From IMDb: Because Charlie Chan plans to return to Honolulu, he no longer needs the services of Birmingham, who gets a job as butler for William and Justine Bonner, two apparently phony psychics, who regularly host occult activities in their home. When Charlie’s pretty daughter Frances attends a seance out of curiosity, Mr. Bonner is shot, and she becomes an immediate suspect. Charlie postpones his trip home to help with the investigation, which is made problematic when no bullet can be found in the wound and a hypnotized Mrs. Bonner is compelled to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of a downtown building.
Stars: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland and Frances Chan.
Another great Charlie Chan movie. It is a shame that there aren’t more Chan movies posted online. I have searched for them myself and have found only one other movie. This movie was definitely a keeper.
I’ll see what I can do Bill. Some, but not all of the Charlie Chan movies are still copyrighted by Fox, even though they never show them because of their portrayal of Asians.
Kev,
Another great Mantan Moreland film !!
Thanks,
Rich
I love charlie chan
One of the best Charlie Chan episodes. Love the daughter in this one. Wish you had the entire Series on this site.
I am 65 years of age and my parents took us to the drive in movies back in the 50’s to see these wonderful CLEAN, G-RATED movies and I’ve also tried to find them on the Internet because these movies are some of the most enjoyable I’ve ever watched. I especially enjoyed Warner Oland and Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan, but I like Roland Winters as well. My favorites, however, were Sydney Toler and Warner Oland. I really liked the episodes that included Mantan Moreland, his son, Keye Luke and the actor who plays his son, Tommy as well.
I’m just learning that there was some prejudice because of portrayal of the character by Asians. Well, it’s 2009 now, so are these prejudiced people still being prejudiced because of the Asians’ roles in the movies? I wish they would get over it and release those wonderful movies so that we who happen to like seeing decent movies (a rarity) that contain no nudity, no sex scenes and no profanity would be able to watch and enjoy some decency for a change.
Sometimes I think it’s almost a conspiracy that everything has to be indecent. Not that I’m above a little indecency now and again
. It is discouraging that the entertainment industry now leans to bombarding us with ever more decadent content. It does get old. The thing I think that is the worst is that formula entertainment in 2009 seems more involved in sensationalism than telling a good story. I guess shock value sells.
You might click on Charlie Chan and Mantan Moreland for some more movies since you mentioned them.
Thanks for the funny, though true, assessment of today’s form of “entertainment.” I believe that if this generation were more exposed to some old-fashioned, REAL acting, that they’d learn to appreciate that nudity and sex will never replace good story writing and acting.
I know that those actors, now dead, who used to be in movies called “Grade B Movies” (those good old classical black and white movies made years ago, in the ’30s and ’40’s especially) were much better at learning scripts, directions, etc., and the story lines were interesting. The scripts were given or delivered to them and they had to learn the entire script before the movie went into production.
The majority of the so-called actors and actresses of today can’t remember scripts so they shoot a few minutes at a time until everything’s finished. Most of the movies can be figured out well before the end, because imagination was replaced by sex and nudity. It’s almost like magic tricks–get the person’s attention elsewhere and then they won’t see how the trick is executed. The attention now is on the over-paid, petulant, pouting, hard-to-get-along-with prima donnas, and nudity and sex, which covers up the bad acting and poor plots, and imagination and good writing becomes secondary.
Give me some Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, for example, and even some of the lesser known character and supporting actors of yesteryear any day! This is why I search for the old classics when I want to be entertained. I’m glad I found this web site as it has a lot to offer in the way of good, old-fashioned entertainment.
One example I’ve been watching lately is Mission Impossible. I bought series one on ebay used. It’s not surprising that Barbara Bain won Emmy Awards for Mission Impossible in 1967, 68 and 69. It wasn’t super violent. It wasn’t oversexed. It had some great stories.
Another filmography I’ve been exploring is Humphrey Bogart via my Netflix subscription. 2009 isn’t all bad. The quality of DVD and the selections of thousands of classic films from rental outfits makes me feel like a kid in a candy store some days. Exploring decades of film via DVD is fun and the number of great films I’ve never seen is staggering.
