They're Back!

THE GANG’S ALL HERE-1941-Once again Frankie Darro is “teamed” with Mantan Moreland, this time in the trucking business. Pop Wallace (Robert Homans) is finding it hard to get drivers. His mechanic Chick (Jackie Moran) hires Frankie (Darro) and Jeff (Moreland) to drive a rig to Fresno. Unbeknownst to them “Pop” has been in cahoots with a crooked lawyer to collect insurance money. The duo due a pretty good job but almost get fired anyway. Wallace's daughter Patsy (Marcia Mae Jones; also in LET'S GO COLLEGIATE with Darro & Moreland) pretends to be sweet on Frankie to make Chick jealous. In an unusual turn a green horn Asian American named George Lee (Keye Luke; also in LET'S GO COLLEGIATE) is actually an investigator for an insurance company. Although Frankie insults and bosses Jeff most of the time they do use teamwork at the climax. 

This was one of several Monogram programmers director Jean Yarbrough made featuring Darro who sometimes acts like a third rate Leo Gorcey and not very likable especially when teamed with the outrageously funny Moreland.

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More Darro and Moreland

LET'S GO COLLEGIATE-1941-A star athlete Bob Terry is supposed to arrive at Raleigh college and help the rowing team. Unfortunately he’s drafted. This puts a damper on the hope of having a championship and students Frankie Monahan (Frankie Darro), Tad (Jackie Moran) and Buck Wing (Keye Luke) are quite depressed. The girls on campus led by Bess (Marcia Mae Jones) and Midge (Gale Storm) are so excited that the losers are afraid to tell them. They get a guy named Herc (Frank Sully) to impersonate Terry. Then they can't get rid of him so they try to make him into a rower. There are several songs but Mantan Moreland as Jeff is wasted. Barton Yarbourough (I LOVE A MYSTERY) is their coach and Tristram Coffin is Slugger. 

Work horse director Jean Yarbrough made KING OF THE ZOMBIES (also with Moreland) the same year. Later he directed four Abbott & Costello movies (and all the episodes of their great TV series), Rondo Hatton in HOUSE OF HORRORS and THE BRUTE MAN, The Bowery Boys and many TV episodes.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4609335177952045780/6557514618581060655?hl=en

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Chan's Great White Way

CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY-1937-While in the Big Apple being honored with a police escort, brass band and a banquet, Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and son Lee (Keye Luke) become involved with the usual cast of characters. While on board an NYC bound ship, a woman named Billie Bronson (Louise Henry) has a package many people seem to want. She hides it in Chan’s trunk to get it passed customs. She can't get to it but instead goes to a club and kind of threatens the owner Johnny Berk (Douglas Fowley) after being warned to leave town by gangster Buzz Moran (Leon Ames). Billie winds up shot to death (last seen struggling with Berk over a gun) and Lee is held as a suspect. Charlie and the police Inspector Nelson (Harold Huber) are called away from the banquet. It turns out the hot item Billie possessed was her diary which contained a lot of dirt on the underworld. After some investigating, Charlie gathers everyone together at the Hottentot Club. Besides Berk suspects include his dancer/girlfriend Maria (Joan Woodbury), a newspaper publisher (J. Edward Bromberg) and mobster Moran.  A fast talking reporter Speed (Donald Woods) who’s always trying to scoop a female photographer (Joan Marsh) finds the body. Marc Lawrence is a mysterious early victim and Lon Chaney Jr has an un-billed cameo.

Director Eugene Forde would go on to direct more of the (pretend) Asian detective's cases.

The next Chan adventure would be CHARLIE CHAN IN MONTE CARLO which I reviewed years ago!

