The Charlie Chan Chanthology

There are enough offensive racial and cultural stereotypes here to keep the PC police working overtime, but this box set of six ‘40s-vintage Charlie Chan films will be arresting entertainment for Chan fans and B-movie buffs. All six films star Missouri-born Sidney Toler, who assumed the iconic role of the famed aphorism-spouting sleuth from Swedish born Warner Oland. Charlie Chan in the Secret Service, The Jade Mask, The Scarlet Clue, The Shanghai Cobra, The Chinese Cat, and Meeting at Midnight were produced for poverty-row studio Monogram, and are--for the most part--efficient thrillers, making up in creepy atmosphere for what they lack in budget. Charlie Chan in the Secret Service and The Jade Mask are as good as the Monograms get, complete with shadowy trench-coated characters, fog-shrouded mansions filled room-to-room with suspects, Chan's Americanized offspring (No. 2 daughter and sons Nos. 3 and 4) and, of course, Chan himself, who calmly solves baffling cases while dispensing such pearls of wisdom as “Detective without curiosity is like glass eye at keyhole--no good.” These wartime films contain some potshots at Germans and “Japs.” In addition, African-American Mantan Moreland as chauffeur Birmingham Brown plays the stereotypically pop-eyed coward (at the conclusion of The Jade Mask, he can be seen outrunning the sheriff's car from the scene of the crime). The image quality in this set varies, with The Shanghai Cobra, in particular, suffering from extremely high contrast (making the action as much of a mystery to viewers as to the principals). Last year, the Fox Movie Channel canceled its festival of Chan films in deference to an Asian-American group's objections. Even so, considering their place in pop culture history, the Charlie Chan films collected in this boxed set are a strong optional purchase. (D. Liebenson)