[profh0011]

You're probably right about that rating. Most times as a kid, my parents would take me, but down in Texas, it got a bit odd, as I recall my Mom got a part-time job and apparently sometimes she'd be working on movie day. For the quadrupal feature, she got a friend of hers to take me, who wound up falling asleep for half the afternoon! Mom was a big horror fan, so for her to MISS Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee, there had to be some good reason.)


In the late 70's-early 80's there was a tiny local theatre, the Woodcrest (just off one of the exits of I-295) which for awhile got into the habit of running old movies on very short, rotating basis. That is, the films would only play for 2-3 days, and you had to get their monthly calendar to know what was playing which days.


Among the films I saw there were PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, and a double-feature of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and GOLDFINGER.  Not long after, they had a double-feature of THUNDERBALL and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, but I missed that one due to some last-minute schedule conflict (grrrrrrrrrrr). I always wanted to see YOLT on a big screen, the visuals in that are incredible, even while the story makes LESS sense each time I see it.

Actually, I recall the 1st time I went to that theatre, it was to see a double-feature of THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES and DEEP THROAT. I'm pretty sure they  weren't regularly running "X"-rated films at the time... but these were already considered "classics".

[profh0011]

Last night:

MURDER SHE SAID  (1961)


This is the 3rd time I've seen this, and I was delighted to find myself enjoying it more than before.  Also, this time, I finally was able to follow the plot all the way thru, and "got" the solution of the mystery. This has been happening more with me lately (although some of those NERO WOLFEs are still almost impenetrable).

The biggest kick i got was when most of the family under suspicion turned up, and among its members were both Ronald Howard (Sherlock Holmes) AND Thorley Walters (Dr. Watson). And this time, I even recognized the day-maid as Joan Hickson (Miss Marple).

Thorley Walters was clean-shaven and looked very young in here, and those eyes-- good grief, more than ever, I swear he was a dead ringer for a guy I used to work for once.  Brilliant software writer, but dangerously unstable personality. (My nickname for him-- after I was FIRED-- became "Psycho-B******-from-Hell") Walters once played a character even closer to that ex-boss of mine, when he was the police inspector in FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED.

[bowers]

My city also had a couple of run-down theaters showing cheap flicks at even cheaper prices. These were located in the unsavory section of town, but of course that didn't deter us a bit! The Ritz showed triple features, usually westerns or war movies with an occasional Jayne Mansfield or Mamie Van Doren for spice. The Cinema showed foreign films, featuring one "serious" film, such as something by Fellini, and then a comedy. This was where I was introduced to the Brit "Carry On" series and Belmondo's "Man From Rio" and "Man From Hong Kong", along with other French farces. What a great time to be a teen! Cheers, Bowers

[narfstar]

You would think the warm south would have more drive-ins than the colder north, but not so. Not many around where I live now in TN. The area I grew up in less than 50-80 miles East of Pittsburgh, PA is riddled with Drive-ins. A really nice thing about Drive-ins is the food is affordable not priced like sit down theaters. At one of the drive-ins they have a snack bar that could operate on its own. It is better than fast food and even some restraunts. In defense of sit down theaters is they receive little to none of the box office for the first two weeks of a movies run. Few movies make it past the first let alone second week now. They must make their money off food. No one forces anyone to pay the outrageous prices so why not get as much as you can. I NEVER buy sit down movie food.

[Menticide]

The Complete Metropolis, the original Fritz Lang silent epic, with about 25 minutes of restored footage. Pretty neat, I just bought it on Blu-Ray, and I should have bought it sooner. Makes me want to come up with a list of other great silent movies that are in need of a better release... I have to say, having the big screen with the Blu-Ray player in the basement has really fulfilled any desire that I ever had for a symbolic Man-Cave, it's kind of like having a private movie theater, at least once the wife, and the daughter go to sleep...

[profh0011]

I still remember when my best friend first told me about the new AMC movie chain.  8 square rooms (not shoebox-shaped), 4 on each side of a central snack counter.  Wider chairs, wide armrests with cup-holders, more leg-room, lights on the aisle floor to see where you're going, and, HOT DOGS. None of which existed in any theatres I went to the whole time I was growing up in the 60's & 70's!  THIS is called "competition"!