It's here: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/12/chans-back.html

That's followed by CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU

https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2009/05/aloha-charlie.html



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Olympic Chan

 CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS-1937- While Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) and little son Charlie Jr. (Layne Tom Jr.) get ready for a fishing trip someone steals an experimental robot plane the US government was testing. As luck would have it both Chans discover the plane on the beach where they were going to fish. Inventor Hopkins (Jonathan Hale) thinks former employee Arthur Hughes (C. Henry Gordon) stole it. Hopkins and his assistant Cartwright (John Eldredge) accompany Chan on a steamer to Berlin. Meanwhile Chan’s son Lee (Keye Luke), on his way to The Olympics as a swimmer, investigates the link between his friend Dick (Allan Lane) and a mysterious woman Miss Roland (Katherine DeMille) who seems to have a connection to the missing device. Captain Strasser (Frederick Vogeding; pompously self assured German stereotype) helps out. They find the missing device in the luggage of Olympian Betty Adams (Pauline Moore), also a friend of Lee’s and Dick’s girlfriend, but it's obvious Betty wasn't in on it. Later Lee is kidnapped. Chan figures it all out in the end (and so will you) and Lee wins a gold medal! 

Although it takes place in Nazi Germany (a film of Jesse Owens winning his gold metal race is shown) there's really no reference to it. This was the third in a row CC feature H. Bruce Humberstone directed. The next year he'd direct CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU and go on to make I WAKE UP SCREAMING and some Tarzan films before going into TV. The next Chan installment would be CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY.

Useless Note: Frederick Vogeding's character's last name is Strasser. The same name Conrad Veidt's character had in CASABLANCA (1942).

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Oland vs. Karloff

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA-1936-As it says above the title “It's Warner Oland vs. Boris Karloff”! An amnesiac opera singing piano playing maniac (Boris Karloff) escapes from an insane asylum and threatens the life of opera diva Lilli Rochelle (Margret Irving). The police inspector calls in Charlie Chan who happens to be on the mainland. Rochelle is accompanied by a pompous demanding baritone Barelli (Gregory Gaye) The stage manager (Maurice Cass) says “This opera is going on tonight even if Frankenstein walks in”! The maniac turns out to be named Gravelle and he was once the lead baritone with the company but was deliberately locked in a room while a building was on fire. He’s also the father of Lilli’s secret daughter Kitty (Charlotte Henry) who came to the opera with her fiance Phil (Thomas Beck) to get mom's blessing on their marriage. . Although it seems Gravelle kills Berelli and takes his place as Mephisto in the opera and kills Lilli on stage while performing, this is a Charlie Chan mystery and things aren't as clear cut as they seem. 

Racist Sgt. Kelly (William Demarest) disagrees with everything CC does or says and refers to him as “Egg Fu” and “chop suey” and says “No Chinese cop’s gonna show me up”. Unfortunately for him he's wrong but he gives props to the famed detective when the mystery is solve.  Meanwhile No. 1 son Lee (keye Luke) digs up several clues while in disguise. 

This is a classy if far-fetched murder mystery with Karloff as a sympathetic nut the highlight. The music for the fake opera is by Oscar Levant. The lip syncing is very good. 

 2 years before this film co-star Charlotte Henry played Bo-Peep in THE MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS with Laurel & Hardy. Director H. Bruce Humberstone directed this in between CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACETRACK and CHARLIE AT THE OLYMPICS.]

The same year as this Karloff was the piano playing John Ellman brought back to life in THE WALKING DEAD. He and Lugosi made THE INVISIBLE RAY tooFollowed by CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS.

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Race Track Chan

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK-1936-In Hawaii when sure winning racehorse Avalanche is disqualified for a foul by his hockey (Frankie Darro), its owner Major Kent (George Irving) hires the Honolulu based (fake) Chinese detective (Warner Oland) to investigate. Unfortunately Kent is kicked to death by his own horse before Chan can get to work. On board an ocean liner bound for US (Hawaii wasn't a state yet) everyone receives threatening letters regarding not using Avalanche in anymore races. Chan is even shot in the leg. It's all a plot by a group of gamblers to make a big score. Lee (Keye Luke) disguises himself as a laundry boy and causes a distraction so “Pop” can switch the horses back.

Doping also figures in the plot and there are lots of the usual suspects. Director H. Bruce Humberstone made the next entry into the series CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA (with Boris Karloff) the same year.

