Charlie Chan Vol. 4 in February!! (1 Viewer)

[RafaelPires]

Dvd empire is listing this 4 film box set for a February release and US$ 49,98 list price.

 

[Corey]

and still no Fox noir.

 

[Steve...O]

Thanks Rafael! Great news! Release date is 2/12/08.

I found this at Movies Unlimited:

"Four Charlie Chan classics are included in this collection.

First, in "Charlie Chan in Honolulu" (1938), the dynamite detective must deal with a variety of shady characters when a murder occurs aboard a freighter on its way to Hawaii. Sidney Toler, Phyllis Brooks, Victor Sen Young star.

Next, in "Charlie Chan in Reno" (1939), he travels to Nevada to find out if a divorcee is responsible for killing a hotel guest. With Toler, Ricardo Cortez, Phyllis Brooks.

Then, in "Charlie Chan at Treasure Island" (1939), the gumshoe heads to San Francisco to investigate what role a phony mystic played in the death of his friend. Toler, Victor Sen Young, Cesar Romero star.

Lastly, in "Charlie Chan in City in Darkness" (1939), our hero travels to Paris to reunite with some WWI buddies and solve the murder of a munitions manufacturer. With Toler, Lynn Bari, Richard Clarke.

4 3/4 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital stereo, Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; audio commentary; featurettes; "making of" documentary; photo gallery; theatrical trailers. "

Some great titles and all are making their home video debut.

Steve

 

[Brandon Conway]

You know, I don't mean to be rude, but it's responses like this that make me wonder why the studios bother to release ANY classic catalog titles. I'm sure the studio LOVES the first response to a classic title announcement to be a complaint about what the title isn't.

At the very least, if one must complain about the lack of a release, can it please be done in its own thread so as to not impede upon the very GOOD news this thread contains?

 

[Charles H]

The last Charlie Chan box contained cover art for the next Noir Box (BLACK WIDOW, DANGEROUS CROSSING, and DAISY KENYON).

 

[Steve...O]

Hi Bob,

(I cut and pasted this from the other thread so we can focus on Vol 4 in this one.)

While I prefer Oland as an actor, the Toler films seemed to be to be more polished and had stronger stories. The prints of the Toler films are also in much better shape than the Oland films so I would expect these DVDs to look exceptional.

It's great that CC at Treasure Island, considered by some to be the best Chan film, is finally getting a home video release. There's a story floating around that the reason Fox didn't release it on VHS is that the song "San Francisco" which plays over the titles would have required licensing from a rival studio and they didn't want to pay the licensing fee. I don't know if that is true or not, but I'm glad whatever issues there were got worked out.

There are some great guest actors in Vol 4: George Zucco, Cesar Romero, Douglass Dumbrille, Leo G. Carroll, and even Lon Chaney, Jr. among others. Hopefully Fox will get Vol 5 out in the summer and Vol 6 in the fall/winter of 2008.

Steve

 

[Corey3rd]

This goes on the "to get" list. Do wish they'd put more in a boxset

 

[Mike*HTF]

Definitely getting this to support further releases in the series.

My guess is that once the collection is out, we're going to get a "complete set" of the Ford at Fox kind. If they brought this and the complete Shirley Temple films out as a set, I'd pick them up in a heartbeat.

 

[Steve...O]

Fox's Website, which is showing an incorrect release date of 11/20/07, brings us welcome news of the bonus features on Vol 4.

Disc 1: CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU
Full Frame Feature
Reinventing Chan
Sidney Toler:The Man Who Became Chan
"Charlie Chan? Courage: A Re-creation of a Lost Chan Film"
Restoration Comparison
Still Gallery

Disc 2: CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO
Full Frame Feature
Welcome to Reno: America's Divorce Resort
Reno Memories
Chan's Killer Actress: Kay Linaker
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
Still Gallery

Disc 3: CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND
Full frame Feature
Commentary by Film CriticKen Hanke & Film Historian John Cork
The Real Treasure Island
Charlie Chan & the Zodiac
Restoration Comparison
Still Gallery

Disc 4: CHARLIE CHAN IN CITY IN DARKNESS
Full frame Feature
The Making of Charlie Chan in City in Darkness
Writing Chan: Robert Ellis & Helen Logan
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
Still Gallery

It's great to see 93 year young Kay Linaker get her own featurette. She was in various Chan movies and later became well known for writing the screenplay for THE BLOB. She still teaches a college course on the East Coast and makes the occasional personal appearance.