Multiplexes were obviously the wave of the future, as theatres could no longer survive on any single film, in the wake of first cable, then videotape. And it made so much sense to design a theatre from scratch, rather than the horrid mess that resulted from so much jury-rigging of formerly HUGE rooms, cut into 2, or 4 smaller ones.  I do miss the huge screens, but in an AMC, or most other modern chains, because of the shape of the room vs. the size of the screen, the best place to sit is often in the BACK! Certainly no closer than the middle.  (I guess the front row is for making out these days-- heh.)

Over the last 25 years, I've seen theatres expand the variety of food they sell.  I don't recall those hot dogs being so exhorbitant when they started, but I suppose they were forced to as distributors screwed them over financially.

My Dad always used to say, don't eat the hot dogs here, wait until after the movie, then get them at the mall across the street.  And generally, he was right.  It might not stop me getting one or two if I was by myself, but if we went together, I'd usually hold off until after.  And in winter months, wearing a heavy coat, I almost always sneak in a CAN of soda. Not only is it cheaper, but my favorite soda is Dr. Pepper, and I have NEVER found any movie theatre (or fast food resturant) who has decent Dr. Pepper. You can only seem to get it good at the supermarket!

On the down side was Loew's movie chain.  They opened a mammoth place across the street from Cherry Hill Mall, about 22 or more rooms.  Most of them were "stadium" seating, which made my Dad dizzy. But the big problem was, whoever was running the place, they'd pump LOUD music over the sound system all thru the building.  You couldn't get away from it.  Not in the lobby, the food area, the bathrooms, even outside the building when you were leaving to get back to your car.  What the HELL do they have speakers OUTSIDE for?  It was as bad as staying home, the way some of my so-called "neighbors" are. Those idiots just had the damn music up too loud!  (Come to think of it, I've run across the same thing in the shopping malls sometimes.  Music on the sound systems turned up so loud you can't even think. I would prefer quiet, gentle "elevator music" to that. Yes, I actually MISS "easy listening"-- the orchestral kind.)

[narfstar]

The teen clothing stores are deafening. Of course most of the teens are already half deaf from ear buds cranked up.

[profh0011]

I think it was about 15 years ago I noticed a new theatre chain around here, the RITZ.  They specialized in "art" films, imports, and reissued restorations.  I LOVE going to see restorations of old movies!  Dad and me went to see GONE WITH THE WIND (which I hated, but I knew he loved, and I figured, if I was ever gonna sit thru this THING again, on a big screen is the way to do it-- I was right!).  On another occasion, we went to Philly to see THE THIRD MAN.  I'd only just seen it on PBS 6 months earlier. I figure, anytime I pay to see something I've already seen on TV, I must like it.  Later, I went with a friend to see TOUCH OF EVIL, without even having a clue as to what it was about.  Years before that, I went to Philly to see CITIZEN KANE.  (Gee, that's no less than 3 films with Orson Welles!)  One of the Philly places also ran MST 3000: THE MOVIE, which I went to with my best friend.  The "movie" in question was THIS ISLAND EARTH.  Apparently, the felt FORBIDDEN PLANET was "too good" to make fun of.  Last time I remember going to the Philly place was for THX-1138.  I did not like that movie at all when I'd seen it before-- and I went anyway! Yep, it was much better on a big screen, plus, of course, they'd added some new stuff.


The Ritz chain doesn't sell hot dogs or any other kind of hot food (that I recall), but they do have some very peculiar kinds of snacks and drinks I've never seen in anyother theatre chain. I guess it's nice to see a company wanting to have their own unique identity.


I just remembered, Dad and me also got to see the restorations of both REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO.  Somehow, until then, I'd never seen them before!  I know they were out of circulation for most of my life, but they had been put out again in the 80's, and I completely missed them then.  Didn't see them until their 2nd reissue, after they'd been restored.

Strange but true: when I got to the end of VERTIGO, I suddenly realized what Brian DePalma was doing with BODY DOUBLE.  Years later, it hit me that the unusual story structure was very similar to Ian Fleming's 1st novel, CASINO ROYALE. You think the story's over... so why does it just keep going and going and going?  (Ohhhhh... THAT's why!) 

