The Charlie Chan movies – Classic Movies

The Charlie Chan movies are:

The House Without a Key (1926) (considered lost) is the first onscreen appearance of Charlie Chan with George Kuwa, The Chinese Parrot (1927) with Japanese actor Sōjin Kamiyama as Chan,

Behind That Curtain (1929), Charlie Chan Carries On (1931), The Black Camel (1931), Charlie Chan’s Chance (1932) Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case (1933) Charlie Chan’s Courage (1934) Charlie Chan in London (1934), Charlie Chan in Paris (1935) Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935) Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935) Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936),

Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936) Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936) Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936) Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937) Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937) Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937) Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) Charlie Chan in Reno (1939).

Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939) City in Darkness (1939) Charlie Chan in Panama (1940) Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940),

Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940) Murder Over New York (1940) Dead Men Tell (1941) Charlie Chan in Rio (1941) Castle in the Desert (1942) Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944) Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat (1944) Black Magic (1944) The Jade Mask (1945) The Scarlet Clue (1945) The Shanghai Cobra (1945) The Red Dragon (1945), Dangerous Money (1946),

Dark Alibi (1946), also known as Charlie Chan in Alcatraz, Fatal Fingerprints and Fatal Fingertips, directed by Phil Karlson and featuring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan.

Shadows Over Chinatown (1946), the penultimate film featuring Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan.

The Trap (1946), which is Toler’s 22nd and final appearance as Chan, The Chinese Ring (1947), which is the first to feature Roland Winters as Charlie Chan. Docks of New Orleans (1948) Shanghai Chest (1948) The Golden Eye (1948) The Feathered Serpent (1948) The Sky Dragon (1949), The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1957) (TV Series) The Return of Charlie Chan (1973) (TV Movie) and Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981).

George Kuwa and Sôjin Kamiyama, both Japanese, each played Charlie Chan once in the lost silent movies 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).

Warner Oland started the series of 47 Charlie Chan movies proper in 1931 with Charlie Chan Carries On, and made 16 Charlie Chan films, ending with Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937). Warner Oland died in 1937 and Sidney Toler replaced him for 22 episodes, starting with Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) and ending with The Trap (1946). Roland Winters ended the series for the last six, starting with

The Chinese Ring (1947) and ending with

The Sky Dragon (1949).

The Black Camel (1931) is the earliest surviving Fox studio Charlie Chan series entry for which a print still exits. The first one – Charlie Chan Carries On (1931) – and the next three – Charlie Chan’s Chance (1932), Charlie Chan’s Greatest Case (1933), and Charlie Chan’s Courage (1934) – are all missing, lost in two fires.

However, Fox simultaneously filmed a Spanish-language version of Charlie Chan Carries On, Eran Trece [There Were Thirteen], which survives.

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, and Peter Ustinov starred in a final failed theatrical release, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), while Peter Sellers sent up the character in Murder by Death in 1976, playing Sidney Wang,

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movies

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com