Warner Oland as Charlie Chan - The First Six Films   

The Black Camel (1931) – 5.5

 



Made in 1931, this is the only surviving Charlie Chan film of the first five that Warner Oland starred in. The others have sadly been lost. These first five films were based directly on the books of Earl Derr Biggers who died in 1933 after writing six Charlie Chan books. The next existing Chan/Oland film was Charlie Chan in London in 1934 and that one plus most of the rest of the Chan films were not based on the books. In the intervening years between The Black Camel and Charlie Chan in London film sound techniques had improved considerably as film transitioned from the silent to the talkies. The Black Camel has many of the weaknesses of films from that period as it is stagey, slow and stuck in place as film still had not really mastered sound as a moving medium. This was really the first Chan film that focused on Charlie Chan as opposed to almost being a side character. It was Charlie Chan Carries On (lost film) that increased his popularity even though he only shows up at the end of the film. So they went with that for this film.

 


It is an ok film that generally very closely follows the book though the second murder in the film does not happen in the book. It has a remarkable cast of unknowns who were to become somewhat famous later on - Oland of course who took on Chan for many more films until he died in 1938, Robert Young in his debut as the romantic side story and both Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye who had just finished Dracula. Frye had also just finished an early version of The Maltese Falcon as the character Wilmer.

 

Chan's police assistant in the film is a Japanese character who is sort of the comic relief. Fortunately, his sons came along in later films to help him along with Mantan Moreland. Oddly, the horrible stereotype of this character is actually taken from the book and is not a Hollywood invention. For some reason Biggers took quite a dislike to the Japanese - which perhaps for that time was not unusual but he at the same time showed great respect for the Chinese culture which was unusual at a time in which America had passed incredibly discriminatory laws against Chinese immigrants. This disdain for the Japanese was perhaps caused by the enmity between China and Japan in those times, but that is just a guess. But today it is really embarrassing to watch - cringe worthy.

 


The plot of The Black Camel was brought forth again under slightly different circumstances in Charlie Chan in Rio made in 1941 with Sidney Toler playing Chan. In this film a Hollywood movie star is in Hawaii making a film and fell in love on her way over on the boat. She brings her mentalist (Bela) over from Hollywood to ask him if marrying this man was a good idea. But this is all related to a murder that took place three years before of her lover. It was never solved but it seems the killer must be in Hawaii. Murders occur, Charlie spits out wise aphorisms by the dozens, a household of suspects and Bela lurking about. The acting from most of the cast other than Oland and Lugosi is uniformly dreadful - very monotone or hysterical or as with the Japanese assistant embarrassing. But a good mystery.

Charlie Chan in London (1934) – 7.0




Charlie Chan in London is one of my favorite Chan films with a setting in England at a country manor that felt very Agatha Christie with a household of suspects. Fast moving and reasonably suspenseful. There is a solid cast and Eugene Forde who is fast becoming one of my favorite B directors with his ability to move things along - and a fine whodunit scripted by Philip MacDonald.



Chan has three days to find the real murderer or an innocent man will swing. By the neck. He is about to leave for Hawaii and his wife and 12 children (how does he find time to solve crimes) when the sister (Drue Layton) of the sentenced man begs for him to help. Charlie Chan cannot say no to a pretty lady. At her side is a young unknown Ray Milland acting very much like an older Ray Milland - charming with just a touch of his Welch accent. Chan shows up at the manor of Richmond (Alan Mowbray) which was the scene of the murder three months previously and fortunately all the people who were there that night are still hanging about. Another murder and two attempted murders follow but there turns out to be much more at stake than just a man's life. The clue is the horse that doesn't neigh. But it made no sound Charlie. That was the curious incident. I was as usual completely in the dark as to the identity of the killer.

Charlie Chan in Paris (1935) – 6.5




Charlie Chan in Paris is a very solid outing in the series with a script written by Philip MacDonald who also did the excellent Charlie Chan in London. In fact, this film follows right on the heels of the London case as Chan has flown to Paris on another case - of forged bond notes. His contact is killed before Chan has a chance to meet. But Chan gets the able assistance of his son who was in Europe on business, which doesn't really jive with him in later films. He is played by the legendary Keye Luke in his first credited film and is a very welcome addition. It is a taut little mystery - partially taking place in the famous sewers of Paris - with a few twists in there. Warner Oland is still playing Chan and is quite good here with a nice mix of menace and polite cheer. When one of the characters offers Chan “a little drinkee drinkee”, the stone cold expression on Chan’s face says everything.



Back in the 1930’s musicals were so popular that they often threw musical numbers into other types of films. Some of these are rather enjoyable. In the film Charlie Chan in Paris there is a dance number that is almost brutal in its style that was termed an Apache Dance or La Danse Apache. This was supposed to be a dance re-enaction of a fight between a Parisian pimp and one of his working girls. The female dancer is Dorothy Appleby who generally only got small parts in films from the 1930’s to the early 1940’s but a number of these were in Three Stooges films. She died in 1990. The male dancer is Fred Wallace, who I can’t find much information on at all.

Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) – 5.0



Charlie Chan continues his global tour in the 1935 Charlie Chan in Egypt. The Fox studios had begun placing Charlie in various foreign locations first in London, then Paris, now Egypt and next in Shanghai in hopes to excite the audience. In reality of course these films never made it off the studio lot with a bit of stock footage at the beginning to establish the location. The choice of location of this and the plot – an archeological dig – was likely influenced by the success of The Mummy in 1932. This wasn’t as good as the London and Paris films but it did have the added interest for old film fans of two of the co-stars.

