Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 2 (Charlie Chan at the Circus / Charlie Chan at the Olympics / Charlie Chan at the Opera / Charlie Chan at the Race Track)

Volume 2 in Fox's Charlie Chan DVD Collection seems not to have been released as much as it escaped. Volume 1 was widely heralded but this installment, which contains the best of the films when the series reached its peak, sort of snuck up on us. Frankly, I can't believe I'm the first one here to review it.Full disclosure: I own Volume 1 and just purchased Volume 2 through Amazon. So my review at this point is based on my (repeated) TV viewings dating back to the mid 1960s through just a few years ago before the Fox Movie Channel banned the CC films. I noticed that Fox skipped one film in this set, CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET (1936) that preceeded the four films in Volume 2. Why? I can only guess except that SECRET is a real letdown compared to the quality of the films before it - CHARLIE CHAN IN... LONDON, PARIS, EGYPT, and SHANGHAI. And the films that followed that are represented in Volume 2. But still why was it dropped? I guess that's Fox's secret.As with Volume 1, Warner Oland simply IS Charlie Chan. Oland continues to play Chan with his usual quiet authority and stunning charisma. Although he was not Asian (athough he believed his mother was part Mongolian), his winning characterization of Chan forever changed the way Asians would be portrayed in Hollywood films.As for the Fab Four in this set: CC AT THE CIRCUS is the closest Charlie came to film noir, thanks to German director Harry Lachman. His films tended to be dark and moody and CIRCUS is no exception. Much of the film takes place at night and even indoor scenes have a sombre edge to them. Lachman would direct a few more Chans in the Sidney Toler era during the early 40s when the series changed direction and became compact little murder mysteries such as DEAD MEN TELL (1941). These later Chans are enjoyable on their own terms but totally different in style from the Olands of the mid-30s. CIRCUS features the entire CHAN clan including his wife. Mystery-wise, if you can't spot the real killer in CIRCUS, you should resign your membership in the Charlie Chan club! I think even Charlie knows early on but has nothing to pin on the culprit.CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK marks a real jazzing up of the series stylistically. Director Bruce Humberstone, who was ambitious for more important projects at Fox, wanted to show Zanuck what he could do and pulled out all the stops in RACE TRACK. Right from the opening music behind the main credits, you know this one is different. The pacing is faster and optical wipes give each scene a sense of urgency. Charlie's relationship with son Lee also progresses with Lee being given increasingly important assignments by his Pop.Unlike the earlier drawing room style of the films, in RACE TRACK Charlie takes on a whole gambling syndicate in addition to the murders in a wide ranging series of locales from Honolulu, to Melbourne, to Los Angeles, plus an ocean voyage in between. He's shot too! High tech is employed here as Chan learns about the "new" way of timing the races with photo-electric cells and photographing the photo finish. What I particularly like in RACE TRACK is that the film "language" gives an alert viewer a big clue at one point to put you on the track of the killer. Even at the climax, the killer slips up but nobody notices (momentarily), giving the viewer another chance to solve this one.AT THE OPERA is generally considered to be the best of the Chans and its reputation is well deserved. Oland for once is co-starred, with Boris Karloff, and the two work well together although they only share one scene. The film might more accurately be titled CHARLIE CHAN MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA because that really describes the storyline. Since Karloff is so obviously the killer you just know somebody else has to be doing the dirty work and making it look like Karloff's to blame. But Charlie ain't fooled (nor are we because this is supposed to be a murder MYSTERY). High tech again is used to help solve the mystery as we (and Charlie) are treated to a demonstration of the process involved in wire photos.Son Lee again proves indispensible and Director Humberstone delivers the goods once again. A special faux-opera was written for the film by Oscar Levant called "Carnival" and I hate to admit it but I wish Levant had turned it into a real full length work - the music is that good. I don't know who sang for Karloff but in case viewers wonder how his character could manage to sing so well after being a patient in an insane asylum for