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Charlie Chan
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Charlie Chan is a fictional character created by Earl Derr Biggers. Biggers loosely based Chan on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, and conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes and villains like Fu Manchu. Chan is a detective for the Honolulu police, though many stories feature Chan traveling the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.Chan first appeared in Biggers' novels, then was featured in a number of media. Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. The character was first portrayed by East Asian actors, and the films met with little success. In 1931, the Fox Film Corporation cast Swedish actor Warner Oland as Chan in Charlie Chan Carries On; the film became popular, and Fox went on to produce fifteen more Chan films with Oland in the title role. After Oland's death, American actor Sidney Toler was cast as Chan; Toler made twenty-two Chan films, first for Fox and then for Monogram Studios. After Toler's death, six films were made, starring Roland Winters.
Readers and movie-goers greeted Chan warmly (in the 1930s, audiences even in Shanghai found the character positive and funny), but twenty-first century critics have taken contending views. Some see Chan as an attractive character who is portrayed as intelligent, heroic, benevolent and honorable in contrast to the racist depictions of evil or conniving Asians which dominated Hollywood and national media. Others find that Chan, despite his good qualities, reinforces condescending stereotypes such as an alleged incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound and subservient nature. Many found it objectionable that he was played on screen by Caucasian actors in so-called Yellowface.
More recent film adaptations in the 1990s have been poorly received. The character has been featured in several radio programs, two television shows, and comics.
Played by the actors
Filmography of Charlie Chan (39 films)
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, 1h37Directed by Clive Donner, Paul Baxley
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Comedy thriller
Actors Peter Ustinov, Brian Keith, Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Hatch, Lee Grant, Angie Dickinson
Rating41%
Retired detective Charlie Chan is asked for his help by the San Francisco police to solve a new series of murders. But this time his usual sidekick, Number One Son, has been replaced by Lee's own son, Lee Chan, Jr.
Docks of New Orleans (1948)
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Actors Roland Winters, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, John Gallaudet, Virginia Dale, Douglas Fowley
Rating57%
The Golden Eye (1948)
, 1h9Directed by William Beaudine
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors Roland Winters, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, Evelyn Brent, Wanda McKay, Ralph Dunn
Rating58%
Manning, owner of the Golden Eye Mine in Arizona, persuades Charlie Chan to help him. To avoid alerting Manning's murderous enemies, Chan registers as a guest at a nearby dude ranch along with his number two son, Tommy, and his black servant, Birmingham Brown. There he meets San Francisco Police Lieutenant Mike Ruark, posing as drunken fellow guest "Vincent O'Brien" to investigate why the mine has suddenly become valuable.
Shanghai Chest (1948)
Directed by William Beaudine
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Crime
Actors Roland Winters, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, Tristram "Tris" Coffin, Russell Hicks, Pierre Watkin
Rating60%
As Victor Armstrong visits his uncle, Judge Wesley Armstrong in San Francisco, he is knocked unconscious by an unknown attacker, and when he wakes up he finds out his uncle has been stabbed to death. The judge's private secretary, Phyllis Powers, finds the two men and calls the police to the scene. When Victor wakes up he has the knife that stabbed his uncle in his hand.
The Chinese Ring (1947)
, 1h8Directed by William Beaudine
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Actors Roland Winters, Warren Douglas, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, Louise Currie, Philip Ahn
Rating57%
Charlie Chan (Roland Winters) is a private investigator living in San Francisco. One day a Chinese princess comes to visit him in his home. She has just arrived from the East by boat. The princess manages to give Chan’s butler Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) an artifact - an ancient heirloom ring - before she is shot an killed by a poisoned arrow through the window. She leaves a note behind, with the name ”Captain K”. Chan calls for the police to investigate this murder. Bill Davidson (Warren Douglas) with the SFPD comes to Chan, but his friend, the reporter Peggy Cartwright (Louise Currie), also arrives uninvited to the scene.
Dark Alibi (1946)
, 1h1Directed by Phil Karlson
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Benson Fong, Mantan Moreland, Teala Loring, Joyce Compton, Ben Carter
Rating64%
Thomas Harley, an ex-convict who served time in prison eight years ago, is wrongfully arrested for a bank robbery he didn't commit. The police have found fingerprints on the crime scene, incriminating Harley, even though he was present at the Carey Theatrical Warehouse at the time of the crime.
Shadows Over Chinatown (1946)
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Victor Sen Yung, Mantan Moreland, Al Bridge, John Gallaudet, Mary Gordon
Rating64%
Chan investigates a murder for profit racket in San Francisco. Toller was in poor health during the filming of this, and so much of the film is carried by the comedic interplay between #2 Son (Victor Sen Yung) and chauffeur, Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland).
The Trap (1946)
, 1h2Directed by Howard Bretherton
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Victor Sen Yung, Larry J. Blake, Kirk Alyn, Rita Quigley
Rating60%
Calamity ensues at the beach villa in Malibu, California, where Cole King's theatre ensemble resides, when one of the showgirls, Adelaide, is challenging Marcia, who is Cole's girl and the star of the show.
, 1h6Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Comedy, Horror, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Hardie Albright, Frank Reicher, Cyril Delevanti, Al Bridge
Rating61%
Charlie Chan, son fils n° 4, Eddie, et son chauffeur, Birmingham Brown, examinent le meurtre présumé d'un scientifique excentrique dans un manoir fantasmagorique. Le corps est introuvable et chacun à une bonne raison de vouloir la mort de ce personnage au mauvais caractère.
The Scarlet Clue (1945)
, 1h5Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Benson Fong, Mantan Moreland, Virginia Brissac, Robert Homans, I. Stanford Jolley
Rating62%
Charlie Chan and his son Tommy and their block-head driver Birmingham Brown investigate the shenanigans and suspects that results from a furtive gang trying to steal radar secrets from a radio station.
The Shanghai Cobra (1945)
, 1h4Directed by Phil Karlson
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Benson Fong, Joan Barclay, Addison Richards, Cyril Delevanti
Rating63%
When three bank employees are killed with cobra venom, Detective Chan recalls an oddly similar case ten years earlier in Shanghai. Benson Fong and Mantan Moreland, return as Tommy "Number Three Son" Chan, and Birmingham Brown.
The Red Dragon (1945)
, 1h2Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Fortunio Bonanova, Benson Fong, Willie Best, Robert Emmett Keane, Barton Yarborough
Rating62%
Black Magic (1944)
, 1h7Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Horror, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Joseph Crehan, Oliver Hardy, Jacqueline deWit, Geraldine Wall
Rating63%
Charlie postpones his trip home to Honolulu help with the investigation of murder involving Number One Daughter (Frances Chan) and an easily spooked chauffeur (Mantan Moreland).
Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Arthur Loft, George J. Lewis, Sarah Edwards, Benson Fong
Rating61%
In the two years since the last Charlie Chan feature film (Castle in the Desert), Charlie Chan is now an agent of the U.S. government working in Washington DC and he is assigned to investigate the murder of the inventor of a highly advanced torpedo. Aiding Chan is his overeager but dull-witted Number Three son Tommy (Benson Fong) and his Number Two Daughter Iris Chan (Marianne Quon). Also involved in the case is the bumbling and easily frightened Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland) who works as a limo driver for one of the suspects.
Directed by Phil Rosen
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Crime
Actors Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Benson Fong, Joan Woodbury, Ian Keith, Sam Flint
Rating62%
Charlie Chan investigates the locked-room murder of a chess expert with the aid of bumbling Number Three Son (Benson Fong) and knuckle-headed taxi driver (Mantan Moreland).