The Charlie Chan pictures were ever the efficient B-movie series. It was never a question if another entry was gonna get made; it simply was. As such, Fox had a simple plan for following up their latest unremarkable Chan picture, Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo, with yet another unremarkable Chan picture, Charlie Chan at Ringside. You see how that title doesn’t have an IMDb link under it? That’s right, that movie was never made!
But for a nonexistent movie, they sure got pretty far into making it. Not only was there a script, but Warner Oland (Charlie Chan) and Keye Luke (Lee Chan) were a good week into filming, a mid-1938 release in mind. It’s around this point where Oland truly revealed once and for all that he was an asshole. Due to Oland’s erratic behavior (that is, being a famous movie star), he stormed off the set, as you do, and filming was shut down. Despite a new three-picture deal with Fox (surely at the cost of his very soul), Oland up and decided to just go right down to Mexico – the sort of decision usually limited to underage college students. Reportedly, Oland, in the bouts of some bizarre Swedish insanity, chose to spend his impromptu Mexican “vacation” sitting on the hood of his car at a rest stop, lobbing shoes as tourists. Hmm, sounds like Mel Gibson!
Fortunately, la policia managed to get their corrupt manos on Oland, and returned him to Hollywood’s 1930s version of the Betty Ford Clinic. Then Oland got divorced. This was the straw that broke The Black Camel’s back, and that very day (April 2nd, 1938) Oland buggered off back to Europe. Naturally, Oland would make his fat, alcoholic, chain-smoking way to Sweden, where he would “meet” with Greta Garbo (that is, they had some sex). Then he died…Okay, not immediately, for I’m not sure how Garbo would take that, but at some point within the year. Bronchial pneumonia ‘ll do that to a person.
It seems there was once a fabled, mythical time (1938) when the Fox Studios weren’t grossly mismanaged. As such, they promptly did something with the failed Charlie Chan at Ringside: retain the script and the filmed scenes (sans Chan), and retool it into an entry of the Mr. Moto franchise. It is only now that I become aware of Mr. Moto, an entirely different Asian detective in a series of Fox murder mysteries played by a non-Asian actor (in this instance, renowned character actor Peter Lorre). The movie that resulted was Mr. Moto’s Gamble, the third in that series. It would be somewhat interesting to visit this movie, and get a sense for what this “lost” Chan film would’ve been like, but…The Mr. Moto series is due up for a separate investigation here at this blog, so it shall have to wait until then.
Mind you, all this Moto stuff took place while Oland was still alive! Even in light of his August death, Fox was damned determined that 1938 would see another Charlie Chan entry, come hell or Pop Tarts! To this end, another screenplay was drafted, for Charlie Chan in Honolulu. With Oland at this point either dead or insane, it was time to do that major series move, famed throughout the more tenacious franchises…
Actor switch!
We’re all familiar with this concept now, most notably due to the storied James Bond movies. In 1938, though, who knows how accepted it was? I mean, Oland wasn’t the first guy to play Chan for Fox, but his movies were considered something of a series totally independent of those three random films that preceded them. Hence I’d imagine there was great need for care and ease in transitioning the public to accept a new Caucasian as their beloved Chinese gumshoe and Oriental dick.
Thirty-four actors were tested to replace Oland, surely among them Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan – eh, perhaps not. At any rate, the role finally went to Sidney Toler, an American actor, playwright and theatrical director. Throughout the ‘30s, he was a supporting actor in A-pictures such as Madame X and The Phantom President, two movies I’ve never heard of before. This announcement was made on October 18, 1938, and filming started the very next week. Amazingly to my modern mind, Charlie Chan in Honolulu would be released later that very same year. (Somehow, so too would its follow-up, Charlie Chan in Reno, at least according to Wikipedia, though Netflix and the IMDb seem to think otherwise – I’m gonna go with them.)