[bowers]

To heck with hot dogs-- if you're ever in Portland Oregon, check out the Laurelhurst Theater on Burnside. Great selection of micro-brews and excellent pizza. What a way to enjoy a $3 movie! Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

Philly's "TLA" (Theatre of the Living Arts) has been known to run movies, but mostly these days they run live rock & roll shows. I saw Nancy Wilson there (Ann's sister, from Heart) and it was brought to my attention that they sell pizza there. And as I recall, DAMN GOOD pizza!

I also saw Los Straitjackets there, the year they did their "Twist Party" tour with "Kaiser George", the lead singer of the Scottish band The Kaisers.

[Menticide]

Philly's "TLA" (Theatre of the Living Arts) has been known to run movies, but mostly these days they run live rock & roll shows. I saw Nancy Wilson there (Ann's sister, from Heart) and it was brought to my attention that they sell pizza there. And as I recall, DAMN GOOD pizza!

I also saw Los Straitjackets there, the year they did their "Twist Party" tour with "Kaiser George", the lead singer of the Scottish band The Kaisers.

I remember when the TLA was a full-time movie theater. They used to show different movies everyday and I can't even begin to count how many different movies I went to see there, everything from Citizen Kane to Das Boot.

I'm sure I saw some concerts there, but I can't for the life of me remember which ones. Was that the venue where Jane's Addiction played one song, walked off the stage, and caused a riot? If so, I was actually at that show.

[profh0011]

I used to go to "Upstairs At Nick's" a lot. The sound in the place was always terrible, the area near the stage unusually cramped, and then they put up a higher stage which forced them to remove the drop-ceiling, which I suspect made the sound even worse.

One night, and I have no idea which band it was, the opening act messed around on stage for almost a half-hour, apparently tuning up, but never quite getting it right. And then, they packed up and went home, I couldn't believe it!

But once in awhile, you'd get 3 great bands back-to-back. My impression was, this only happened when the bands themselves got involved in the booking process. You'd have 3 bands where the various members were all friends of each other, and all knew their stuff. But too often, you'd get an amateurish warm-up band, a great 2nd band, and then a headlining band who was just AWFUL-- nothing but noise, no actual music. (I know, it's personal taste, but still...)



Today: WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION  (1957)


I was planning to watch this tonight, but I couldn't fall back to sleep this morning, and wound up watching most of it (for the 6th time at least) before breakfast! My favorite Billy Wilder film, and my favorite Charles Laughton film.

As someone pointed out, Laughton's character is recovering from a near-fatal heart attack. Some months after finishing the film, Tyrone Power DIED from a heart attack.  (Sheesh)

I like noting various character actors. This time around, I was surprised at how much screen time John Williams had (as "Brogan-Moore"). I'd seen him only a few DAYS earlier as one of the high council on the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA episode, "War of the Gods" (his final acting job, it turns out).

Of course, I've seen Torin Thatcher in a lot of things. I always remember him as "The Space Trader" on LOST IN SPACE, but have probably seen his STAR TREK more times than anything ("Return of the Archons"). Someone suggested his role in JACK THE GIANT KILLER may have been the inspiration for "Baron Mordo" in Steve Ditko's DR. STRANGE!

[paw broon]

Let me off if I've mentioned this before, please, but just 6 miles down the road from us is The Hippodrome, Scotland's oldest, purpose built cinema. Recently refurbished and run by the local council, it's a small round hall with a wee balcony and comfy seats.  There's a silent film festival coming up but they also show new big filmsand a bit of amateur and experimental stuff. 
Last night, we watched an episode of Shadow Squad, a British tv prog. from the late 50's. I bought the dvd this week and it contains the only 4 remaining parts of the show plus one episode of Skyport, a spin-off.  I remember seeing the odd bit of S.S. when I was young and have always wanted to find it again.  It went out live and now you can see the joins but it's great fun.  The rest tonight? Hopefully.

[profh0011]

I'm trying to picture a "round" movie threatre.

We used to have the Valley Forge Music Fair.  Round room, with a slowly rotating stage. I went there a number of times, to see The Limeliters, a 4-part "jazz festival" consisting of Dizzie Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Count Basie & Ella Fitzgerald, a "Big Broadcast" show replicating a live 1940's radio broadcast, Harry Blackstone Jr. (not a good idea, they could only sell half the seats, and if you were too far to the side, could see things onstage you weren't supposed to), and, TWICE, The Monkees!

