Charlie Chan - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Charlie_Chan#Television_adaptations

Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by
author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers Charlie Chan
loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The
benevolent and heroic Chan was conceived as an alternative to
Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Many stories
feature Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates
mysteries and solves crimes.

Chan first appeared in Biggers' novels and then was featured in a

number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan
were made, beginning in 1926. The character, featured only as a
supporting character, was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and
the films met with little success. In 1931, for the first film centering
on Chan, Charlie Chan Carries On, the Fox Film Corporation cast
Swedish actor Warner Oland; the film became popular, and Fox
went on to produce 15 more Chan films with Oland in the title role.
After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as
Chan; Toler made 22 Chan films, first for Fox and then for
Monogram Studios. After Toler's death, six films were made,
starring Roland Winters. Warner Oland as Charlie Chan
First The House Without
Readers and moviegoers of America greeted Chan warmly, seeing appearance a Key
him as an attractive character who is portrayed as intelligent,
heroic, benevolent, and honorable in contrast to the racist Last Charlie Chan and
depictions of evil or conniving Asians which often dominated appearance the Curse of the
Hollywood and national media in the early 20th century. However, Dragon Queen
in later decades critics increasingly took a more ambivalent view of Created by Earl Derr Biggers
the character, finding that despite his good qualities, Chan also
Portrayed by E.L. Park
reinforces condescending Asian stereotypes such as an alleged
incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound and Warner Oland
subservient nature. Many also now find it objectionable that the Manuel Arbó
role was played on screen by Caucasian actors in yellowface. No
Sidney Toler
Charlie Chan film has been produced since 1981.
Roland Winters
The character has also been featured in several radio programs, Ross Martin
two television shows, and comics.
Peter Ustinov
Voiced by Keye Luke

Contents In-universe information

Gender Male
Books
Occupation Detective
Film, radio, stage and television adaptations
Children 14
Films
Spanish-language adaptations Religion Buddhist
Chinese-language adaptations Nationality Chinese-American
Modern adaptations
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Radio
Stage
Television adaptations
Comics and games
Modern interpretations and criticism
Bibliography
Filmography
Notes
See also
References
External links

Books
The character of Charlie Chan was created by Earl Derr Biggers. In 1919,[1] while visiting Hawaii,
Biggers planned a detective novel to be called The House Without a Key. He did not begin to write that
novel until four years later, however, when he was inspired to add a Chinese-American police officer to
the plot after reading in a newspaper of Chang Apana and Lee Fook, two detectives on the Honolulu
police force.[2][3][4] Biggers, who disliked the Yellow Peril stereotypes he found when he came to
California,[5] explicitly conceived of the character as an alternative: "Sinister and wicked Chinese are
old stuff, but an amiable Chinese on the side of law and order has never been used."[6]

It overwhelms me with sadness to admit it … for he is of my own origin, my own race, as

you know. But when I look into his eyes I discover that a gulf like the heaving Pacific lies
between us. Why? Because he, though among Caucasians many more years than I, still
remains Chinese. As Chinese to-day as in the first moon of his existence. While I – I bear
the brand – the label – Americanized.... I traveled with the current.... I was ambitious. I
sought success. For what I have won, I paid the price. Am I an American? No. Am I, then, a
Chinese? Not in the eyes of Ah Sing.

— Charlie Chan, speaking of a murderer's accomplice, in Keeper of the Keys, by Earl

Derr Biggers[7]

The "amiable Chinese" made his first appearance in The House Without a Key (1925). The character
was not central to the novel and was not mentioned by name on the dust jacket of the first edition.[8]
In the novel, Chan is described as "very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a
woman"[9] and in The Chinese Parrot as being " … an undistinguished figure in his Western clothes.[10]
According to critic Sandra Hawley, this description of Chan allows Biggers to portray the character as
nonthreatening, the opposite of evil Chinese characters, such as Fu Manchu, while simultaneously
emphasizing supposedly Chinese characteristics such as impassivity and stoicism.[11]

Biggers wrote six novels in which Charlie Chan appears:

▪ The House Without a Key (1925)

▪ The Chinese Parrot (1926)
▪ Behind That Curtain (1928)

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▪ The Black Camel (1929)

▪ Charlie Chan Carries On (1930)
▪ Keeper of the Keys (1932)