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Big Top Chan

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS-1936-This entry begins with Charlie (Warner Oland) and his wife (Annie Mar) and 12 children visiting the circus and talking to 2 little people, Col. Tim (George Brasno) and Lady Tiny (Olive Brasno) both dancers. One of the owners Kinney (Paul Stanton) approaches Chan and says he’s received some threatening letters. Chan agrees to meet him later during the show. We also learn Kinney's partner John Gaines (Francis Ford) owes him a lot of money and if he can't pay he’ll lose his half of the circus. He also has a problem with Cesar the gorilla (Charles Gemora) who he whips and then fires its trainer. Later with the help of Col. Tim and a giant (John Aasen) Chan discovers Kinney dead in a locked room inside his wagon. Then it’s found that the abused ape has escaped its cage! A phony mystic John Holt (J.Carrol Naish) helps subdue Cesar when he attacks Chan. No.1 son Lee (Keye Luke) and police chief Macy (Wade Boteler) try to figure things out (Lee also pursues a Asian contortionist). Lady Tiny visits the Chan Clan at their hotel to try and convince Charlie to help find Kinney's killer but he declines as he’s on vacation with his family. However Mrs. Chan and their kids convince him to help. Charlie and Jimmy join the circus to investigate. The first night a cobra slithers into the elder Chan's bed but Jimmy shoots it, It seems Kinney was engaged to the star trapeze artist Marie Norman but was married to Nellie (Drue Layton),who works in the costume dept. To trail her Lee  dresses as a woman with Tim as his cigar smoking baby! Later when Nellie proclaims that she will inherit half the circus trapeze artist Norman claims she can prove that Kinney and Nellie we're not legally married but first she has to perform. Bad decision. Someone fires a rifle cutting one of the ropes. She falls but doesn't die. Charlie sets a trap and discovers the real culprit. They can't make a monkey out of Charlie Chan!

 Director Harry Lachman made OUR RELATIONS with Laurel & Hardy the same year. He later made more in the Chan series. George and Olive Brasno were a real life brother/sister singing act who were very popular and successful in their day. 

Followed by CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK.

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Shanghai Chan

CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI-1935-Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) visits “the land of my ancestors” for the first time in many years to see his friend Sir Stanley (David Torrance). He’s  met at the dock by Stanley's secretary Nash (Jon Hall using his real name Charles Locher) and his niece Diana (Irene Hervey). Chan also hooks up with number 1 son Lee (Keye Luke). Unfortunately at the dinner Stanley is shot and killed by a wooden case rigged with a gun. Police inspector Watkins (Halliwell Hobbes) agrees to let Charlie investigate the death of his old friend. At night while Chan and Lee are sleeping an attempt to kill Chan fails. Later Chan is kidnapped by some mysterious bad guys but number one son saves him. An American secret agent Andrews (Russell Hicks)  explains to Chan that that he and Sir Stanley were working on breaking up an opium ring and wanted Chan’s help. Meanwhile Nash snoops around very suspiciously. After Nash is arrested for attempted murder, Chan's life is threatened several more times until he tricks the gang and reveals their real leader.

 One of the best in the series with son Lee doing a lot of fighting! 

Director James Tinling also made MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE.
 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2016/01/mr-moto-returns-again.html

Followed by CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET.

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Chan in France

CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS-1935-Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) arrives solo in Paris for a rendezvous with a dancer who has secret info for him. Almost immediately he gets a warning to leave when a rock with a note attached is thrown through his car window.  He pretends to be on vacation but is actually working on a case for a London banking house. After the dancer is stabbed to death by a beggar (obviously a disguise) before they can meet Charlie searches her apartment and an unsuccessful attempt on his life is made. Back at his hotel he meets son Lee (Keye Luke) who becomes “Pop's” chauffeur and shadows several suspects. Charlie is investigating a bond fraud case. When a woman named Yvette (Mary Brian) is arrested for the murder of a sleazy banker, her fiance Victor (Thomas Beck) accompanies Chan through the sewers of gay Paree’ to catch a killer. John Miljan and John Qualen are also in it. 

Director Lewis Seiler in his only Chan outing, later directed several movies featuring Humphrey Bogart (YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER; CRIME SCHOOL; THE BIG SHOT).

