WHV Press Release: Charlie Chan Collection (1 Viewer)

[SAhmed]

Mine too just showed up today - will power up tonight!

Regards,

 

[TheSteig]

Mine came in the mail today. Good ole WB Shop and their in process BS lol

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I watched The Sky Dragon last night (my first Roland Winters Chan) and enjoyed it - I tend to like claustrophobic mysteries. I think I enjoyed the first half, where the plane was in the air, more than the second half where they're on the ground, but overall it was a fun way to spend an hour. Looking forward to seeing the other two in the set soon.

 

[TheSteig]

The Feathered Serpent is fun with both the number 1 and 2 sons together..
The Red Dragon was okay IMHO, the PQ was subpar due to the elements, some scenes look Alpha Video-eque .. Sky Dragon is next

 

[JoHud]

So glad these finally got released. Just got the set and will be spending the next night or two enjoying them

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Finished the set the other night, really enjoyed watching all three. The Sky Dragon was probably my favorite of the bunch but all were enjoyable.

I just picked up the first of the Fox Warner Oland Chan sets used on ebay for about $5, and the TCM set with four discs (three Tolers and one Winters) for $10. I've somehow never seen an Oland Chan movie before, so that should be fun!

 

[TheSteig]

The Oland ones are the best IMHO.. better production , better stories, less comedy to some extent. Warner Oland is my favorite Chan actually

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The Oland ones are the best IMHO.. better production , better stories, less comedy to some extent. Warner Oland is my favorite Chan actually

I'm really looking forward to it - hopefully will get to start on the set tonight. I saw some of the Toler ones that MGM put out when they first came out on DVD around 2004, and I really enjoyed the quick paced mysteries. I had completely put them out of my mind before Fox started putting out their sets, and here I am again more than ten years later ready to pick it up again. I love the Rathbone-Bruce Sherlock Holmes movies, so it makes sense that I'm loving these too. Hoping to watch Charlie Chan In London tonight.

I also just borrowed the Mr. Moto set from my stepfather, he's a fan of those and I've never seen one.

 

[TheSteig]

The Moto movies are again IMHO better than some the Toler Chans..they arent who done it mysteries but they have intrigue, great acting and the action during the films is really well done. I wish Kino or Twilight Time would release them on bluray since they are with Fox. Watch the Mr Moto movie with Chan's number one son..Mr Moto's Gamble, this was made because Warner Oland passed away during filming but the movie script kept stuck around They replaced Chan with Moto basically

 

[dana martin]

comparisons knew that would come around, but that is going to happen in a lot of these, just like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, or Poirot, hell Tarzan for that matter, who best represents the character? To bad someone hasn't tried to redo these, but accurate to the books, like PBS's Mystery, period pieces of course with someone the stature of Chow-Yun Fat in the role of Chan.

 

[JoHud]

Okay, watched The Red Dragon and this is definitely a case of them requiring multiple elements to create a full feature. About 80-90% of the film is from high quality incomplete 35mm stock. The rest is filled in from a variety of other stock, either lower quality dupe or 16mm.

Anyone familiar with the Bowery Boys Monogram title Mr. Hex that had similar hold-ups and eventual compromises should know what to expect. The Red Dragon fares better in comparison with a larger share of good quality stock we expect from these titles, but still has some sequences from notably inferior sources. As with the BB film, these sequences were most likely too damaged to salvage from the primary stock and what we got was no doubt through the efforts of the very long photo-chemical restoration process the WB-owned Monogram Chans went through starting around 2008-2009

Also like Mr Hex, the audio is strong throughout regardless.

I also just borrowed the Mr. Moto set from my stepfather, he's a fan of those and I've never seen one.

The Motos are pretty strong in general, particularly the first batch.

The Moto films are a distinctly different flavor in that they focus more on espionage and intrigue. As such, they tend to be more action oriented with Moto being more likely to get his hands dirty than Chan who tended to be more cerebral.

 

[dana martin]

took a break from all of my make up college work this weekend, and watched the lone Toler film, for those late to this, that always go straight to Oland as Chan, should remember that the series continued due to the efforts of Toler taking control and moving the series to Monogram.

entertaining is all i can say,

so after screening the other two films i will be set for next years Charlie Chan fest, all the titles in order of release,

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, interesting I found a thread on this film series. I just so happen to be curious about these films. I've known about them, but I never tried to watch them because being who I am, I was concerned they'd be very stereotyped representations of Chinese characters. So I stayed away. What pulled me into it was Keye Luke's involvement as Number One Son. I knew he portrayed that character, but again, I didn't know what the portrayal was like. I was reading a little about Keye Luke and he spoke of the positive image that Chan was. Regardless of the actor playing Chan was Warner Oland and Caucasian, he felt that he gave the character an honesty and that was a good image to put out.