To ease the transition for audiences (in a method also seen in other franchise actor switch-ups), the other formula elements are kept pretty much as they were. In fact, the script was originally intended for Oland and Luke, so structurally speaking this is what we would’ve gotten anyway. Also returning was director H. Bruce Humberstone, journeyman behind many other recent Chan flicks (including my favorite, Charlie Chan at the Opera, as well as several I rather dislike).
With this preamble out of the way, it’s time to move on to the flick. Heck, it’s been wordy enough, I’d wager it best to run the movie’s poster again. Fine.
With that out of the way, time to directly discuss Charlie Chan in Honolulu. Guess first thing I oughta do is watch the movie…
[Ah, the Internet is a fascinating and bottomless pit of ancient films…]
Things open up with Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan presiding over his endlessly vast family at home. Considering this is the inaugural entry for a new Chan, it makes sense to see him in his natural environment (Honolulu) before sending him off on his formulaic journeys around the world. And while one of Chan’s sons remains the comic foil, it can no longer be Keye Luke as Lee Chan – for audiences would be too confused to see one actor stay on while another is switched. (Jeepers, that whole Don Cheadle thing in Iron Man 2 would’ve necessitated recasting Robert Downey Jr. as well by this logic!) No matter, now we have Jimmy Chan (Victor Sen Yung) as Charlie’s “Number Two Son.” Remember in Charlie Chan at the Olympics, when a much younger lad (Layne Tom Jr.) portrayed Chan’s so-called “Number Two Son” Junior? Of course you do. Well, Tom’s back in this entry, playing younger offspring Tommy. This potentially confuses series continuity ever so slightly, but no one would’ve cared in 1938, so neither will I.
But what of Lee Chan, regularly my favorite part of the series? Well, glancing dialogue indicates he is now at art school, as per this Renaissance Chan’s latest skills only revealed in Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo. It barely matters, for Jimmy Chan is exactly the same as Lee Chan, for all intents and purposes. Hell, Yung’s performance is nothing more than a lukewarm Luke likeness – all the same nonsensical “Gee whiz, Pop!” nonsense as before. Sadly, imitation isn’t nearly as effective as one’s own role, so for now Sung is a pale shadow – “Number Two” indeed.
How ‘bout Toler, surely the focus here? Well, his dialogue’s exactly the same as Oland’s, utilizing the same Chantax, our lead perpetually terrified by the word “the.” Ah, but Toler ain’t Oland! By 1938, audiences were ready for an uppity Chinaman (though still not a Chinese actor) – Toler drops Oland’s lame halting pronunciation, rather speaking as normally as he can given his aphorism-heavy ching chong dialogue. He’s also sarcastic! Chan’s regular catch phrases like “So solly, prease,” are now reinterpreted mightily as Chan just being a jerk. The Chinaman’s distasteful humility is now thankfully long gone. And surely Chan has earned the right to mouth off to whitey, considering a flawless record of three murder mysteries solved per year. I can’t say how I’ll take this change long-term, but for now I’m mightily pleased. It is a breath of fresh air!
Chan soon leaves with son-in-law Ling (Florence Ung), along with young Chinese actors with names like Hippie Hoo…Seriously. They are off to the hospital, where Chan is about to become a grandfather, the inexorable rabbit-like growth of his family to continue unabated. Thus it is Jimmy, rather than Chan, who gets the phone call about a murder on a ship out in the harbor. A ship?! Oh…DAMN IT! I am sick and tired of all these Chan movies taking place on ships! Ah, but this is a freighter, not a cruise ship – none of that detestable idle rich and their sickening interrelationships and top hats to piss me off this time! In fact, I am quite pleased with the freighter setting – it’s oily and greasy and so full of that fun noir lighting that spices up everything.