Film, radio, stage and television adaptations

Films

The first film featuring Charlie Chan, as a supporting character, was The House Without a Key (1926),
a ten-chapter serial produced by Pathé Studios, starring George Kuwa, a Japanese actor, as Chan.[12] A
year later Universal Pictures followed with The Chinese Parrot, starring Japanese actor Kamiyama
Sojin as Chan, again as a supporting character.[12] In both productions, Charlie Chan's role was
minimized.[13] Contemporary reviews were unfavorable; in the words of one reviewer, speaking of The
Chinese Parrot, Sojin plays "the Chink sleuth as a Lon Chaney cook-waiter … because Chaney can't
stoop that low."[14]

In 1929, the Fox Film Corporation optioned Charlie Chan

properties and produced Behind That Curtain, starring Korean
actor E.L. Park.[15] Again, Chan's role was minimal, with Chan
appearing only in the last ten minutes of the film.[15]

For the first film to center mainly on the character of Chan, Warner
Oland, a white actor, was cast in the title role in 1931's Charlie
Chan Carries On, and it was this film that gained popular
success.[16] Oland, a Swedish actor, had also played Fu Manchu in
an earlier film. Oland, who claimed some Mongolian ancestry,[17]
played the character as more gentle and self-effacing than he had
been in the books, perhaps in "a deliberate attempt by the studio to
downplay an uppity attitude in a Chinese detective."[18] Oland
starred in sixteen Chan films for Fox, often with Keye Luke, who
played Chan's "Number One Son", Lee Chan. Oland's "warmth and
gentle humor"[19] helped make the character and films popular; the
Keye Luke, who played Charlie
Oland Chan films were among Fox's most successful.[20] By
Chan's "No. 1" son Lee in a number
attracting "major audiences and box-office grosses on a par with
of films
A's"[21] they "kept Fox afloat" during the Great Depression.[22]

Oland died in 1938, and the

Chan film Charlie Chan at the Ringside was rewritten with
additional footage as Mr. Moto's Gamble, an entry in the Mr. Moto
series, another contemporary series featuring an East Asian
protagonist; Luke appeared as Lee Chan, not only in already shot
footage but also in scenes with Moto actor Peter Lorre. Fox hired
another white actor, Sidney Toler, to play Charlie Chan, and
produced eleven Chan films through 1942.[23] Toler's Chan was less
mild-mannered than Oland's, a "switch in attitude that added some
Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan in
of the vigor of the original books to the films."[18] He is frequently
Dangerous Money (1946)
accompanied, and irritated, by his Number Two Son, Jimmy Chan,
played by Sen Yung.[24]

When Fox decided to produce no further Chan films, Sidney Toler purchased the film rights.[23]

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Producers Philip N. Krasne and James S. Burkett of Monogram Pictures produced and released further
Chan films starring Toler. The budget for these films was reduced from Fox's average of $200,000 to
$75,000.[23] For the first time, Chan was portrayed on occasion as "openly contemptuous of suspects
and superiors."[25] African-American comedic actor Mantan Moreland played chauffeur Birmingham
Brown in 13 films (1944–1949) which led to criticism of the Monogram films in the forties and since;
[25][26] some call his performances "brilliant comic turns",[27] while others describe Moreland's roles as

an offensive and embarrassing stereotype.[26] Toler died in 1947 and was succeeded by Roland Winters
for six films.[28] Keye Luke, missing from the series after 1938's Mr. Moto rework, returned as Charlie's
son in the last two entries.

Spanish-language adaptations

Three Spanish-language Charlie Chan films were made in the 1930s and 1950s. The first, Eran Trece
(There Were Thirteen, 1931), is a multiple-language version of Charlie Chan Carries On (1931). The
two films were made concurrently and followed the same production schedule, with each scene filmed
twice the same day, once in English and then in Spanish.[29] The film followed essentially the same
script as the Anglophonic version, with minor additions such as brief songs and skits and some
changes to characters' names (for example, the character Elmer Benbow was renamed Frank
Benbow).[30] A Cuban production, La Serpiente Roja (The Red Snake), followed in 1937.[31] In 1955,
Producciones Cub-Mex produced a Mexican version of Charlie Chan called El Monstruo en la Sombra
(Monster in the Shadow), starring Orlando Rodriguez as "Chan Li Po" (Charlie Chan in the original
script).[31] The film was inspired by La Serpiente Roja as well as the American Warner Oland films.[31]