I am hoping that 101 year old Lester Ziffren, who wrote 4 Chan screenplays will be interviewed on Vol 5. He is still quite lucid from what I am told.

Steve

 

[Steve...O]

Vol 4 artwork now available from DVD Empire. Great to see Mr. Toler's face grace the cover!

Also, A/P is reporting the death this week of 101 year old Lester Ziffren who wrote 4 Toler Chans for Fox (Murder Cruise, Panama, Rio, and Murder Over New York). He was also the oldest living UPI writer and has the distinction of breaking the news on the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

Steve

 

[Steve...O]

The Beav has a review of Vol 4 up. It's quite positive and notes that the transfers are the strongest yet. This is to be expected since the films are all post Fox fire and decent elements seem to exist on these titles.

Fox now only has 7 more Chans to go. It is not inconcievable that they can finish this off in 2008. They've been rather quiet with classic announcements lately so hopefully some news will follow soon. (The "coming soon" page at Fox Studio Classics hasn't been updated in quite some time and still lists titles that are already released.)

Finally, I really miss Lasers Edge at times like this. It was not uncommon for me to have a pre-order by the Friday or Saturday before release date. By contrast, my Amazon pre-order has yet to move into shipping status, even with the expedited shipping. I hope the gang at LE has landed on their feet and that they know they're missed.

Steve

 

[Steve...O]

Having spent the past week with this set courtesy of Costco and a $29.97 price, I have a few comments:

TREASURE ISLAND looks immaculate and the other films look very good to excellent with CITY IN DARKNESS and RENO being quite good. I remember Reno being a bit banged up when AMC used to run it so I was happy to get a much improved presentation.

John Cork continues to crank out relevant and highly entertaining featurettes. The interview with now 94 year old Kay Linaker was a delight; I just wish it could have been longer than 9 minutes as she is still very lucid and probably has lots of good stories from her career to share. I also very much enjoyed the archival color film from the real life Treasure Island/SF World's Fair.

Not to nitpick, but I was stunned that two of the newly produced cover art sheets said Chan was played by "Sydney" Toler. That's very sloppy and detracts from what has been a consistently first rate job on these releases from Fox.

Fox has now released 16 of the 23 non missing Chan films that they control and offered up 2 recreations out of the 4 missing ones plus an additional 2 bonus Chans that aren't part of the main series. Great job and continued thanks to Steve Feldstein and team. Hope we can get the remaining 7 titles yet this year.

Steve

 

[BrianM]

Can someone explain what exactly the feature labled "Charlie Chan? Courage: A Re-creation of a Lost Chan Film" is?

 

[Tim Tucker]

A performance of the screenplay in the style of a radio show accompanied by stills of the lost film.

It's no substitute for the original, but you do get a feel for what Charlie Chan's Courage was like.

 

[ahollis]

My thanks to Fox Charlie Chan Volume 4. The transfers are in good shape and I found the featurettes to very entertaining and informative about the films. Fox continues to do excellent work with their catalogue films and I always make room for them on my selves.

Thank you again Fox.

 

[Sergio A]

I've finally been catching up with this release and it is a really excellent package - the only other gripe I would add to Steve...O's comments would be the lack of credits for the featurettes (presumably by John Cork) and on the audio presentation - I'm not crazy about the rather campy narrator for instance in the case of the latter but it is a creditable effort all the same, with Chan seemingly played by a Chinese-American actor, which is an excellent idea - but why are there no credits for who did the voices and directed the production? These small things do seem to be very odd omissions in an otherwise very classy set - it would be great if the other 7 titles were to be released this year -perhaps in a single package for discs? Here's hoping...

 

[Steve...O]

Word is circulating among genre boards of the passing of Kay Linaker at 94. She appeared in 5 Chan films and a new interview was included in the recently released Vol 4. Despite her age this was a bit of a shock because she had been so active and relatively healthy.

I started a thread in the Movies to honor her.

 

[David_Blackwell]

I did review Chan volume 4 a few weeks ago-

Review-
DVD Review: CHARLIE CHAN Collection volume 4

I love the extras on this set, but I wish they could go and animate the missing Chans like an animation company did for the two missing episodes of Doctor Who- The Invasion. It would be a better effort than the boring recreations. I can't wait for the next Chans and I wonder if Fox will rerelease the Monogram Chans since they do distribute MGM DVDs.