Aboard the ship, Jimmy is instantly mistaken for his father, unable to get a word in edgewise. So it’s time to meet the suspects. You know, all these Charlie Chan movies are murder mysteries, but I doubt their heart is really in it any more. I mean, what if every story you could ever tell was a murder mystery? See? So like with other entries such as Charlie Chan at the Circus, this one just slaps on a cursory mystery element, and goes on with its own little side games. There’s plenty of comic relief in this flick, and it’s all rather inoffensive (it’s never quite funny, but I takes what I gets). There’s the aforementioned Jimmy/Charlie confusion, crossed phone lines later on, and a nearly-fatal dosage of all-purpose buffoonery.
But I’m avoiding the disinteresting issue at hand: The suspects. Okay, fine, just skim over this next bit…There’s Captain Johnson, first mate Randolph, Judy Hayes, Carol Wayne, Joe Arnold and Johnny McCoy (Robert Barrat, John “Dusty King, Phyllis Brooks, Claire Dodd, Richard Lane and Marc Lawrence, respectively). The movie’s more artful than I at introducing this rabble, but it’s equally disinterested. For what it’s worth, I’d wager Randolph and Judy are our ostensible lovebirds, but I’m nearly to the point where I’ll no longer even acknowledge these stock types.
There are two characters on the ship that are somewhat interesting, for it’d be a waste of a B-movie’s energy to throw in more than two good characters. One of them is our designated buffoon. Purely by process of elimination, as his name is never uttered, I determine that this is Al Hogan (Eddie Collins). His introduction occurs as he frets about ghosts on the ship…Oh dear me! Are we going back to this unfunny, offensive-to-the-poor “comedy” well? If I ever see another movie that thinks ghost terror is “funny,” it’ll be too soon – and I have the Universal horrors to visit soon enough!
But let us ignore that distasteful element of Al’s persona, for it’s no different than in 4 or 5 other Chan films before it. I’d rather focus on something else to do with Al, something which I wholeheartedly salute…
Al owns a lion!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Lion!
This gallant feline, Oscar (himself), is known to just wander endlessly throughout the ship’s bowels, and scare the hell out of anyone who isn’t Al. He has absolutely nothing to do with the undercooked murder mystery, but everything to do with why this entry is enjoyable. There is a particularly astounding scene halfway through where Al and Oscar get into a fight. Now, usually a B-movie fulfills its lion-fighting quota (a strangely normal quota in ‘30s and ‘40s cinema) by having some poor schmuck just roll around with an undersized stuffed prop, or something. For familiarity, I again refer us to Bela Lugosi and his boxing match with the octopus in Bride of the Monster. But here…Oh no! This is what separates a good B-movie (such as evil, evil Fox was putting out back then) from the crap Monogram was making. Al actually fights Oscar – both man and beast are clearly visible at once, no trickery! I’d suspect Eddie Collins was, like, a real lion tamer or something – or just incredibly drunk, for nothing else in his bio suggests such a skill set. Stupidly, Wikipedia’s “Eddie Collins” link (from the “Chan” page) is all about an unrelated baseballer, the “first greatest second baseman of all time.” Oy!
…
The other interesting guy – my favorite – is Dr. Cardigan (George Zucco, a regular of 1940s B-horrors, who once played Professor Moriarty – we’ll get to that – and who was actually killed by Cthulhu – or…terror of the Eldritch Horror, at any rate). Cardigan is ostensibly a psychologist, in that he is in fact a phrenologist, that wonky pseudo-science that is taxed by the State of Michigan. In actuality, Cardigan is a mad scientist! Whoo! He rather predicts the 1950s model, as he is wont to keep a brain in a jar! Whoo! Sadly, the brain itself (of Chang Ho Ping, famous Chinese murderer) is never visible, which is a shame, because I watch B-movies like this to see brains and lions. Still, this is the best view we get of this nonsense:
Man, I really wish these screen caps didn’t look like buttock.
Well, that’s the fun stuff of Charlie Chan in Honolulu. It has zero to do with the murder mystery, which I haven’t even gotten into. For what it’s worth, we have a dead dude, a Mr. Hillman, who was, naturally, in possession of a large sum of money. That money is now missing, but it shall turn up in due time over the predictable course of the mystery. Really, the broad details aren’t all that different from the previous Charlie Chan in Monte Carlo, so there’s little point here – especially with Panthera leos and cerebral cortices running all over the place.
