Charlie Chan Collections

[htdm]

Some of the first reports are coming in on this set.
A poster at the Charlie Chan site put up the cover art for Charlie Chan in Egypt, Charlie Chan in Paris, Charlie Chan in Shanghai and Charlie Chan in London and you can check out the liner notes here. Another posted on the forums at Scarlet Street that there is an unannounced PR short on the set with Oland in character as Charlie Chan asking local exhibitors not to close their theaters on Sunday.

[Lino]

Extras:

Disk 1: CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON (1934) *Full Screen Feature *The Legacy of Charlie Chan Featurette (15:00) *Theatrical Trailer

Disk 2: CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS (1935) *Full Screen Feature *In Search of Charlie Chan Featurette (20:00) *Charlie Chan In London Trailer

Disk 3: CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT (1935) *Full Screen Feature *The Real Charlie Chan Featurette (20:00) *Charlie Chan In London Trailer

Disk 4: CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI (1935) *Full Screen Feature *ERAN TRECE Fullscreen Feature (79:00) *Eran Trece Theatrical Trailer *Charlie Chan In London Trailer

[Jeff]

Robert Harris has seen the set, and offers some brief thoughts in this thread at Home Theater Forum.

[htdm]

From the same poster at CharlieChan.net:

LONDON DISC

*Trailer for London - this runs 2:05 and is in decent shape for its age especially considering how relatively few trailers from the early 30s survive. The audio is a bit rough but understandable. It's interesting to note that the trailer uses alternate versions of scenes than what was finally used in the film. This practice is sometimes used even today.

*Restoration comparison - Fox did some additional clean-up work to get these ready for DVD. Each film had between 75 and 120 hours of digital restoration done to remove cue marks, minimize scratches, etc. Using a split screen, you can see "before" and "after" for each of the 4 films in this set. This runs about 4 and a half minutes in total.

*The Legacy of Charlie Chan (13.5 minutes)
Features many speakers, including Rush Glick, Layne Tom, Ken Hanke, Barbara Gregorich (author of Biggers' biography). The theme of this feature is how the Chan character was a huge step forward in the depiction of Asians both in literature and on screen. Some Asians are included and, unlike the FMC debacle, their comments are generally positive even if they had mixed feelings about a white playing Chan. There was none of those bogus "servile, subservient, etc." comments that Dr. Sulu's gang gave us.

*The 1935 Pennsylvania Referendum short that Oland did is included in this.

PARIS DISC

*Repeat of London trailer (apparently no trailers for Paris, Egypt, Shanghai survive)

*In Search of Charlie Chan (25.75 minutes)
In addition to Rush and Ken Hanke, Howard Berlin joins the conversation as well as does some of Sol Wurtzel's family. This feature highlights the men who made the character so popular (Biggers, Sol Wurtzel, Hamilton MacFadden, Oland, Luke). It also discusses each of the 4 films in this set. Stepin Fetchit is mentioned. Rusty Cundieff, a black actor, calls him a "trailblazer" and compares the character to Beetle Bailey ("it's hard work being this lazy"). Good job of putting this much maligned actor into context. Dr. Berlin makes some really good points about how Chan was a different type of detective (not relying on good looks, money, etc.) and how his on-screen relationship with his son has made him an enduring character.

EGYPT DISC

*Repeat of London trailer

*The Real Charlie Chan (20 minutes)
Fox traveled to Honolulu to interview a number of locals about the life and times of Chang Apana. Two family members of his are also interviewed. His story is incredible. A very small man, he used a whip as his only weapon and once single-handedly arrested 70 individuals in a single event. Listening to the curator of the Honolulu Police Department Museum (Officer Eddie Croom) and a veteran columnist for the Honolulu Advertiser (Bob Krauss; he looks like Grandpa Munster's brother) it is obvious that Honolulu is very proud of this man and his legacy. No wonder he was named one of the 100 most influential people in Honolulu's history last year.

SHANGHAI DISC

*London Trailer (just in case you missed it the other three times)

*Eran Trece movie - this looks great. Apparently this was well preserved. Yes, there are English subtitles (probably supplied by Rush) which are most appreciated. If you know "Murder Cruise" well, it will make following this that much easier. Summary: fans are really going to like this. Fox obviously spent a lot of money putting these features together. John Cork, who produced these, also worked on the James Bond DVDs so he's obviously experienced at this.

[Lino]

Beaver chimes in:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... ion_v1.htm

[Lino]

And now DVDTalk:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22372

[filmfan]

Beaver chimes in:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReview ... ion_v1.htm

Interestingly there is no comparison to the PAL Region 0, six dvd box set on Orbit Media !

Charlie Chan In Paris (Dir. Lewis Seiler, 1935), Charlie Chan In London (Dir. Eugene Ford, 1934), Charlie Chan At The Circus (Dir. Harry Lachman, 1936), Charlie Chan On Broadway (Dir. Eugene Forde, 1937),
Charlie Chan In Shanghai (Dir. James Tinling, 1935), and Charlie Chan At The Opera (Dir. H. Bruce Humberstone, 1936)

The set features fullframe versions and English audio for all of the films.

[ByMarkClark.com]

I have the R2 set from Orbit. It's wretched.

[Matt]

Is Gary's calculator broken? Where does he get $5 a film? Being generous in including Eran Trece, this box contains 5 films. The cheapest online price is $35.87 at Deep Discount DVD, an average of $7 a film.

