Charlie Chan Chanthology Cast: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Edwin Luke, Marianne Quon
DVD - 6 Disc Set Learn more
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- DVD Release Date: 07/06/2004
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Features
Closed Caption; [None specified]
Full Product DetailsScene Index
Side #1 -- Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
1. Main Title/Bombs Away [:08]
2. Charlie on the Case [5:06]
3. Death Became Him [2:45]
4. The Cocktail Hour [6:10]
5. By the Book [5:12]
6. "It's No Bouquet" [3:17]
7. Private Eye [2:10]
8. Stranger Than Fiction [4:10]
9. He Who Holds the Keys [6:04]
10. Electric Company [2:05]
11. Lights Out [2:21]
12. Who Left the Room [2:35]
13. Closet Case [2:45]
14. Murder He Wrote [4:28]
15. Three's a Charm [5:43]
16. Last Shot/End Credits [4:18]
Side #2 -- The Chinese Cat
1. Main Title/Checkmate [:08]
2. Lady in Waiting [2:48]
3. "Murder By Madame" [6:44]
4. The Watchmen [2:17]
5. Who Wants to Know [1:17]
6. The Tables Are Turned [1:31]
7. "Pop Goes the Case" [7:06]
8. Scene of the Crime [3:15]
9. Tick Tock [4:51]
10. Hidden Treasures [1:44]
11. Seeing Ghosts [2:26]
12. Chasing the Dead [3:30]
13. Full of Gas [3:08]
14. In the Funhouse [5:56]
15. Cat's Meow [9:30]
16. Ride Over/End Credits [3:48]
Side #3 -- The Jade Mask
1. Main Title/Stranger Outside [:08]
2. The Gatekeeper [2:36]
3. Only Charlie Can [7:51]
4. "A Good Man" [2:46]
5. Call to Order [:34]
6. Frightening the Bell Boy [5:02]
7. Number Four Son [1:01]
8. House of Suspect [4:39]
9. Nobody Did It [1:23]
10. Mistaken Identities [4:00]
11. "The Congregation" [3:55]
12. Strange Inventions [4:17]
13. The Night Watch [5:00]
14. The Chamber [3:09]
15. An Ear for an Ear [7:29]
16. Unmasked/End Credits [3:02]
Side #4 -- Meeting at Midnight
1. Main Title/Magic Book [:08]
2. A Ghost and a Murder [3:01]
3. Hands-On Investigation [3:39]
4. Chan's Child a Suspect! [2:53]
5. Woman With a Motive [6:05]
6. Time to Split [4:01]
7. The Spirit World [2:34]
8. "Most Important Clue" [5:24]
9. Dazed and Confused [5:02]
10. Hypnotized to Death [5:55]
11. "Relax, Mr. Chan" [6:40]
12. In a Trance [5:43]
13. "Elusive Spooks" [3:16]
14. Wordy Séance [4:23]
15. The Killer Is Revealed [1:36]
16. Tricky Ending [3:15]
Side #5 -- The Scarlet Clue
1. Main Title/Wanted Man [:08]
2. Chan on the Case [3:15]
3. Identifying Mug Shots [4:34]
4. Radio Personalities [2:39]
5. A Heel's Misstep [5:12]
6. Comic Relief [2:13]
7. Questioning the Players [2:44]
8. Electrifying Lab [2:42]
9. Blackmailing Beauty [3:00]
10. Mystery Boss [5:29]
11. A Killer Gets Shafted [3:22]
12. The Weather Tunnel [3:18]
13. The Impersonator [5:34]
14. Another Witness Dies [5:29]
15. Smoking Out a Clue [4:57]
16. The Killer Is Trapped [3:58]
Side #6 -- The Shanghai Cobra
1. Main Title/A Rainy Night [:08]
2. Calling Card [6:25]
3. Remembering Shanghai [1:28]
4. Vaulted Interest [3:31]
5. Miss Know-it-All [5:14]
6. At the Apex [1:38]
7. Suspicious Minds [1:48]
8. Clearing the Detective [2:56]
9. Last Call [2:27]
10. "No U-Turn" [1:46]
11. Snake Bites [8:18]
12. The Launderette [1:47]
13. Late-Night Transactions [3:21]
14. Juke Joint [3:29]
15. "It's Morse Code" [5:51]
16. Banking Hours/End Credits [10:23]
Editorial Reviews
Few fictional detectives are more beloved than Earl Derr Biggers’s Charlie Chan, the Chinese-Hawaiian hawkshaw whose adventures were chronicled in six books, nearly 50 feature films, a TV series, a continuing radio drama, and even comic books. MGM’s “Chanthology” collects the first six Chan films released in the mid-‘40s by Monogram Pictures, which took over the franchise after 20th Century Fox relinquished it in 1942. Sidney Toler, who inherited the role in 1938, stayed on as Chan, accompanied by Benson Fong as “number three son” Tommy and African-American comedian Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown. Monogram, at that time still one of Hollywood’s “Poverty Row” studios, couldn’t afford the production appurtenances or star-studded supporting casts lavished on the Chan films by Fox, but it retained the basic whodunit format, and the character’s charisma survived intact. With World War II exerting an influence on motion pictures as well as everything else, several of Charlie’s ‘40s cases found espionage or subversive activity underpinning mysterious murders. The Scarlet Clue (1945), arguably the best film in this collection, pits Chan against an unknown assassin trying to obtain the plans to a top-secret radar device. Wartime elements also figure prominently in the first of the Monogram series, Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, which introduces the character of Birmingham. Moreland, whose pop-eyed, scaredy-cat characterization still rankles many African Americans, gets ample opportunity to emote in The Chinese Cat (1944) and Meeting at Midnight (1945), two above-average entries. Oriental motifs lend exotic atmosphere to The Jade Mask and The Shanghai Cobra (also 1945 releases). Chan buffs generally prefer the Fox films (currently unavailable on DVD), but the Monograms have their own charms, and they’re very well remembered by baby boomers who saw them frequently on TV in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The Charlie Chan mysteries, with their red-herring characters, confusing clues, and last-reel explanations, provided the template for countless imitations on both big screens and small; such popular, relatively recent TV shows as Murder, She Wrote and Diagnosis: Murder sport the same formula that the Chan films first made popular more than 70 years ago. Ed Hulse, Barnes & Noble
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