Suffice it to say, that mystery is eventually solved, by the time Charlie Chan ultimately makes his way aboard the ship. I shall not bother to reveal the culprit (it barely even seems worth spoiling something I’m hardly concerned with), but I shall say this – Charlie Chan solves the crime the same was he solves every crime. That is, he devises some sort of a trap for the killer, all accomplished in the climactic All Suspect Luau. And of course, in the process of Chan cordoning off the ship under police observation, a second murder takes place (of Carol). In a more enlightened, modern world, Charlie Chan would be seriously reprimanded for how many people die violently under his watch…But this was the ‘30s, where one close friend dies on an average day anyway, so who’s to fault Chan for his nonchalance?
In the end, though, Charlie Chan in Honolulu is important for setting up Sidney Toler as the Chan man – I’m probably pretty comfortable with him. Really, that’s the only truly astounding thing about this film; with Oland in place, it might have tired me as much as his last films did. Oh well. We might’ve been stuck in a sort of “Roger Moore” Chan period for a while, but with a Living Daylights now under our belt, perhaps Toler’s presence can inject some much-needed formula shakeup to come…quite unlike what ultimately happened with Timothy Dalton. And that’s where my sudden, inelegant James Bond metaphor breaks down.
To commemorate the introduction of a new actor, let’s finish out with a reminder of the Charlie Chan I have yet to make it through:
21. Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)
22. Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
23. City in Darkness (1939)
24. Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)
25. Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
26. Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940)
27. Murder Over New York (1940)
28. Dead Men Tell (1941)
29. Charlie Chan in Rio (1941)
30. Castle in the Desert (1942)
31. Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
32. The Chinese Cat (1944)
33. Meeting at Midnight (1944)
34. The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
35. The Red Dragon (1945)
36. The Scarlet Clue (1945)
37. The Jade Mask (1945)
38. Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
39. Dangerous Money (1946)
40. Dark Alibi (1946)
41. The Trap (1946)
42. The Chinese Ring (1947)
43. Docks of New Orleans (1948)
44. Shanghai Chest (1948)
45. The Golden Eye (1948)
46. The Feathered Serpent (1948)
47. The Sky Dragon (1949)
Yup. We still ain’t halfway through!
Related posts:
• No. 3 Behind That Curtain (1929)
• No. 4 Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)
• No. 5 The Black Camel (1931)
• No. 9 Charlie Chan in London (1934)
• No. 10 Charlie Chan in Paris (1935)
• No. 11 Charlie Chan in Egypt (1935)
• No. 12 Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935)
• No. 13 Charlie Chan’s Secret (1936)
• No. 14 Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)
• No. 15 Charlie Chan at the Race Track (1936)
• No. 16 Charlie Chan at the Opera (1936)
• No. 17 Charlie Chan at the Olympics (1937)
• No. 18 Charlie Chan on Broadway (1937)
• No. 19 Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1938)
• No. 21 Charlie Chan in Reno (1939)
• No. 22 Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939)
• No. 23 City in Darkness (1939)
• No. 24 Charlie Chan in Panama (1940)
• No. 25 Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum (1940)
• No. 26 Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise (1940)
• No. 27 Murder Over New York (1940)
• No. 28 Dead Men tell (1941)
• No. 29 Charlie Chan in Rio (1941)
• No. 30 Castle in the Desert (1942)
• No. 31 Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
• No. 32 The Chinese Cat (1944)
• No. 33 Meeting at Midnight (1944)
• No. 34 The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
• No. 35 The Red Dragon (1945)
• No. 36 The Scarlet Clue (1945)
• No. 37 The Jade Mask (1945)
• No. 38 Dark Alibi (1946)
• No. 40 Dangerous Money (1946)
• No. 41 The Trap (1946)
• No. 42 The Chinese Ring (1947)
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