Tragically, shortly after the last time I went, it was torn down to make room for a shopping center.  Like we really NEED more of those!





I read that some (not all) of THE AVENGERS 1st season were actually broadcast live. The rest were, like DARK SHADOWS, recorded "live-on-tape" a few days before, with pretty much no editing. Blows my mind to think-- HOW do you do an 'adventure" show on TV, LIVE??  I understand a few of the 1st season have survived, but I've only seen back to the 2nd (with Dr. King, Venus Smith, and Cathy Gale).


After a several-year delay (for no particular reason), I'm finally finishing off re-watching THE NEW AVENGERS (I love Purdey & Gambit). When I'm done, I may start at the beginning again.  I've actually been thinking it might be fun to watch THE AVENGERS, SECRET AGENT, and THE SAINT all together in rotation for once!  Unfortunately, I've only got 5 of the half-hour episodes of DANGERMAN... all that were available when I was putting the collection together.  I understand the entire run is on DVD now... ehhhhhh, one of these years!

[narfstar]

Why would you want a live audience for and adventure. It is the audience laughter that makes them valuable in comedy. Much better than laugh tracks IMHO. I soon grew tired of the Monkees TV show but not their music. I still love Partridge Family music

[profh0011]

I still LOVE the first 4 Partridge Family albums, especially the 3rd (SOUND MAGAZINE) which has a more "grown up" feel than the others. (The 4th is the Christmas album, of course.) Not sure I'd care for the show now.

THE MONKEES, on the other hand, is to date the only TV series I ever BOUGHT the entire run of-- on videotape! I got the Rhino "box set". The main "problem" is, each tape has 3 episodes on it, and each set of 3 is in numerical order... but they're not consecutive. I believe this happened because they started out producing "best of" tapes, then, after-the-fact, decided, "Oh, let's do the entire series!"  So you need the enclosed book, and tape guide, to be able to watch it in order-- switching between tapes BETWEEN EVERY EPISODE!!! Crazy.

[profh0011]

Tonight:

MASTER OF THE WORLD


The last 2 weeks, I keep thinking a Vincent Price movie would be good for a weekend, but I've been running out of them. But I got this a few years ago off TCM, and it was sitting in the "Jules Verne" stack.


Not a great film, but a fun one.  American International trying to veer into Walt Disney territory (think "20,000 LEAGUES"), but on a miniscule budget.


I completey forgot Henry Hull (JESSE JAMES, THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES, "If there's ever gonna be any law and order in these here parts, the FIRST thing we gotta do, is take out ALL the lawyers, and SHOOT 'em down like DOGS!") was in this, as the weapons manufacturer. As "Robur" said, "the crowning irony"-- as HIS mission is to END all wars.


The hero of the film, oddly enough, is Charles Bronson. The girl falls for him, her fiance tries to KILL him, Robur's men shoot him TWICE... the poor guy goes thru ("G"-rated) hell!


As usual, Daniel Haller (production designer) and Les Baxter (music composer) raise anything they work on to a higher level. Can't help though but wonder what Roger Corman might have done with this.

[profh0011]

Great double-feature today...



EXCALIBUR


...and...



MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL




It's astounding how many visuals in the John Boorman film are almost identical
to those in the earlier parody. My late best friend once said HOLY GRAIL
"ruined" EXCALIBUR for him, as it made it impossible for him to watch it without
cracking jokes. I didn't have that problem. However, I did think it would be
fun to watch the comedy later the same day, as I'd never done that before.

[bowers]

I, too, just finished watching "Master of the World". Yes, American International was the king of extremely low-budget (but fun) films. One of my very favorite classic films was the 1939 Korda brothers "The Four Feathers" The Kordas filmed hours of breathtaking color scenery and magnificent battle sequences. To help recoup their investment, some footage was sold or rented to other film companies and were used in several films of the '40s and '50s. The footage from the Battle of Omdurman was used for the Egyptian scenes in "Master of the World", in some cases with the negatives reversed to give the same footage a different look! Unfortunately when they superimposed the "Albatross" over these scenes, the result was really quite less than successful. Oh well, we never really did expect very much from A.I. films, but we did keep watching them. Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

As a kid, I never even thought about "stock footage", the way some people complain abouts its use on Irwin Allen's THE TIME TUNNEL. I'd never seen the films being reused, so it was all new to me.