Chinese-language adaptations

During the 1930s and 1940s, five Chan films were produced in Shanghai and Hong Kong. In these
films, Chan, played by Xu Xinyuan (徐莘), owns his detective agency and is aided not by a son but by
a daughter, Manna, played first by Gu Meijun (顾梅君) in the Shanghai productions and then by Bai
Yan (白燕) in postwar Hong Kong.[5]

Chinese audiences also saw the original American Charlie Chan films. They were by far the most
popular American films in 1930s China and among Chinese expatriates; "one of the reasons for this
acceptance was that this was the first time Chinese audiences saw a positive Chinese character in an
American film, a departure from the sinister East Asian stereotypes in earlier movies like Thief of
Baghdad (1924) and Harold Lloyd's Welcome Danger (1929), which incited riots that shut down the
Shanghai theater showing it." Oland's visit to China was reported extensively in Chinese newspapers,
and the actor was respectfully called "Mr. Chan".[5]

Modern adaptations

In Neil Simon's Murder By Death, Peter Sellers plays a Chinese detective called Sidney Wang, a parody
of Chan.

In 1980, Jerry Sherlock began production on a comedy film to be called Charlie Chan and the Dragon
Lady. A group calling itself C.A.N. (Coalition of Asians to Nix) was formed, protesting the fact that
non-Chinese actors, Peter Ustinov and Angie Dickinson, had been cast in the primary roles. Others
protested that the film script contained a number of stereotypes; Sherlock responded that the film was
not a documentary.[32] The film was released the following year as Charlie Chan and the Curse of the
Dragon Queen and was an "abysmal failure."[33][34] An updated film version of the character was
planned in the 1990s by Miramax. While this Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and... a
martial-arts master,"[34] nonetheless the film did not come to fruition.[34] Actress Lucy Liu was slated

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to star in and executive-produce a new Charlie Chan film for Fox.[35] The film was in preproduction
since 2000. As of 2009 it is slated to be produced,[36] but as of 2020 it has not been made.

Radio

On radio, Charlie Chan was heard in several different series on three networks (the NBC Blue Network,
Mutual, and ABC) between 1932 and 1948 for the 20th Century Fox Radio Service.[37] Walter Connolly
initially portrayed Chan on Esso Oil's Five Star Theater, which serialized adaptations of Biggers
novels.[38] Ed Begley, Sr. had the title role in N.B.C.'s The Adventures of Charlie Chan (1944–45),
followed by Santos Ortega (1947–48). Leon Janney and Rodney Jacobs were heard as Lee Chan,
Number One Son, and Dorian St. George was the announcer.[39] Radio Life magazine described
Begley's Chan as "a good radio match for Sidney Toler's beloved film enactment."[40]

Stage

Valentine Davies wrote a stage adaptation of novel Keeper of the Keys for Broadway in 1933, with
William Harrigan as the lead. The production ran for 25 performances.[41]

Television adaptations
▪ In 1956–57, The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, starring J. Carrol Naish in the title role, were
made independently for TV syndication in 39 episodes, by Television Programs of America. The
series was filmed in England.[42] In this series, Chan is based in London rather than the United
States. Ratings were poor, and the series was canceled.[43]
▪ In the 1960s, Joey Forman played an obvious parody of Chan named "Harry Hoo" in two episodes
of Get Smart.
▪ In the 1970s, Hanna-Barbera produced an animated series called The Amazing Chan and the
Chan Clan. Keye Luke, who had played Chan's son in many Chan films of the 1930s and '40s, lent
his voice to Charlie, employing a much-expanded vocabulary. The series focused on Chan's
children, played initially by East Asian-American child actors before being recast, due to concerns
that younger viewers would not understand the accented voices. The title character bears some
resemblance to the Warner Oland depiction of Charlie Chan. Leslie Kumamota voiced Chan's
daughter Anne, before being replaced by Jodie Foster.[44]
▪ The Return of Charlie Chan, a television film starring Ross Martin as Chan, was made in 1971 but
did not air until 1979.

