The Sky Dragon * (1949, Roland Winters, Keye Luke, Mantan Moreland, Tim Ryan, Milburn Stone, Joel Marston, Noel Neill, Iris Adrian, Elena Verdugo, Lyle Talbot) – Classic Movie Review 9063

The Thirties and Forties Charlie Chan series ends with a dying gasp in director Lesley Selander’s 1949 The Sky Dragon, perhaps the weakest entry of all the series, as Roland Winters returns for the sixth and final time as Charlie Chan, who this time investigates death on an airliner.

He and the other passengers on a plane to San Francisco are drugged. But, when they wake up, $250,000 is missing.

The good cast and the good set-up are on its side though.

Keye Luke is back as Number One Son Lee Chan and Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown. It is a shame that there is no Victor Sen Yung though.

Also in the cast are Tim Ryan as Lt. Mike Ruark, Milburn Stone, Joel Marston, Noel Neill, Iris Adrian, Elena Verdugo, Lyle Talbot, John Eldredge, Lyle Litell, Eddie Parks, Louise Franklin, George Eldredge, Bob Curtis, Frank Cady, Lee Phelps, Emmett Vogan, Paul Maxey, Suzette Harbin, Cosmo Sardo and Joe Whitehead.

The Sky Dragon is directed by Lesley Selander, runs 64 minutes, is made and released by Monogram Pictures, is written by Oliver Drake (screenplay), based on a story by Oliver Drake (as Clint Johnson), is shot in black and white by William A Sickner, is produced by James S Burkett, is scored by Edward J Kay (musical director) and is designed by Dave Milton (art director).

The last of 47 Charlie Chan movies, it follows The Feathered Serpent (1948) and is the final film in the Charlie Chan series of 17 low-budgeted features at Monogram (Sidney Toler in the first 11, Roland Winters in the last six).

The character of Charlie Chan was revived as a fondly remembered 39 episode TV series in 1957 with J Carrol Naish, The New Adventures of Charlie Chan.

Ross Martin revived the character in a 1970 TV movie, The Return of Charlie Chan, a failed pilot for a new TV series, while Peter Ustinov starred in a final failed theatrical release, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), though Peter Sellers sent up the character in Murder by Death in 1976, playing Sidney Wang,

Warner Oland started the series in 1931 with Charlie Chan Carries On, and made 16 Charlie Chan films. Sidney Toler replaced him for 22 episodes. Roland Winters ended the series for the last six.

George Kuwa and Sôjin Kamiyama, both Japanese, each played the role once in lost silents, The House Without a Key (1926) and The Chinese Parrot (1927), E L Park, the last man of Asian extraction to play the part and who made no other films, put in a tiny cameo as Chan in Behind That Curtain (1929).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9063

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