All right let's get the racial elephant out of the room. And I don't mean the Republican Party.
Zing that's almost a joke.
So Charlie Chan much like he's far less popular counterpart 'Mr Wong' is played by a very white man. One could make the argument that there just wasn't any larger / older Asian American actors around. But I think we all know the truth is they just didn't care to find any Asian actors or maybe they just found it more comedic to have the world's whitest people portraying a slightly stereotypical Chinese man.
That's the other thing to remember with this character too. Charlie Chan was an already established character from a set of books.
Roland Winters plays Charlie Chan in this film and in many others. With Victor Sen Yung playing his number II Son (Tommy Chan).
Finally there Mantan Moreland who plays Mr. Chan's chauffeur. This guy pops up in everything. He's pepped throw out just about every major film you can think of, from the mid thirties all the way into the 1970s. And any scene he's in, he steals.
Maybe I should have started this whole summary by bringing up that this is a Monogram picture. That means cheap sets, cheap actors and usually fun but simplistic stories.
I had always been a massive fan of the Mr Wong series of which there were several films and was kind of sad once it ended.
But luckily the amount of Charlie Chan movies is vast and will be unending for a Time.
Our story starts in San Francisco.
This guy is roaming the streets looking for a particular Chinese dealer. It's indicated that the guy actually knows the owner and is asking him for advice on where to find Charlie Chan the supposedly famous detective.
You see this guy has a problem.
He's being tailed by this other random guy and possibly a few other people who want him dead. They've tried several times before and they'll try here as well.
Now luckily for this guy, Charlie Chan does get involved in the case. But unfortunately he's not quick enough to find this random man before he ends up in a coma after a unfortunate ''accident''.
Now Charlie Chan has to work his way up in a strange location somewhere in what I can only presume is Texas or Arizona (maybe another humid place near the Mexican border.)
The whole situation gets a bit stranger as one of Mr. Chan's contacts is a police detective purposely acting drunk in this small town while investigating his own scenario. The two of them try to pull their information but they still find it kind of strange that this man seems to be the victim of so many attempted murders.
The detective thinks it might be linked in with this GoldenEye Mine where gold has mysteriously started to be transferred out, despite it being a dry mine for some three years previous.
Charlie Chan has to play his own game of disguise. He pretends to be a jade dealer coming to visit the man who I'd be in searching for his assistance at the beginning of the film.
Why'll at the house he tries to get as much information as possible without revealing his true identity.
He notices lot of peculiar things.
People's attitude to the situation doesn't seem to line up, the police chief (though helpful) seem strangely distant from the main cause, but very willing to give out misinformation; the Nun who's taking care of the bandage man seems to have no medical knowledge and is wearing high heels.
So Charlie's aware that something is not on the level.
He's Able at one point to get access into the mine itself where he discovered several dead bodies over the course of several investigations.
The whole thing culminates in the discovery that one of the police Chiefs, the nun and a bunch of other guys were secretly importing gold illegally from Mexico to sell into the USA because gold was worth double the amount in the states.
Conclusion: This isn't really a good movie. The sets are simplistic and they get reused all the time, the acting is nothing spectacular, the story is basic and it doesn't provide anything particularly interesting that you couldn't find another detective film from the same era.
And yet despite all this; I kind of like this film. I don't know if it's just the Pacific premise or if it's that weird combination of Chinese Detective (as seen through the scope of early American culture) being produced by a cheap B grade studio production company.
It's just weird to see 1930s and 40s America trying to portray a Chines-born man living in America who solves murder cases or doing anything else for that matter.
A lot of it comes down to mis-understanding and maybe even a little ridicule. But in the case of this film it doesn't really feel vindictive or cruel. It seems to be more ignorant or possibly indifferent. Either way it makes for an interesting looking film.
I almost wish that the opposite alternative existed out there somewhere. They would be a Chinese studio trying to make Canadian themed film. But with all Chinese actors purposely trying to act as ''Canadian'' as they could possibly imagine.
The whole thing would be just as ridiculous and zany as the American adaptation of Chinese culture. But alas we just don't have that and we shouldn't have it now because there's no excuse to be doing any of this in the modern-day.
Keep in mind, just because I find Charlie Chan to be amusing from the past doesn't mean I've ever want to see it redone now.
On a lighter note I am happy to say that the daughter of the victimised man (played by Wanda McKay) from the beginning of the film isn't completely useless in this movie.
At the end of the film the Nun tries to kill Charlie Chan with a handgun.
But Wanda runs in and tackles her down.
I can't think of the amount of Noir detective films where an action scene starts with a person holding a gun against someone else and the ''Damsel'' is just standing next to person completely able to turn the tables, but never does out of fear or stupidity.
It's a crappy stereotype from the old days and I'm happy to say that this film didn't fall into that trap. Say what you will about this film or its franchise, but at least the women in this movie are completely useless idiot.
Heck the ''nun'' is the person that's running the entire criminal scheme.
Comments
Post a Comment