[Gigi M.]

Volume 2 on December 15:

Disc 1:
CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA
Fullscreen Feature (Black & White)
Charlie Chan's Lucky Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
English Mono
Subtitles: French & Spanish

Disc 2:
CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS
Fullscreen Feature (Black & White)
Layne Tom, Jr: The Adventures of Charlie Chan, Jr.
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
English Mono
Subtitles: French & Spanish

Disc 3:
CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK
Fullscreen Feature (Black & White)
Number One Son: The Life of Keye Luke
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
English Mono
Subtitles: French & Spanish

Disc 4:
CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS
Fullscreen Feature (Black & White)
Charlie Chan At The Movies
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
English Mono
Subtitles: French & Spanish

[HarryLime]

You're concerned about political correctness as regards the Stepin Fetchit character? And yet you're watching--and I assume, you've purchased--a Charlie Chan box set?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The Chan series is interesting because one role (Shanghai Express) and an extremely refined and beautifully played one, propelled the actor into a series which hopefully paid the rent.

Not really. Oland had played Chan three times by the time SE was released, as well as Fu Manchu four times and various oriental and exotic roles into the bargain. He was already typecast. The Chan role not only paid the rent, it paid for his alcohol bill which led to an early death in 1938.

[HerrSchreck]

I still dig Oland's tired lumbering eastern superiority in WEREWOLF OF LONDON.

Called acting. Since when was the line drawn at ethnicity?

And I love the MR MOTO series. If there's a better way to enjoy mindless pleasure sans crack, sex with a huge breasted woman, or narcotics, pls advise.

[HarryLime]

Since when was the line drawn at ethnicity, you ask? Fair enough...put Warner Oland in black face, and have him play Stepin Fetchit's part then. Just acting, right?

The fact is, I'm sure an Asian actor might have liked a crack at playing Charlie Chan...just as Stepin Fetchit would have fought to keep his role. (I don't know how much you know about Stepin Fetchit, but he was a very interesting guy with a much more complex aesthetic than he is usually credited for. IMDB has a pretty good thumbnail bio.)

And I'm not really advocating for anything here, either. I like Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto and even Dumbo. I just think it's ironic--not wrong, mind you, just ironic--that David was so bothered by Stepin Fetchit's appearance in a Charlie Chan movie. So in other words, Europeans imitating Asian stereotypes isn't troubling (and yes, even though Chan is the hero/master detective, the Chan series definitely trucks in Asian stereotypes), but a Black actor playing Black stereotypes IS troubling.

Food for thought, anyway.

[htdm]

DVD Times announcement with revised release date.

artwork here.

[davebert]

Got my hands on Volume 2 yesterday. So far I've watched Charlie Chan at the Opera, which features Boris Karloff in a very, uh, flamboyant role. The print was clean and the movie itself was quite fun... that's the first Chan film I've seen, and I feel like some of the worst racism in the films comes from the white characters who work with Chan (who in Opera crack about 5 jokes about chop suey).

[Lino]

Beaver on Volume 2.

[ByMarkClark.com]

Does anyone know why THE BLACK CAMEL was left out of Vol. 1, or why CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET was left out of Vol. 2? Is it possible that Vol. 3 will include those two along with the final two surviving Oland Chans, ON BROADWAY and AT MONTE CARLO? Or will Vol. 4 include BROADWAY, MONTE CARLO and the first two Toler Chans?

I'm open to inside info, hunches and wild guesses.

[starmanof51]

Because for some reason, Warners owns The Black Camel (but only in north america). See the Warner's chat with Home Theater Forum 2/06.

Can't help you on Charlie Chan's Secret.

[Ashirg]

Volume 3 is available for pre-order at DVD Empire for July 17 release -
Charlie Chan's Secret
Charlie Chan On Broadway
Charlie Chan At Monte Carlo
Behind That Curtain
Charlie Chan: The Black Camel

[htdm]

DVD Times have just announced full specs for vol. 3:

[quote]Fox Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The Charlie Chan Collection Volume 3 on 14th August 2007 priced at $39.98 SRP. A staple of 30s and 40s Hollywood, Charlie Chan's profound wit and lighthearted counsel in the face of the criminal element has made him a cinematic icon, transcending generations and stereotypes to become one of film's most beloved crime-solvers. Four of Charlie Chan's most-ingenious cases make their DVD debut in this third volume starring the original Warner Oland as the sage detective – including Charlie Chan's Secret, Charlie Chan On Broadway, Charlie Chan At Monte Carlo and The Black Camel - which also stars Bela Lugosi (Dracula). Along with various other extras, the collection also includes the 1929 film Behind That Curtain – Charlie Chan's premiere appearance in a sound film.

The films are all presented in the original Full Screen format with English Mono sound and optional Spanish and French subtitles. Bonus features are detailed per film below…

Charlie Chan At Monte Carlo includes a Chan Is Missing: The Last Days Of Warner Oland featurette, as well as a restoration comparison, original theatrical trailers, still gallery and “Warner Oland is Charlie Chanâ€

[htdm]

Foxclassics.com now lists:

Charlie Chan Vol 4
(starring Sidney Toler)

as "coming soon"!

[Lino]

DVDBeaver

[Jeff]

I'm not crazy about the Sidney Toler entries, but DVD Empire has volume 4 up for preorder.

[patrick]

Somehow I missed that my local critic and customer Ken Hanke did commentary for some of these...are they worth listening to?