ten years, the opening scene shows him practicing every night. A bigoted detective comically played by William Demerest finally has to admit that "Charlie is OK" at the end. A real gem of a film.The last one in this set, 1937's CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS (just love that title!), is the most globe-trotting of all the Chans and the most ambitious production-wise. The film starts with Oland in his undershirt jogging in place! The, uh, partial nudity shows that Oland had lost weight around his mid-section when compared with his appearance circa 1934-35. The film starts in Honolulu and has a scene eirily prophetic of the Pacific sea search for Amelia Earhart's lost plane that took place a few months after the film's release. Then Chan is off to intercept the ocean liner Manhattan that is in mid-Atlantic on its way to the Olympic games in Germany (son Lee is on the U.S. swimming team in case you're wondering how he gets worked into the story). Being 1936, the only way Charlie can catch the ship is to fly from Hawaii to L.A., then grab a transcontinental plane to New York, then grab the ill-fated German zepplin Hindenburg from Lake Hurst, NJ. And travelers today think they have it rough!The plot actually has nothing to do with the Olympics but the film is so engaging, who really cares? The games are used as a backdrop for meetings by the spies with Chan, and there is some footage of the events including Jesse Owens's spectacular run for a gold medal. High tech is employed once more as Charlie pulls a real switcheroo by substituting a radio transmitter in the aircraft device the spies are after. Son Lee is kidnapped from outside the Olympic Stadium, and even Charlie thinks he has met his match.Actor C. Henry Gordon, an alumnus from earlier Chans, almost steals the film as a most dapper villian. Things are so dangerous for Charlie that Mr. Gordon, one of the silver screen's silkiest villians, actually saves Chan from death TWICE, and Gordon is one of the bad guys! As in OPERA, the killer is well hidden although the series of clues that Chan puts together to unmask the culprit at the finale is less than convincing. It doesn't matter because the killer can't explain away a simple clue: spilt ink on his shoe and that seals his fate (no, not a spoiler - by the time the ink-on-shoe comes up, the killer is already unmasked - I just think it's the best clue!).By the time OLYMPICS was made, Warner Oland was really "into" the Chan character so much so that he continued speaking like Chan offscreen and even signed his name, "Charlie Chan." As one interviewrer wrote in mid-1937, "I came to interview Warner Oland about Charlie Chan but ended up interviewing Charlie Chan about Warner Oland." So what was going on? I'm afraid that's a story to be told in Volume 3. I only hope that the Fox people take this DVD project seriously enough to scour their vaults for ANY materials - film footage but most likely photos - from Oland's final and uncompleted film, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RINGSIDE, that he worked on during the first week of January 1938.

Long unavailable on television, Fox's second Region 1 NTSC boxed set of classic Warner Oland era Charlie Chan movies is another impressive collection drawn from the height of the series popularity, each nicely restored with a complimentary new documentary featurette."Sometimes silent witness speak loudest."Charlie Chan at the Circus isn't one of the better Warner Oland Chan films, but it's a perfectly serviceable locked room - or more accurately locked circus wagon - mystery that nods to Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue by having an ape the prime suspect. From the days when animals in tiny cages and midgets were regarded as charming amusements - `Midgets! Monkeys! Murder!' promised the trailer - it's probably the old-style circus trappings that would make the politically correct squirm rather than the fact that Chan is played by a Caucasian these days. There are some nice sight gags with the extended Chan clan but the aphorisms are definitely below par on this outing, while Number one son Keye Luke is more interested in tracking down contortionist Su Toy than the murderer this time round. But it's all wrapped up rather satisfactorily as, of course, the most suspicious parties turnout not to be guilty (well, not of murder anyway) and humble Chan's reputation emerges intact.As with all the titles on this set, the film has a fine restored transfer. Extras are theatrical trailer, documentary featurette Charlie Chan at the Movies and a restoration comparison of all four films."Suspicion often father of truth."Charlie Chan at the Race Track initially sees Charlie back in Honolulu demonstrating