I found a 5 box DVD set of the Warner Oland/Keye Luke films they did in the Charlie Chan series. The first 3 boxes are their films, the other two are the later actors from what i read. Oland seems the definitive, or at least the one actor who first made the character work for film audiences of that era. So I found on YouTube, Charlie Chan in Monte Carlo. I only watched about 2 minutes of it and I got the flavor of it for that. So I might try to invest in the series and check it out. I'm partly curious from a historical standpoint of how Asians are portrayed in film beyond the stereotypes of that era. It looks like a time capsule. It seems only recently has Asian actors been able to break that stereotype.

Aside from that, Luke felt they made some very good murder mysteries. Could be a good follow-on after I finish the Columbo series.

 

[Darby67]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I am just wondering if, three years past its initial release date, there is any hope of getting a pressed discs by ordering this release from either the WB Shop or Amazon.

 

[TheSteig]

Who knows but Id love to have the Chan films on Blu ray at this point !

 

[Darby67]

Who knows but Id love to have the Chan films on Blu ray at this point !

I would too but i just wondering if anyone here has recently purchased the set from either the WB shop or Amazon and received pressed discs.

 

[Professor Echo]

Who knows but Id love to have the Chan films on Blu ray at this point !

Don't count on it, unfortunately. Caucasians playing Asians with today's cultural climate? I firmly believe that all these films are destined to be buried away for a long time. It's very sad, but that seems to be the reality now. Hang onto your DVDs.

 

[TheSteig]

Don't count on it, unfortunately. Caucasians playing Asians with today's cultural climate? I firmly believe that all these films are destined to be buried away for a long time. It's very sad, but that seems to be the reality now. Hang onto your DVDs.

I have all the Chan and Moto sets on DVD and they take up so much room on the shelf
I wish the today's cultural climate from people would realize these films were made in a much different climate, are 100% fictional and are for our entertainment. This is *reel* life and needs to be separated from *real* life which is one reason I watch movies more than anything these days. Escapism in cinema is a great way to forget about the crap going on at this point !

 

[Josh Steinberg]

How are they being buried? They’re pretty much all still in print, and those that aren’t can be purchased easily and inexpensively on the secondhand market. (I got one of the Fox four movie volumes for a penny on eBay last year.)

That they’re not out on Blu-ray speaks more to the rapidly declining market for physical media, and the declining market for 80 year old films, than it does censorship. If anything, the b-movie and cult status of the series has probably helped it remain more visible and accessible than these films would have been otherwise.

I share your disappointment that there isn’t a nice bundled Blu-ray set of Chan films the way there is for the Basil Rathbone Holmes movies. But I think that’s more about market forces at play than attempts at hiding the existence of the material.

 

[Professor Echo]

How are they being buried? They’re pretty much all still in print, and those that aren’t can be purchased easily and inexpensively on the secondhand market. (I got one of the Fox four movie volumes for a penny on eBay last year.)

That they’re not out on Blu-ray speaks more to the rapidly declining market for physical media, and the declining market for 80 year old films, than it does censorship. If anything, the b-movie and cult status of the series has probably helped it remain more visible and accessible than these films would have been otherwise.

I share your disappointment that there isn’t a nice bundled Blu-ray set of Chan films the way there is for the Basil Rathbone Holmes movies. But I think that’s more about market forces at play than attempts at hiding the existence of the material.

Fox Movie Channel stopped playing these movies years ago out of fears of appearing insensitive. TCM, to my knowledge, has never shown any of the CHAN or MOTO films. Now that Disney owns Fox and are notorious for never wanting to offend anyone, I fear these movies will be out of circulation in no time.

Just because they are still available, at retail or second hand means nothing. Fox nor Disney won’t publicly instigate a recall of them anymore than Disney will comment on SONG OF THE SOUTH. They will just let them quietly disappear.

If BIRTH OF A NATION and TRIUMPH OF THE WILL were owned by a major studio and not in the public domain, you would never see them again, save for bootlegs. Read up on Disney planning to censor DUMBO or theaters refusing to show GONE WITH THE WIND. Soon it will be banning any movie with a blackface scene and any movie with Caucasians portraying any ethnic group besides Caucasians. This is the brave new world we face, the past will only exist in the forms that the sensitive youth of today deem appropriate. Think I’m paranoid? The stories are being reported in the media everyday. I only wish it was just paranoia.