Kevin, you are “preaching to the choir!” I also bought Season One of Mission Impossible and agree totally with what you said about Barbara Bain. I have some old Perry Mason Seasons One through Five, and I was fortunate enough to get the entire The Untouchables with Robert Stack as Elliot Ness!
For recent era gems, I have the Bourne movies. No nudity, a little cursing, no sex! Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremecy, Bourne Ultimatum. I very much enjoy watching these. Again, modern times, anything that has Harrison Ford in it. I have some DVD’s of his that I also enjoy watching. He is one of the cleanest most decent of Hollywood actors that I can think of and an excellent actor, Most of Morgan Freeman’s are good too, James Earl Jones, Sidney Portier, also very excellent and decent actors, that is, if I haven’t missed something they were in that was less than what I prefer in movies. Personally, though–I’ve never seen any of the above-mentioned actors in less than aboveboard movies.
I wanted to get that one season of Yancy Derringer but it’s difficult to find. Anyway, thanks for your comments. I’ll check back later.
I’m sort of Perry Masoned out. They have been playing Perry Mason on KPTV here in Portland, Oregon for about 40 years at noon. People still watch it or record it or whatever.
Perry? How can I miss you if you won’t go away?
I’ve seen a few movies that I liked lately, Valkyrie was pretty good, so was Defiance.
Hey, Kevin–watch yourself! I’ve just, very recently, been blessed to be able to see ANY of the old Perry Masons here in my area, so I’m not “Perry Masoned Out” yet! LOL! I guess they inundate some areas while allowing a “famine” in other areas.
On another note, I wish I could find some of the old (first episodes) Gunsmoke shows, the first of Gunsmoke when it was shot in black and white. These are the 1/2 hour shows that had Chester in them. They were always good!
I’m going to find me a good movie and see if I can last long enough to see it to the end. Good night.
OK, I guess you’ll have to forgive me for 40 years of free Perry Mason. I watched it when I was a kid. I recorded it on a Betamax. I recorded in on a VHS. I’ve recorded it on my PVR in case I got bored.
There are some shows that I’d like to have though:
I got a later Season of Columbo for cheap on ebay. I think it was Season 4.
There doesn’t seem to be any DVD releases of Barnaby Jones
. I’ve blogged I Spy, Ironside, It Takes a Thief , Kojak, Remington Steele, The Rockford Files, Perry Mason, Simon and Simon, Spencer for Hire , Twin Peaks and some others. I liked the short lived Twin Peaks. If you didn’t notice there are about 35 episodes of Perry Mason on Fancast. I don’t think I linked all of them.
Hey, Kevin:
LOL! Forgiven!
Well, to tell you the truth, I’d rather watch 40 MORE years of Perry Mason than some of the shows that are on TV now. I’m doing most of my TV/movie viewing from the Internet right now and my TV is rarely even turned on any more. I got sick of paying for boring cable services what with the same programs being on every day, so I canceled my satellite service, purchased just one of those converter boxes because my TVs were both built prior to digital but in using the converter box, although I picked up more channels, it’s almost just like still having the service I just canceled with Direct TV. I’m glad I didn’t spend money on TWO converter boxes. The same old shows that were on the satellite programming are being shown all day long every day on the “free” programming I now get through the digital converter box, so why bother with two TVs showing nothing? I hooked the second TV up to DVD player and just watch movies on it from time to time. I give up!!!
I don’t have cable/sat either. I do have a computer hooked to my TV and I have a netbook. I also subscribe to netflix, so I can watch their streaming library and get DVD’s in the mail.
The only thing I really miss is sports. The network selections are pretty skinny.
Chan does it again,Brimingham funny as ever. I never seen a movie with his daughter. I noticed on the credits. Buy stamps and war bonds at theatres. I bet the bonds are worth a small fortune today. Thanks 4 another entertaining night. SALUTE