Posted on 05/20/2012 12:19:30 PM PDT by djone
"Earl Derr Biggers created the benevolent and heroic fictional Chinese- American detective Mr. Charlie Chan in 1923...though many stories feature Chan traveling the world as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes....At about the same time as those .. a series of five or six films directed by William Nigh, about the fictional San Francisco private detective Mr. James Lee Wong..Mr. Moto, a fictional Japanese secret agent, featuring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto, . Here are the ones I've been able to find on the Internet"
(Excerpt) Read more at sagaciousiconoclast.blogspot.com ...
Decades ago, I lived in a rooming house in the Chinese “ghetto” in Columbia, MO, and one of my housemates was a Yucheng Zhu, from Red China, a tea specialist studying at Mizzou. I suspected he always knew more than he let on. I couldn’t resist laying accolades on that admirable great Chinese detective, Charlie Chan, never letting on for a minute that I thought of him as anything other than a real life great detective. (I also obtained some Chinese language Catholic tracts for him from Fr. Kenneth Baker ... don’t know if it did any good.)
Apparently Charlie Chan was based on a real Chinese detective in Honolulu, Chang Apana who was a legend on the Honolulu police force.
I have seen most of the Charley Chan movies, a couple of the Mr. Moto ones but not a single one of Mr. Wong.
I always thought that Charlie Chan was pretty good. Just about the right amount of humor, usually supplied by his number one Son and his constant girl chasing.
He was, somewhat loosely. Earl Derr Biggers knew him.
Watched all the Charlie Chan movies that Netflix has offered, and bought myself a lot of the DVD collection. Netflix has Mr. Moto and Mr. Wong too.
I love movies from this era. Chan, Moto, and Wong are hilarious.
I loved the No. 1 son. In one generation, he was TOTALLY Americanized - always starting off with, "Aw gee, pop . . ."
I also liked the Peter Sellers version in Murder By Death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5oBeFUDllM&feature=colike
I also liked the Peter Sellers version in Murder By Death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5oBeFUDllM&feature=colike
The original Charlie Chan book is a good one...
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