the importance of bloodstains in crime fighting ("Record indicate most murder result from violence, and murder without bloodstain like Amos without Andy - most unusual" ), but it's not long before the throwing of a race and the murder of the horse's owner sees him travelling to the States to uncover a deadly gambling ring in a case that revolves around - wouldn't you just know it - bloodstains. It's an entertaining entry in the series with a pacey plot involving horse doping, switching horses and deadly photo finishes (the film going to great lengths to showcase the cutting edge technology en route) and allowing Key Luke's Number One son to poke fun at racial stereotypes by adopting exaggerating pidgin English while disguised as a cabin steward - but only when dealing with Caucasians who immediately drop their guard when they hear it. Charlie delivers aphorisms aplenty along the way to the finish line, naturally, but this one's definitely a winner.Also included is another informative documentary featurette, Number One Son: The Life of Keye Luke."This opera is going on tonight even if Frankenstein walks in!"With he opening credits promising Warner Oland Vs. Boris Karloff, Charlie Chan at the Opera may never quite deliver the promised faceoff, but it's a fine entry in the series that plays to both stars' strengths. Karloff is the unconvincingly dubbed opera singer who recovers his memory after years in the asylum and escapes at the same time as his prima donna ex-wife starts getting threats - charmingly delivered with a bouquet, the card reading `Say it with flowers. You will die tonight.' Naturally it's not long before the opera house becomes a crime scene and when the local police draw a blank, they call on Charlie and his aphorisms to save the day, much to the annoyance of William Demarest's loveable bigot ("Wait a minute, you haven't called Chop Suey in on the case have you, chief?"). Naturally he gets put in his place, his every misplaced insult heralding another overlooked clue uncovered by Charlie inbetween oneliners ("Voice from backseat sometimes very disconcerting to driver") as he determines to solve the case within the hour so he can catch his boat back to Honolulu in another winning case.Also included is documentary featurette Charlie Chan's Lucky Director: H. Bruce Humberstone."You must think we're all fools!""I'm not acquainted with the other gentlemen."From a historical perspective, Charlie Chan at the Olympics is one of the most fascinating Chan films more because of what it doesn't show as for what it does. The Maguffin is the theft of a revolutionary remote control device for airplanes stolen by foreign spies who don't mind leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake, the trail eventually leading to the Olympics. But these aren't just any Olympics - these are Hitler's Olympics, though you'd never know it from looking at the film. Not a single swastika or brown shirt is in sight, let alone der Fuhrer, and while archive footage of Jesse Owens does briefly feature, it's not his solo wins in the 100 or 200 meters, but as part of the winning 4x100 metre relay team. And while Chan does work with the Berlin police ("Things like zis cannot happin in Berlin!"), they're a very Ruritanian bunch with only a bit of stereotyped Prussian pomposity to mark them out as German. Though the film does briefly acknowledge that the sporting conflict is just a prelude to a greater one, the film avoids making its spies Nazis, offering instead international criminals for whom the Olympics simply offer a convenient gathering of foreign powers to bid for their ill-gotten gains.If it's going out of its way to be apolitical (though still was pulled from distribution once Hitler started stretching his legs in Europe), it's an entertaining yarn, with Chan and both his Number One and Number Two sons (Keye Luke and Layne Tom) helping/hindering him at different stages of the case, and C. Henry Gordon makes for a genuinely an intriguing arms dealer who might save your life one moment and threaten it the next as the situation demands. There's also that emphasis on hi-tech hardware that the mid-Thirties Fox Chan films were so fond of, and Chan's means of beating the shipbound suspects to Berlin - the Hindenberg, with its swastikas airbrushed out - is at once the cutting edge of then modern technology and now a curiously resonant omen of impending doom. And, of course, there are the aphorisms ("Truth like football - receive many kicks before reaching goal") and amusing dialogue ("Zaraka? You've never met him!" "I have never met Santa Claus either but accept gift from him all the same").Also included is documentary featurette Layne Tom Jr.: The Adventures of Charlie Chan Jr.