amazon yesterday and has been doing quite well overall the past several weeks. Fox surely must be pleased.

Gary Tooze's observations are fair, but some context is needed. London and Paris do have a slight "washed out" look. However, I pulled my personal copy taped from AMC some years ago and this new DVD is miles and miles better than that one which was very poor. Plus the DVD has exit music on this title which I never knew existed as it apparently was not part of previously televised prints. I'd rate the sound higher than Gary as it sounded quite clean to me. Some of my previous personal copies suffered from pops, dropouts, etc.; none of which are present here.

The first 4 Oland Chans (CAMEL and the 1st three on this set) that still exist have never been offered up as reference quality prints. However Shanghai looks very good on DVD and the quality of the prints should go up markedly in Vol 2 and by the time the Toler years roll around we'll be seeing some films that look near pristine due to the much better condition of source materials.

Mike HTF - I see your Lorre picture. The upcoming Moto set is said to be of outstanding A/V quality. I've only seen one of the restorations, but it was indeed stunning.

Steve

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I'm almost finished with the set. THe restoration work is fantastic.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

Reading DVDBeaver's review lowered my expectations somewhat but after actually watching the discs last night, I thought the films looked fine. I looked at the Marlene Dietrich collection and the John Wayne 5 Film collection by Universal to compare the quality and found that the Chans look at least as good as anything on those sets.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I was all ready to pass on this due to MRSP and the fact that I haven't seen a Chan film. Than I saw it yesterday for a reonable $45 cdn and now this thread, it looks like I might as well bite. Thanks to all for the informed commentary.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I received my set from Amazon today. I haven't had a chance to view them yet, but an insert shows that Fox is planning to issue the Michael Shayne series (starring Lloyd Nolan) next year. They issued DRESSED TO KILL by itself last year, but there are six other Fox releases, most of which haven't been seen for years. The insert also promotes the upcoming Mr. Moto box set.

I was skeptical about Fox ever releasing the Chan and Moto films on DVD after Fox Movie Channel bowed to pressure and stopped airing them a couple of years ago, so I am really pleased.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I received my set today too. Am getting ready to pop one into my dvd player in just a minute. I echo Steve's comments about this set doing so well on Amazon. Earlier today it was in the top 10 in sales! No way can Fox say they've lost their shirts on this release. For those that remember, at a HTF chat a couple of years ago we were told Fox couldn't release the Chans because it would be so unprofitable for them. Glad to see the buying public is proving them wrong on this one.

Gary "I did worry about this set selling after I saw the somewhat high MSRP, but even with that it's done fantastic!" O.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

It would be intersting to see alternate-language versions of other Charlie Chan films in future volumes, but not if it would mean not making other special features.

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

A question for Mr. Harris regarding the disc CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS I just watched it last night and noticed in the top left third of the picture there is the most annoying white spot that stays throughout the picture. I Know you saw the box set. Is this something that could have been fixed in the digital restoration process because I am a bit puzzled that the restoration clearly mentions the hours that went into cleaning each film?


I would hope FOX would correct this although I support such product and it is a major step in the right direction for FOX at the high price point they have on this box a glitch like the on on CC in PARIS should not have happened if at all possible!


Best
RMG

Re: A few words about... Charlie Chan Collection - Volume One

I just finished the box and must say this (along with last year's Harold Lloyd Collection) has to be the most enjoyable collection to come out in years. Some of these Chans I hadn't seen since I was a kid and I had forgotten how much fun they were. It prompted me to dig up my old VHS copy of CC on Broadway and the laserdisc of CC at the Opera/CC in Paris. (By the way, what an improvement CC in Paris is over the LD version) I'm looking forward to volume two.