Charlie Chan was a fictional Honolulu detective created by Earl Derr Bigger in a series of six novels beginning with 1924's The House Without a Key -- a work he had been planning since 1919. Chan, based loosely on real-life Honolulu detectives Chang Arpana and Lee Fook, was an instant success, spawning a movie franchise that eventually totaled 50 English language films; additional Charlie Chan films were produced in Cuba, Mexico, and China (with six films). Chan was also featured on the radio with several different adaptations and on NBC's The Adventures of Charlie Chan; on Broadway in 1933 with an adaptation of Keeper of the Keys (written by Valentine Davies of Miracle on 34th Street fame); on television with The New Adventures of Charlie Chan (1956-57, starring J. Carrol Naish), the made for television movie The Return of Charlie Chan (shot in 1971 but not aired until 1977, with Ross Martin in the title role), and the animated series The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (featuring former Number 1 Son Keye Luke as Charlie Chan -- making him not-quite the first actual Chinese actor to portray Charlie Chan [see below]). A Charlie Chan comic strip, running from October 24, 1938 to May 30, 1942, and at least seven different Charlie Chan comic books have been issued by various publishers over the years. A Charlie Chan board game came our in 1937, followed two years later by a Charlie Chan card game. A Charlie Chan Mystery Magazine lasted for four issue in 1973-74; each issue featured a novella about the detective signed under the house pseudonym "Robert Hart Davis," a pseudonym also used for the lead novellas in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. Magazine); the four Chan stories were written by Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey Wallman, and Dennis Lynds -- it has not been confirmed who penned the remaining two stories. Lynds also published a paperback original novel, Charlie Chan Returns 1980). Michael Avallone novelized the Chan film Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen in 1981. Recently, John L. Swann has published two novels about Chan -- Death, I Said (2023) and A Tangles String (2024). Charlie was also featured in pulp writer Edward Churchill's "Charlie Chan on Broadway" (Popular Detective, November 1937), and in Jon L. Breen's more recent "The Fortune Cookie" (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 1971).
Almost without exception, Charlie Chan has been played by white actors, the exceptions being Keye Luke in the animated series and the first two films featuring Chan, The House Without a Key, a 1926 silent serial in which Chan appeared as a minor character portrayed by Japanese actor George Kuwa, and 1927's silent film The Chinese Parrot, with Chan being portrayed by a different Japanese actor, billed as Sojin -- both films are lost to the dust of history, and the tbird film. The third English language film, Behind That Curtain, was released in 1929 and was the first sound Charlie Chan film; it featured E. L. Park (an actual Chinese actor) as Chan; Park's role (and Chan's was very brief -- one mention early in the film and several short appearances beginning about 75 minutes into the 90-minute movie.
The heavy lifting in the film fell to Warner Baxter, who played Col. John Beetham, a family friend of Sir George Mannering (Claude King), who asks for Beetham's help after a solicitor hired to investigate fortune hunter Eric Durant (Philip Strange) is murdered. Beetham takes Mannering's niece and the object of Durant's plan, Eve (Lois Moran) to British India. Eve later leaves Mannering and travels to San Francisco, where she is followed by Scotland Yard Inspector Sir Frederick Bruce (Gilbert Emery), who is on the trail of Durant. Boris Karloff plays Beetham's manservant.
And where does Charlie Chan fit into all of this? Good question. Let's see if you can answer it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqvlJQhlTkg
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