 

One was the legendary and today very controversial actor Stepin Fetchit who became a symbol of a horrible black stereotype that was very demeaning. At the time though Stepin was in the big time and quite wealthy – this during the Great Depression mind you – and owned six houses, twelve cars and sixteen Chinese servants! His character is like hearing claws on a blackboard with his mumbled yessuhs and nosuhs to modern audiences. In fact, the Chan films often brought on black actors for comedy relief - and some are fairly funny even if stereotyped - but Stepin is just painful to have around. His name became synonymous with being lazy. The other co-star of interest plays an Egyptian maid with only a bit of dialogue and was still using her old name, Rita Cansino better known today as Rita Hayworth. She is hard to recognize but this was before the cosmetologists did a makeover into one of the most beautiful women in the world.

 

Egyptologists who open the tombs of Pharaoh's never do well in films. Curses or death usually await them. And sure enough it happens here. A group has unearthed the burial site of a Pharaoh and the leader of the excavation ends up in the Pharaoh's coffin. Dead needless to say. Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) has been sent from a museum in Paris to look into why artifacts from the site have ended up in other museums. But a dead man awaits Chan and others are on deck.

Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935) – 6.0




Charlie Chan continues his Trip Around the World Crime Tour. First it was London, then on to Paris, Egypt and now the mysterious Orient in Shanghai! This was Warner Oland's ninth appearance as Chan though four of those films are considered lost. Which is a shame because at least to this point they are still fairly enjoyable. Oland of course not only made a career out of playing Chan but other Asians as well. Here he sings a little ditty to some children on the slow boat to China and in the lyrics he sings about going to the homeland of Fu Manchu. A little perhaps intentional irony as Oland had portrayed that quintessential Yellow Peril villain in four films in the early days of talking movies.

 

Here Chan is called to Shanghai by a friend but doesn't have any idea why. As expected this man is killed before he can tell Chan anything at a formal dinner with the old gun in a box trick that shoots you when you open it. And then the bad guys try and kill Chan a few times. Fortunately, he has the aid of his son played by Key Luke again, who we had missed in Egypt. Luke can of course speak Cantonese and does a few times - though in Shanghai it should in theory be Mandarin - and Oland gives it a go once and even to my untrained ears his Chinese was pretty bad. It turns out that Charlie was called to stop an opium smuggling ring - "The beauty of the poppy conceals the sting of death".

 

A few future sort of stars in the cast. Jon Hall as half of the romantic pair had his first credited film here but within a few years was a star doing all these exotic adventure films - kind of a male sarong star in films like The Hurricane, South of Pago Pogo, Aloma of the South Seas, Arabian Nights and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. His romantic partner in this is Irene Hervey, Aunt Meg in the Honey West series and loads of other TV shows. In a small part as the telephone operator is Lynn Bari who was "uncredited" for a few years of struggle in many films but by 1939 was the co-star in Chan's City of Darkness and went on to star in many mainly B films. And that dancer in the nightclub scene is Joan Woodbury who also went on to a number of B films like King of the Zombies, other Chan films and Brenda Starr in Brenda Star, Reporter.

 


In an interesting instance of fact meets fiction, Oland had visited Shanghai right before the film was made and he was welcomed like a hometown hero - in fact when he spoke at the dinner that they gave him, he said it was wonderful to visit his homeland. Oland had of course been born in Sweden. This dinner was then written into the film with a slight difference - in the movie a murder takes place.

Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936) – 5.5

 

Strange how often medium's featured in so many of the old B films of the the 1930's and 40's . They must have been a bigger deal back then. Of course now you don't have to have a physical séance but can just call up 1-800-Sucker to get your fortune told or hear from the dead. In the times of covid that is relief. The interesting thing about the medium here besides that she is very attractive is that she is never proved to be a fake even though her partner is. She believes she communicates with the dead and Charlie seems to be a believer in that ability as well.

 

Alan Colby disappeared years ago and during his absence his father died and he came into a lot of money - but since he was presumed dead the sister of Colby's father has taken over the fortune and is generously taking care of her parasite family including the medium. When Colby sends a wire that he is still alive and coming home, the old lady calls her friend Charlie Chan in Hawaii to come to California and check that Alan isn't an imposter. The actor who plays Colby was probably hoping for a meatier role but he is killed as soon as he shows up by an unknown knife thrower. So Charlie is saddled with murder as usual and a few attempts at more. With lots of suspects with motives. Chan rather cleverly figures everything out and sets two traps for the killer.

 

Not bad though it feels a little unambitious with a plot that any movie detective of the time could have handled. Even Number One (Keye Luke) isn't around to add fun to a fairly somber outing. In his place they give us Baxter the butler played by the cherubic always bumbling Herbert Mundin, an Englishman who looks just like his name would indicate. You may recall him from being one of Robin's men in The Adventures of Robin Hood or the nervous nelly in Tarzan Escapes. Always enjoy seeing him and hadn't realized till I looked him up that he died in 1939 in a car crash at the age of 40.

 

What needs to be remembered is that though we look at the Chan films now as quaint little nostalgia trips filled with aphorisms and stereotypes - at the time Charlie Chan - and because of him Warner Oland - were enormously popular. They were produced by the Fox B Unit headed by Sol Wurtzel but they were a big deal and very profitable. And in demand. In 1936 they produced four Chan films and three in 1937 before Oland was to die in 1938 (and quickly be replaced). At the same time Wurtzel was producing the Mr. Moto films. Apparently, Yellow Face or Orientalism was a popular trend at the time.