Charlie Chan Summer

The movies are every social justice warriors nightmare.

I don’t watch T.V.

We sometimes “stream” Hulu or Netflix or Pluto or Peacock. I have Amazon Prime so that gets us free movies, well, some movies, nothing really worth watching. I have a fabulous collection of DVDs purchased at Half Price Books or used from Amazon. So we aren’t really that out of touch!

The conversation usually goes “what do you want to watch tonight?”.

“I don’t know, just pick something.”

“How about a good who-dunnit?”

“We don’t have any good who-dunnits.”

“A Charlie Chan mystery would be good.”

“Who’s Charlie Chan?”

20 years together and I did not know he hadn’t ever seen a Charlie Chan movie.

Floored, and in his college days he was a movie theater manager.

We’re in the process of finishing summer watching the majority of them on YouTube.

Who Is Charlie Chan?

Who is Charlie Chan?

Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. The author loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. Many of the movies feature Charlie Chan traveling the world beyond Hawaii as he investigates mysteries and solves crimes.

Over four dozen films featuring Charlie Chan were made, beginning in 1926. Three different actors portrayed Charlie Chan throughout the series, none of them were actors of Chinese descent. Swedish actor Warner Oland was the first, he starred in 15 movies, then American actor Sidney Toler starred in 22 films and finally Roland Winters wrapped up the original series starring in six films.

Chan was seen as an attractive character, portrayed as intelligent, heroic, benevolent, and honorable; this was very different from the common depiction of Asians which dominated Hollywood and national media in the early 20th century. Asians were typically portrayed as evil or conniving in that period before WWII.

Charlie Chan became much less popular after WWII because America no longer looked at Asians the same way that they used to. Charlie Chan no longer fit.

Knowing my rant about “trigger warnings” hubby said “why aren’t there about 14 content warnings here?”

The movies are every social justice warriors nightmare.

They portray societal norms of that era.

Chan was perceived as reinforcing Asian stereotypes of the time such as an alleged incapacity to speak idiomatic English and a tradition-bound, subservient nature.

Chan (Sidney Toler) and son left, Hop Sing in Bonaza center, Mantan Moreland right.

Chan (Sidney Toler) is frequently accompanied, and irritated, by his Number Two Son, Jimmy Chan, played by Victor Sen Yung, who later portrayed "Hop Sing" in the long-running Western television series Bonanza, another series that would have content warnings today.

Mantan Moreland was another supporting actor, best known for his role as chauffeur Birmingham Brown. Although his bulgy-eyed brand of humor was once popular and considered funny he maintained a strong career playing cocky but jittery characters in late 1930s and early 1940s comedy.

During the second half of the 1940s, the public attitudes toward the portrayals of African Americans in the cinema had changed. When filmmakers began to reassess roles given to black actors, Moreland's characterization in his film appearances was considered demeaning to the African-American community. He was ostracized for it and received very few roles as the 1950’s approached.

I don’t know if these period stereotypes were good or bad, but they existed at the time.

A look at cultural history.

Some would want these eliminated from easy access, like the internet. For me, they are mindless entertainment and have the added extra bonus of being a great who-dunnit.

A nice break from the films produced today.

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