Followed by CHARLIE CHAN IN EGYPT https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2015/12/chan-again.html  and CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI. 

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Young Wong

PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN-1940-This is the Monogram Pictures 6^th and final entry into their “Mr. Wong” series that started in 1939 with Boris Karloff in the lead. This time out however the detective is Jimmy Wong, a younger, more dashing and modern version than his predecessor and he's portrayed by Keye Luke, an actual Asian actor (born in China)! He helps investigate the poisoning death of an archaeologist. Capt. Street (Grant Withers) returns from the previous films and has a bigger role than usual. Jimmy's kind of love interest is Win Len (Lotus Long) and the plot revolves around the missing “Scroll of China”. 

It's refreshing to see the two leads actually played by Asian actors but unfortunately it's the only one made featuring “Jimmy”. The beginning lecture, photos and flashbacks look like they came from another movie. Director George Waggner (he directed THE WOLFMAN the same year) wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Joseph Lewis. PHANTOM's director Phil Rosen made many “quickies” (like SPOOKS RUN WILD) and several in the Charlie Chan series.

Please check out this unique feature and thanks for reading!

Mr. Moto Returns Again

MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE-1938-The intrepid Japanese detective (Peter Lorre) investigates the in ring death of a boxer. He gets assistance from pickpocket Knockout Wellington (“Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom) and Lee Chan (Keye Luke), Charlie Chan's number 1 son! The chief suspect is gangster Nick Crowder (Douglas Fowley) who's main henchman Joey is played by pre-Wolf Man Lon Chaney Jr. Ward Bond is Moran, the world champion. Poison seems to be the culprit but who did it? As usual Moto plays his cards close to his vest seeming almost as though he were a suspect too. Lynn Bari and John Hamilton are also featured.

The unusual presence of Lee Chan isn't so odd when you know that MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE (the third entry into the series) actually started out life as an entry in another (phony) Asian detective series at 20^th Century Fox, CHARLIE CHAN AT RINGSIDE. But illness forced star Warner Oland to drop out (he suffered from alcoholism and was involved in a messy divorce at the time). The filmed footage was scrapped but the script was later reworked with Lee being a student in one of Moto's crime classes.

Director James Tinling spend most of his time making low budget films and ended his career with some early TV work. Three years before GAMBLE he made CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI. GAMBLE is just a so-so detective murder mystery with too much comedy but Lorre is always interesting to watch.

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Chan's Back!

CHARLIE CHAN AT MONTE CARLO-1937-In the famed gambling mecca the famous detective (non-Asian Warner Oland) and his number one son Lee (Keye Luke) stumble across a murder, some stolen bonds and a battle between two industrialists. Of course suspects abound: a bartender, a lackey assistant, a wife, a mistress. This is a pretty good Chan mystery despite too much number one son comedy. The final scene is kind of like the ending of an Abbott & Costello movie! 

With Virginia Field (also in several MR. MOTO entries) and Sidney Blackmer. Director Eugene Forde's career went back to the silent era. This was one of five Charlie Chan mysteries he directed.

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When Castle Was King.....

PROJECT X-Paramount-1968 -Rarely seen sci-fi from “gimmick” director William Castle (who produced ROSEMARY’S BABY the same year). It’s based on a novel by Leslie P. Davies.

In the far flung future scientists led by Henry Jones and Philip Pine try to unravel the mysterious last words of scientist/spy Hagen Arnold (Christopher George) just before he got amnesia. They re-create a bank robbery from the ‘60’s to try and confuse him. A special hologram machine reveals his past but his unconscious mind takes over.

Monte Markham is Gregory Galaya, who may want to help Arnold or he could be working for “Sino-Asia”. Greta Baldwin falls for George after he introduces her to cigerettes! Harold Gould is the military colonel in charge. Keye Luke has a small role as the Asian bad guy. A weird little film with lots of shots in negative.

Screenwriter Edmund Morris also worked on the TV show “The Wild, Wild West”. The jazzy musical score is by Van Cleave. Not to be confused with the movie of the same name from 1987 starring Helen Hunt and Matthew Broderick and some chimpanzees.

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