Comics and games

A Charlie Chan comic strip, drawn by Alfred Andriola, was distributed by the McNaught Syndicate
beginning October 24, 1938.[45] Andriola was chosen by Biggers to draw the character.[46] Following
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the strip was dropped; the last strip ran on May 30, 1942.[47] In
2019, The Library of American Comics reprinted one year of the strip (1938) in their LoAC Essentials
line of books (ISBN 978-1-68405-506-7).

Over decades, other Charlie Chan comic books have been published: Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created
Prize Comics' Charlie Chan (1948), which ran for five issues. It was followed by a Charlton Comics title
which continued the numbering (four issues, 1955). DC Comics published The New Adventures of
Charlie Chan,[48] a 1958 tie-in with the TV series; the DC series lasted for six issues. Dell Comics did
the title for two issues in 1965. In the 1970s, Gold Key Comics published a short-lived series of Chan

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comics based on the Hanna-Barbera

animated series. In March through August
1989 Eternity Comics/Malibu Graphics
published Charlie Chan comic books
numbers 1 - 6 reprinting daily strips from
January 9, 1939 to November 18, 1939.

In addition, a board game, The Great Charlie

Chan Detective Mystery Game (1937),[49]
and a Charlie Chan Card Game (1939), have
been released.

On May 21, 2020 game developers Play'n GO

released Charlie Chance in Hell to Pay[50] for
desktop and mobile browsers. This is not an
officially branded game, however, the game's Alfred Andriola's Charlie Chan (6 June 1940)
main character Charlie Chance is directly
based on the original Charlie Chan character,
sharing a similar name, trademark moustache and sharp dress sense. This game was followed by two
sequels in 2021, Charlie Chance XREELZ and Charlie Chance and the Curse of Cleopatra.

Modern interpretations and criticism

The character of Charlie Chan has been the subject of controversy. Some find the character to be a
positive role model, while others argue that Chan is an offensive stereotype. Critic John Soister argues
that Charlie Chan is both; when Biggers created the character, he offered a unique alternative to
stereotypical evil Chinamen, a man who was at the same time "sufficiently accommodating in
personality... unthreatening in demeanor... and removed from his Asian homeland... to quell any
underlying xenophobia."[51]

Critic Michael Brodhead argues that "Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Charlie Chan novels
convinces the reader that the author consciously and forthrightly spoke out for the Chinese – a people
to be not only accepted but admired. Biggers's sympathetic treatment of the Chinese reflected and
contributed to the greater acceptance of Chinese-Americans in the first third of [the twentieth]
century."[52] S. T. Karnick writes in the National Review that Chan is "a brilliant detective with
understandably limited facility in the English language [whose] powers of observation, logic, and
personal rectitude and humility made him an exemplary, entirely honorable character."[27] Ellery
Queen called Biggers's characterization of Charlie Chan "a service to humanity and to inter-racial
relations."[8] Dave Kehr of The New York Times said Chan "might have been a stereotype, but he was a
stereotype on the side of the angels."[19] Keye Luke, an actor who played Chan's son in a number of
films, agreed; when asked if he thought that the character was demeaning to the race, he responded,
"Demeaning to the race? My God! You've got a Chinese hero!"[53] and "[W]e were making the best
damn murder mysteries in Hollywood."[22][54]

Other critics, such as Yen Le Espiritu and Huang Guiyou, argue that Chan, while portrayed positively
in some ways, is not on a par with white characters, but a "benevolent Other"[55] who is "one-
dimensional."[56] The films' use of white actors to portray East Asian characters indicates the
character's "absolute Oriental Otherness;"[57] the films were only successful as "the domain of white
actors who impersonated heavily-accented masters of murder mysteries as well as purveyors of cryptic
proverbs. Chan's character "embodies the stereotypes of Chinese Americans, particularly of males:
smart, subservient, effeminate."[58] Chan is representative of a model minority, the good stereotype
that counters a bad stereotype: "Each stereotypical image is filled with contradictions: the bloodthirsty

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Indian is tempered with the image of the noble savage; the bandido exists along with the loyal
sidekick; and Fu Manchu is offset by Charlie Chan."[59] However, Fu Manchu's evil qualities are
presented as inherently Chinese, while Charlie Chan's good qualities are exceptional; "Fu represents
his race; his counterpart stands away from the other Asian Hawaiians."[46]

