There were more than forty made between 1931 and 1949, Swedish actor Warner Oland appearing in 16 of them, Sidney Toler in 22 and Roland Winters in a round half dozen
Before the appearance of Chan, screen Orientals were often portrayed as being subhuman, always the villain and never the hero If producers wanted a villain of the deadliest kind, then they chose an Oriental Chan, and to a lesser extent, other Eastern detectives like Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) and Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) changed all that and helped make the celluloid "Wily Oriental Gentleman" more respectable
Shrewd, courteous and slow moving, Chan's trademark was a cut price wisdom, expressed throughout all his films in phrases like "Too many mixed drinks make big headaches," and "Silence is golden except in police station."
Like Vance and other popular detectives he would gather his suspects in one room, going round each in turn and finally pointing to the guilty person with the words: "You murderer." As much of his detection was based on bluff as on deduction; the condemned criminal might well have been better advised to stand his ground and challenge Chan to prove his case rather than make the traditional break for freedom
The film that is widely regarded as being one of the best Chan films is Bruce Humberstone's "Charlie Chan at the Opera." Not unlike a poor man's "Phantom of the Opera" it has Boris Karloff (in this case not the villain, just a red herring) as an operatic tenor suffering from aphasia (psychosomatic dumbness) who escapes from a mental asylum bent on revenge on his double-crossing opera singer wife The wife duly dies and so too does her operatic lover but on this occasion the murderer is not Karloff but someone less obvious
The old Chinaman is true to form, making the police look even more heavily and slowly than usual ("Oh, no, we're not calling Chop Suey again," groans Sergeant William Demarest) and dropping his verbal gems at every twist and turn Although set within the normal 70 minute formula for the Chan films it is faster paced than most in the series combining thrills and music and including a special opera, Carnival, composed for the film by Oscar Levant
Stars who appeared in the series and later became famous included Rita Hayworth (then Cansino), Ray Milland, George Brent and Cesar Romero
Before the appearance of Chan, screen Orientals were often portrayed as being subhuman, always the villain and never the hero If producers wanted a villain of the deadliest kind, then they chose an Oriental Chan, and to a lesser extent, other Eastern detectives like Mr. Wong (Boris Karloff) and Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre) changed all that and helped make the celluloid "Wily Oriental Gentleman" more respectable
Shrewd, courteous and slow moving, Chan's trademark was a cut price wisdom, expressed throughout all his films in phrases like "Too many mixed drinks make big headaches," and "Silence is golden except in police station."
Like Vance and other popular detectives he would gather his suspects in one room, going round each in turn and finally pointing to the guilty person with the words: "You murderer." As much of his detection was based on bluff as on deduction; the condemned criminal might well have been better advised to stand his ground and challenge Chan to prove his case rather than make the traditional break for freedom
The film that is widely regarded as being one of the best Chan films is Bruce Humberstone's "Charlie Chan at the Opera." Not unlike a poor man's "Phantom of the Opera" it has Boris Karloff (in this case not the villain, just a red herring) as an operatic tenor suffering from aphasia (psychosomatic dumbness) who escapes from a mental asylum bent on revenge on his double-crossing opera singer wife The wife duly dies and so too does her operatic lover but on this occasion the murderer is not Karloff but someone less obvious
The old Chinaman is true to form, making the police look even more heavily and slowly than usual ("Oh, no, we're not calling Chop Suey again," groans Sergeant William Demarest) and dropping his verbal gems at every twist and turn Although set within the normal 70 minute formula for the Chan films it is faster paced than most in the series combining thrills and music and including a special opera, Carnival, composed for the film by Oscar Levant
Stars who appeared in the series and later became famous included Rita Hayworth (then Cansino), Ray Milland, George Brent and Cesar Romero