What I found interesting was finding out that the whole "declaring war on war" angle was apparently NOT in either of the 2 novels, but was added by the film-makers, clearly to tie the theme of the story in with Captain Nemo in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (the film which clearly kicked off an entire cycle of "Jules Verne" and Verne-type films).  I get the impression I'm one of the few who's actually read those books, but it's been decades-- at least since 1970.

The Verne books I've read are:  (in the late 60's-early 70's)

ROBUR THE CONQUEROR
MASTER OF THE WORLD
FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON
AROUND THE MOON  (hads to get this from my school library)
THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE

...and many years later (mid-80's)...

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

I was quite surprised to find Captain Nemo remained an enigma in 20,000 LEAGUES. His "origin" is not revealed until MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. 20 years after I read them, I discovered Verne had revealed Nemo's origin in the 1st book. He was a Polish Prince whose family was murdered by the Czars. As France was allies with Russia at the time, his publisher CUT that out of the book! So in the sequel, he wrote an alternate origin, in which he was an Indian prince who lost a rebellion against the British. France didn't like the Brits, so that was "okay". This flipped me out, as the original, unpublished origin wound up virtually intact in the 1929 film THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, which, as someone said, was not meant to be a literal adaptation but rather more an amalganation of "the world of Jules Verne". Further, if you ignored the very ending of that movie, it actually serves as a PREQUEL to the later Disney film, as the "origin" they added seems to relate directly to the 1929 film. Either, in typical Hollywood fashion, they loked at earlier films rather than the book they were supposed to be adapting, or, they also knew about the unpublished part of the novel.

Meanwhile, Herbert Lom in the Harryhausen sequel does look Indian, not British. While never specifically stated, the villains of the Disney film (the ones who murdered Nemo's family and wind up killing him at the end) are clearly British troops. However, it turns out the whole "message in a bottle" and assault on the volcano island fortress, came from an entirely unrelated book, AGAINST ALL FLAGS. Hollywood does love to "mix and match"m, don't they? In retrospect, I do think the Disney film works better damatically than the novel.




Imagine my surprise to find FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON ended on a cliffhanger. Structurally, the book and its sequel are very similar to the 2 "MOON" books Herge did with Tintin-- DESTINATION MOON (whose spaceship is IDENTICAL to the one in the George Pal movie) and EXPLORERS ON THE MOON, except Tintin & co. did reach the moon while the characters in the Verne book-- lucky for them-- didn't.

They lived to appear in the 3rd book, THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE. All 3 books are rather humorous, but especially the 3rd one, which I found out-and-out hilarious. An actor like Henry Hull would have been very much at home if anyone had ever done a movie based on that story.

[bowers]

I think you might be giving American International a little too much credit when you suggest they were trying to tie in the "war-on-war" theme to the Capt. Nemo mythos. I rather think they were just cranking out a very cheap anti-war exploitation film to cash in on the political feelings of the time. A.I.'s formula seemed to be- obtain a property for little or no royalties, hire only one or two recognizable actors, use every cost-cutting device you can find (stock footage, minimal special effects, stock musical score, etc.), shoot a lot of scenes, and then try to cobble together a coherent film. If it made a profit, do a sequel! Or two! I very seriously doubt if following the original story was ever a concern for these guys. My God, look what they did to Poe's work! A.I. knew it's place and never aspired to greatness. Instead, they created movies people paid to see and enjoy, no matter how bad they really were. By doing this so well, they became a cherished part of our cultural heritage. Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

"Thank you, so much."



Last night, after MONTHS of not being able to find them, I unearthed my CHARLIE CHAN collection.  Today, I started with the earliest one, which I suspect I haven't seen in at least 15 years...


CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON  (1934)


As you might expect by the date, the style of this is very "stagey" and in spots actually reminds me of DRACULA (1931). Very quiet, very serious, very dignified murder mystery.  A man convicted of a brutal killing 3 months earlier is sentenced to hang in 3 days' time, when his sister finds out Chan is in town and asks his help. Before you know it, one of the house guests he questions, who seemed nervous, winds up DEAD, and he realizes the real murderer is on the premises!