Some argue that the character's popularity is dependent on its contrast with stereotypes of the Yellow
Peril or Japanese people in particular. American opinion of China and Chinese-Americans grew more
positive in the 1920s and 30s in contrast to the Japanese, who were increasingly viewed with
suspicion. Sheng-mei Ma argues that the character is a psychological over-compensation to "rampant
paranoia over the racial other."[60]

In June 2003, the Fox Movie Channel cancelled a planned Charlie Chan Festival, soon after beginning
restoration for cablecasting, after a special-interest group protested. Fox reversed its decision two
months later, and on 13 September 2003, the first film in the festival was aired on Fox. The films,
when broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel, were followed by round-table discussions by prominent
East Asians in the American entertainment industry, led by George Takei, most of whom were against
the films.[5] Collections such as Frank Chin's Aiiieeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers and
Jessica Hagedorn's Charlie Chan is Dead are put forth as alternatives to the Charlie Chan stereotype
and "[articulate] cultural anger and exclusion as their animating force."[61] Fox has released all of its
extant Charlie Chan features on DVD,[27] and Warner Bros. (the current proprietor of the Monogram
library) has issued all of the Sidney Toler and Roland Winters Monogram features on DVD.

Modern critics, particularly Asian-Americans, continue to have mixed feelings on Charlie Chan.
Fletcher Chan, a defender of the works, argues that the Chan of Biggers's novels is not subservient to
white characters, citing The Chinese Parrot as an example; in this novel, Chan's eyes blaze with anger
at racist remarks and in the end, after exposing the murderer, Chan remarks "Perhaps listening to a
'Chinaman' is no disgrace."[62] In the films, both Charlie Chan in London (1934) and Charlie Chan in
Paris (1935) "contain scenes in which Chan coolly and wittily dispatches other characters' racist
remarks."[19] Yunte Huang manifests an ambivalent attitude, stating that in the US, Chan "epitomizes
the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation's culture."[63] Huang also suggests that critics
of Charlie Chan may have themselves, at times, "caricatured" Chan himself.[64]

Chan's character has also come under fire for "nuggets of fortune cookie Confucius"[65] and the
"counterfeit proverbs" which became so widespread in popular culture. The Biggers novels did not
introduce the "Confucius say" proverbs, which were added in the films, but one novel features Chan
remarking: "As all those who know me have learned to their distress, Chinese have proverbs to fit every
possible situation."[66] Huang Yunte gives as examples "Tongue often hang man quicker than rope,"
"Mind, like parachute, only function when open," and "Man who flirt with dynamite sometime fly with
angels." He argues, however, that these "colorful aphorisms" display "amazing linguistic acrobatic
skills." Like the "signifying monkey" of African-American folklore, Huang continues, Chan "imparts as
much insult as wisdom."[67]

Bibliography
▪ Biggers, Earl Derr. The House Without a Key. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925.
▪ —. The Chinese Parrot. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1926.
▪ —. Behind That Curtain. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1928.
▪ —. The Black Camel. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929.
▪ —. Charlie Chan Carries On. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1930.
▪ —. Keeper of the Keys. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1932.
▪ Davis, Robert Hart. Charlie Chan in The Temple of the Golden Horde. 1974. Charlie Chan's

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Mystery Magazine. Reprinted by Wildside Press, 2003. ISBN 1-59224-014-3.

▪ Lynds, Dennis. Charlie Chan Returns. New York: Bantam Books, 1974. ASIN B000CD3I22.
▪ Pronzini, Bill, and Jeffrey M. Wallmann. Charlie Chan in the Pawns of Death. 1974. Charlie Chan's
Mystery Magazine. Reprinted by Borgo Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1-59224-010-4.
▪ Avallone, Michael. Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen. New York: Pinnacle, 1981.
ISBN 0-523-41505-2.
▪ Robert Hart Davis. "The Silent Corpse". Feb.1974. "Charlie Chan's Mystery Magazine".
▪ Robert Hart Davis. "Walk Softly, Strangler". Nov. 1973. Charlie Chan's Mystery Magazine".
▪ Jon L. Breen. "The Fortune Cookie". May 1971. "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine".

Filmography
Unless otherwise noted, information is taken from Charles P. Mitchell's A Guide to Charlie Chan Films
(1999).

