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In many ways, detective Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is an ordinary American
father whose dinner table is packed with children who call him “Pops” and
who lives in a comfortable middle-class home that conjures up a Norman
Rockwell illustration. The Chan residence also boasts Chinese ceramics,
bamboo room dividers, Asian art and other indications that despite the
middle-American trappings depict the Chan family as a unique Hollywood
phenomenon.
When Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) opens, Detective Chan has
rushed to the hospital bedside of his daughter as she prepares to give
birth to his first grandchild. While Charlie Chan waits at the hospital,
his "number two" son James (Victor Sen Yung) intercepts a message intended
for Charlie about a murder on board the freighter Susan B. Jennings. The
freighter is on its way from Shanghai to Honolulu under the leadership of
Captain Johnson (Robert Barrat). James wants to prove his investigative
skills to his father and so boards the Jennings pretending to be Charlie
Chan, with his younger brother Tommy (Layne Tom Jr.) in tow. The ruse
doesn't last long and soon the real Chan arrives on board, interrogating a
motley assortment of crooks, heiresses and crew as he works to solve a
crime whose only witness is secretary Judy Haynes (Phyllis Brooks).
Chan is unlike other movie detectives because of his tendency to whisper
cryptic, fortune cookie pronouncements like “opinion: like tea leaf in hot
water. Both need time for brewing.”
Charlie Chan in Honolulu was actor Sidney Toler’s first performance
as the Asian detective. He was selected by producer Darryl F. Zanuck to
follow in the footsteps of the late Warner Oland who played Chan from 1931
until his death in 1938. Toler was spotted by Chan associate producer John
Stone playing a Chinese character in the film King of Chinatown
(1939). Toler was no shoo-in for the role, however, but was the
thirty-fifth actor tested for the role along with Leo Carillo and Cy
Kendal, who had played Charlie Chan on the radio. Once Twentieth
Century-Fox settled on Toler shooting on the film began less than a week
later. Toler ended up playing Chan until his death in 1947, first for
Twentieth Century-Fox and then, when World War II impacted Fox's profitable
overseas market, Toler took the series to the low-budget Monogram Pictures.
Toler starred in eleven Monogram Charlie Chan pictures.
A native of Warrensburg, Missouri, Toler took an early interest in acting,
appearing in an amateur production of Tom Sawyer at seven. Toler
worked on the stage alongside such greats as Edward G. Robinson and
Katherine Hepburn and eventually made his film debut playing an Englishman
in Madame X in 1929.
Charlie Chan in Honolulu was also the debut of Victor Sen Yung as
“number two” brother James Chan. Critics singled out Toler and Yung for
praise, and saw them as worthy additions to the Chan oeuvre. The New
York Times called Charlie Chan in Honolulu a "passably diverting
mystery film."
Charlie Chan was the creation of Harvard grad turned drama critic turned
novelist Earl Derr Biggers who created the Asian detective in 1925. While
vacationing in Hawaii, Biggers came across a Honolulu newspaper article
about two Chinese detectives who inspired him to create a virtuous Chinese
hero. Biggers saw Chan as an alternative to the predominant view of
villainous Asians, "I had seen movies depicting and read stories about
Chinatown and wicked Chinese villains, and it struck me that a Chinese
hero, trustworthy, benevolent, and philosophical, would come nearer to
presenting a correct portrayal of the race," he told Harvard
Magazine in 2000. Charlie first appeared in The House Without a
Key as installments in The Saturday Evening Post. The popularity
of the Chan detective stories led to other Chan novels and The Saturday
Evening Post eventually paid $25,000 to serialize the third Chan story
Behind That Curtain (1929). The Fox Film Corporation also purchased
the rights to that novel. At times Biggers feared he would be typecast as
the writer who created the Charlie Chan detective industry, but the stock
market crash of 1929 convinced him to stick with a sure thing.
Producer: Sol M. Wurtzel
Director: H. Bruce Humberstone
Screenplay: Charles Belden; Chandler Sprague (contributing writer)
Cinematography: Charles G. Clarke
Art Direction: Richard Day, Haldane Douglas
Film Editing: Nick DeMaggio
Cast: Sidney Toler (Charlie Chan), Phyllis Brooks (Judy Hayes), Victor Sen Yung (Jimmy Chan), Eddie Collins (Al Hogan), John ‘Dusty’ King (George Randolph), Claire Dodd (Elise Hillman/Carol Wayne), George Zucco (Dr. Cardigan), Robert Barrat (Capt. Johnson).
BW-67m.
by Felicia Feaster
 
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31 Days of Oscar Highlights for Feb. 13
Russell Crowe stars in a tale of revenge set in ancient Rome in Gladiator, the Best Picture winner of 2000. Other featured Academy Award honorees include Blow-Up (1966), Roman Holiday (1953) and Jezebel with Bette Davis & Henry Fonda.
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