Featured in the cast are E.E.Clive (the burgomeister from BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and a Scotland Yard inspector in THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES), Alan Mowbray (Watson's alleged army pal in TERROR BY NIGHT) and a very young and handsome Ray Milland (BULLDOG DRUMMOND ESCAPES, THE UNINVITED, THE PREMATURE BURIAL).


As expected, the 1930's Honolulu "answer" to Lt. COLUMBO manages to find the real killer before the end of the picture.

[profh0011]

I think you might be giving American International a little too much credit when you suggest they were trying to tie in the "war-on-war" theme to the Capt. Nemo mythos.

Oh, that was somebody else's idea at the IMDB. Until yesterday, I had no idea "war on war" WASN'T part of the books (and I READ the books!). A lot of reviewers seemed to just dismiss the film as a "20,000 LEAGUES" knock-off. That seems to be where the "war on war" thing came from (unless someone else's memory was way off). Jules Verne did a lot of 'variations on a theme", though, as with the comparitively obscure AGAINST ALL FLAGS, in which a genuine pirate is using a submarine. Apart from the last half-hour of the Disney film, I don't know of anyone else who's ever done an adaptation of that one.

I love Corman's POE films (not so much the later ones after him). In the last several years, they've become like an annual tradition for me, watching all 8 in sequence as a set. Not that long ago I read an entire collection of Poe stories, including several that served as the inspiration for some of those films. I think what Richard Matheson and the other writers did was astonishing!

Take something that, on the surface, seems an obvoous choice for adapting into a film-- and a film that you'd think was close to its source-- HOUSE OF USHER.  In the original story, Roderick invites his best friend to stay, in order to help him dig himself out of a depression. While he's there, the friend learns of Roderick's ailing sister, who halfway thru the story dies. In the film, the lead had never met Roderick, but had gotten engaged to Madelain while they were at school. On arriving, Roderick does everything he can to drive the man away, and as the story slowly unfolds, his madness becomes more and more obvious, and his predictions self-fulfillng.  He claims she's going to die and that's it, but then he MAKES SURE IT HAPPENS! The emotional involvement is increased so dynamically from the original story, it's amazing to behold.


And that's not even my favorite!

[bowers]

Taped several Chan movies off AMC before they changed their format. The last time they showed the series they felt they had to include an Asian-American panel discussing how Hollywood should never have cast Oland or Toler as Chan. P.C. strikes again! Most of the Chan episodes were short, fast-paced and pretty well written. I'll probably have to look into replacing the tapes with DVDs one of these days. Cheers, Bowers

[profh0011]

Philly's Channel 17 used to run the CHANs Saturday nights at 11 PM, just as they had the Rathbone HOLMES films earlier. Ah, the 70's.

I taped a number of them off 17, I think, in the 80's. Mostly bad prints at the slow speed.

However, I later got some of them off AMC in the 90's. What frustrated me was, with "series" films, they NEVER made a point of giving them a regular time slot, or running them in sequence!

By comparison, TCM does like running series films in sequence... BUT, usually, they do it as "marathons".  Who has ALL DAY or ALL NIGHT to tie up putting tapes in?


The last one I got ahold of-- I forget the title-- turned out to be the one that introduced "Birmingham Brown" (Mantan Moreland).  He was one of many suspects, but returned as Chan's regular chauffer.


My copy of ...IN LONDON was off Channel 17.  Strangely enough, they were NOT runinng them in sequnce at the time, which I can tell by which films are all together on that one tape.  I had 5 movies on one tape-- but the other 4 I managed to replace with AMC versions.


It's sad that anyone should be objecting to non-Asian actors playing Asian roles. (I liked where one person said nobody seems bothered when Charles Bronson playes Mexicans-- since he's Lithuanian.) At least they're not complaining about Chan being a negative racial stereotype.  I always see him as a GOOD representation of Asians, considering he's always the SMARTEST character in the films, he relentlessly honest, and he's a poster child for "family values".

As far as I know, the only time Chan was played by an Asian actor was in the 70's cartoon show (which focused on his GRAND-children). Chan was voiced by none other than Keye Luke-- who'd been Lee Chan (#1 son) in the 30's!


I've often thought it might have been fun if at some point someone had done a movie where Charlie Chan crossed paths with Fu Manchu...!