American Western

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Film Directed Theatrical DVD Production

Starring Notes
title by release release company

The House
Spencer G. Lost Pathé
Without a George Kuwa 1926
Bennet[68] Silent Exchange
Key

The Chinese Lost

Sojin Paul Leni 1927 Universal
Parrot Silent

Charlie Fox Film

Chan, Corporation
First sound
Behind That Volume
E.L. Park Irving Cummings 1929 film in the
Curtain Three (20th
series
Century Fox,
2007)

Charlie Chan Hamilton

Warner Oland 1931 Lost[69]
Carries On MacFadden

Charlie
Chan,
Manuel David Howard
Eran Trece 1931[71] Volume One [72]
Arbó[70] (uncredited)
(20th Century
Fox, 2006)

Warner Oland Charlie

Chan,
The Black Hamilton Volume
1931
Camel MacFadden Three (20th
Century Fox,
2007)

Charlie
Chan's John Blystone 1932 Lost
Chance

Charlie
Chan's Hamilton
1933 Lost[73]
Greatest MacFadden
Case

Charlie George
Chan's Hadden and Lost[74]
Courage Eugene Forde 1934
Charlie Chan
Eugene Forde
in London

Charlie Chan
Lewis Seiler
in Paris Charlie Chan,
Volume One
(20th Century 20th
Charlie Chan
Louis King 1935 Fox, 2006) Century
in Egypt
Fox

Charlie Chan
James Tinling
in Shanghai

1936 Public
domain due
to the
Charlie Chan,
Charlie omission of a
Volume Three
Chan's Gordon Wiles valid
(20th Century
Secret copyright
Fox, 2007)
notice on
original
prints.

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Charlie Chan Harry

at the Circus Lachman

Charlie Chan
at the Race Charlie Chan,
Track Volume Two
Charlie Chan H. Bruce (20th Century
at the Opera Humberstone Fox, 2006)

Charlie Chan
at the
Olympics

Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan, 1937
on Broadway
Volume Three
Charlie Chan Eugene Forde
(20th Century Oland's last
at Monte Fox, 2007) film.
Carlo

Charlie Chan Sidney Toler H. Bruce

in Honolulu Humberstone

Charlie Chan
in Reno Charlie
Chan,
Norman Charlie Chan,
Charlie Chan 1939 Volume Four
Foster Volume Four
at Treasure (20th Century
(20th Century Fox, 2008)
Island
Fox, 2008)

City in Herbert I.
Darkness Leeds

Charlie Chan Norman

in Panama Foster

Charlie Charlie Chan,

Chan's Volume Five
Eugene Forde
Murder (20th Century
Cruise 1940 Fox, 2008)

Charlie Chan
at the Wax Lynn Shores
Museum

Murder Over
New York

Dead Men
Tell Harry
1941
Charlie Chan Lachman
in Rio

Castle in the
1942
Desert

Phil Rosen The Charlie Monogram

Charlie Chan
Chan Pictures
in the Secret
Chanthology
Service
(MGM, 2004)
1944
The Chinese
Cat

Black Magic [75]

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The Jade
Mask

Public domain
due to the
The Scarlet omission of a
Clue 1945 valid copyright
notice on
original prints.

The
Shanghai Phil Karlson
Cobra

1946 Charlie Chan

The Red 3-Film Collection
Phil Rosen
Dragon (Warner Archive,
2016)

Public domain
Dangerous Terry O. TCM Spotlight:
due to the
Money Morse Charlie Chan
omission of a
Collection
valid copyright
(Turner Classic
notice on original
Dark Alibi Phil Karlson Movies, 2010)
prints.

Charlie Chan
Shadows
Terry O. Collection
Over
Morse (Warner Home
Chinatown
Video, 2013)

TCM Spotlight: Public domain

Charlie Chan due to the
Collection omission of a
Howard
The Trap (Turner Classic valid copyright
Bretherton
Movies, 2010) notice on original
prints. Toler's last
film.

Roland Public
Winters domain due
to the
omission of a
valid
The Chinese William
1947 copyright
Ring Beaudine[76]
notice on
original
prints.
Winters' first
film.

Docks of Derwin 1948

New Orleans Abrahams

Shanghai
Chest Charlie Chan
Collection
Public domain (Warner Home
William due to the
Beaudine Video, 2013)
The Golden omission of a
Eye valid copyright
notice on
original prints.

The Charlie Chan

William
Feathered 3-Film Collection
Beaudine[76]
Serpent (Warner Archive,

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Lesley 2016)
Sky Dragon 1949
Selander

The Return
of Charlie
Chan (aka: Universal
Ross Martin Daryl Duke[77] 1973 TV film[78]
Happiness Is Television
a Warm
Clue)

Charlie Chan
and the American
Curse of the Peter Ustinov Clive Donner[77] 1981 Cinema
Dragon Productions
Queen

Latin America

Theatrical DVD Production

Film title Starring Directed by Notes
release release company

La Serpiente Aníbal de Ernesto Cuban

1937
Roja Mar Caparrós film[79]

El Monstruo en Orlando Zacarias Mexican

1955
la Sombra Rodríguez Urquiza[80] film[81]

China

Film title Starring Directed by Theatrical release DVD release Notes

The Disappearing Corpse (in Chinese) 1937 [5]

The Pearl Tunic (in Chinese) 1938 [5]

The Radio Station Murder (in Chinese) Xu Xu 1939 [5]

Xinyuan Xinfu
Charlie Chan Smashes an Evil Plot (in Chinese) 1941 [5]

Charlie Chan Matches Wits with the Prince of [5]

1948
Darkness (in Chinese)

Lee c.1950 (distributed in New York [82]

Mystery of the Jade Fish (in Chinese) Lee Ying
Ying in 1951)

Notes
1. Mitchell (1999), xxv.
2. This point is debated. Hawley says Apana directly inspired Biggers (135); Herbert says Apana may
have done so (20). However, Biggers himself, in a 1931 interview, cited both Apana and Fook as
inspirations for the character of Charlie Chan ("Creating Charlie Chan" [1931]). When Biggers
actually met Apana a few years later, he found that his character and Apana had little in common.
3. Hawley (1991), p. 135.
4. Herbert (2003), p. 20.
5. "Charlie Chan in China" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110708145436/http://www.chinesemirror.co
m/index/2008/05/charlie-chan-in.html). The Chinese Mirror: A Journal of Chinese Film History. May
2008. Archived from the original (http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2008/05/charlie-chan-in.html)
on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
6. Earl Derr Biggers, quoted in "Creating Charlie Chan" (1931).

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7. Quoted in Sommer (), 211.

8. Queen (1969), 102.
9. Biggers, Earl Derr (1925). The House Without a Key (https://archive.org/details/housewithoutkey00
bigg). New York : Grosset & Dunlap. p. 76 (https://archive.org/details/housewithoutkey00bigg/page/
76).
10. Biggers, Earl Derr (2013). The Chinese Parrot (https://books.google.com/books?id=zR6DAAAAQB
AJ&q=%22undistinguished+figure+in+his+Western+clothes%22&pg=PT25). A&C Black. p. 25.
ISBN 978-1-4482-1312-2.
11. Hawley (1991), p. 136.
12. Hanke (1989), xii.
13. Mitchell (1999), xviii.
14. Quoted in Soister (2004), 71.
15. Mitchell (1999), 2.
16. Balio (1995), 336.
17. Quoted in Hanke (2004), 1.
18. Hanke (1989), 111.
19. Kehr, Dave (20 June 2006). "New DVD's: Charlie Chan" (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/mov
ies/20dvd.html?_r=1). The New York Times.
20. Balio (1995), 316.
21. Balio (1995), 317.
22. Lepore, Jill. "CHAN, THE MAN (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/08/09/100809cr
bo_books_lepore?currentPage=all)'" The New Yorker, 9 August 2010.
23. Hanke (1989), 169.
24. Hanke (1989), 111-114.
25. Hanke (1989), 170.
26. Cullen, et al (2007), 794.
27. Karnick (2006).
28. Hanke (1989), 220.
29. Mitchell (1999), 153.
30. Mitchell (1999), 153-154.
31. Mitchell (1999), 235.
32. Chan (2001), 58.
33. Pitts (1991), 301.
34. Sengupta (1997).
35. Littlejohn (2008).
36. Yang Jie (2009).
37. Huang, Yunte; Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous
with American History, pp. 265-266; W. W. Norton & Company, 15 August 2011
38. Dunning (1998), 149.
39. Cox (2002), 9.
40. Quoted in Dunning (1998), 149.
41. 1932-, Lachman, Marvin (2014). The villainous stage : crime plays on Broadway and in the West
End (http://worldcat.org/oclc/903807427). McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-9534-4. OCLC 903807427
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/903807427).
42. Mitchell (1999), 237.
43. Mitchell (1999), 238.

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44. Mitchell (1999), 240.

45. Young (2007), 128. Ma (2000), 13 gives the dates as 1935 to 1938; however, Young's obituary in
The New York Times states that the strip began in 1938.
46. Ma (2000), 13.
47. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor:
The University of Michigan Press. p. 100. ISBN 9780472117567.
48. Anderson and Eury (2005), 1923.
49. Rinker (1988), 312.
50. "Charlie Chance in Hell to Pay Online Slot by Play'n GO" (https://slotgods.co.uk/upcoming-slots/ne
w-online-slot-curse-of-cleopatra-play-n-go). Slot Gods. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
51. Soister (), 67.
52. Michael Brodhead, quoted in Chan (2001), 56.
53. Quoted in Hanke (2004), xv.
54. Quoted in Hanke (2004), xiii.
55. Kato (2007), 138.
56. Le Espiritu (1996), 99.
57. Dave (2005), xiii.
58. Huang (2006), 211.
59. Michael Omi, quoted in Chan (2001), 51.
60. Ma (2000), 4.
61. Dave (2005), 339.
62. The Chinese Parrot, quoted in Chan (2007).
63. Huang (2011)
64. Huang (2011), p. 280.
65. Hanke (1989), p. xv.
66. Hawley (1991), p. 137.
67. Huang (2010), p. 287.
68. Struss (1987), 114.
69. "2005 Archive of Screened Films: Mary Pickford Theater (Moving Image Research Center, Library
of Congress)" (https://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/pickford/2005-archive.html). loc.gov. Retrieved 24 May
2016.
70. Hanke states that Chan was played by "Juan Torenas"; however, the more recent Guide to Charlie
Chan Films by Charles P. Mitchell states that a Juan Torena played a supporting role and that Arbó
was the star (Mitchell [1999], 153). Mitchell's book features a reproduction of the original movie
poster, which lists Arbó's name before Torena's and in larger print.
71. Hardy (1997), 76, suggests the date is 1932.
72. Spanish-language version of Charlie Chan Carries On.
73. Remake of The House Without a Key.
74. Remake of The Chinese Parrot.
75. Later retitled Meeting at Midnight for TV
76. Reid (2004), 86.
77. Pitts (1991), 305.
78. Filmed in 1971; aired on British television in 1973; aired on ABC in 1979 as The Return of Charlie
Chan (Pitts [1991], 301).

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79. Brunsdale, Mitzi M. (26 July 2010). Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to
Superheroes (https://books.google.com/books?id=p2zTtMxkExgC&q=%22La+Serpiente+Roja%2
2+Charlie+Chan&pg=PA128). ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313345319. Retrieved 21 March 2018 – via
Google Books.
80. Willis (1972), 329.
81. "CHARLIE CHAN: El monstruo en la sombra (1955)" (http://tommenterprises.tripod.com/id258.htm
l). tommenterprises.tripod.com. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
82. New York State Archives Movie Script Collection (dialogue continuity in English).

See also
▪ Portrayal of East Asians in Hollywood
▪ Mr. Wong

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of Being Charlie Chan (https://books.google.com/books?id=KuLCCXVebuEC&q=Charlie+Chan),
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MTBkOWY1ODE%3D). National Review Online. Archived from the original (http://article.nationalre
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Charlie Chan - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chan#Television_adaptations

External links
▪ The "Charlie Chan" Novels
Behind That Curtain (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200691.txt)
Charlie Chan Carries On (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700761h.html)
Keeper Of The Keys (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200711.txt)
The Black Camel (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200701.txt)
The Chinese Parrot (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200681.txt)
The House Without A Key (http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200671.txt)
▪ About Charlie Chan (https://web.archive.org/web/20120520005311/http://www.thevintageplayhous
e.com/Articles.asp?ID=134)
▪ Charlie Chan Biography (http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=20497)
▪ Charlie Chan fansite (http://www.charliechan.net/)
▪ Public-domain Charlie Chan radio programs (https://web.archive.org/web/20101219071129/http://ol
dtimeradiofans.com/template.php?show_name=Charlie%20Chan)
▪ The Charlie Chan Family Home (http://www.charliechan.info)

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