CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OLYMPICS

US, 1937, 71 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Poland, Kathryn DeMille?, Pauline Moore, Allan Lane, Keye Luke, C.Henry Gordon, John Eldridge, Layne Tom Jr, Jonathan Hale, Frederik Volgeding.
Directed by H.Bruce Humberstone.

This is a very entertaining contribution to the Charlie Chan stories. It opens in Honolulu with some experiments about radar guided planes, the pilot being knocked unconscious and the plane stolen. Watching the experiment are the inventor, the owner who has bought the invention, a rival. Further investigation shows that a workman has been killed, that there is a mysterious woman who has gone to the United States by plane. Needless to say, Charlie Chan is invited in to investigate.

This is a spy drama of the mid 1930s, focusing on Germany with no mention of Nazism, but the spy ring seeming to be international, beyond Germany. But, with a focus on Germany, 1936, it means there is attention to the Olympic Games in Berlin. And, not only that, Lee Chan is swimming in competition. There are complications with the Olympic team, especially with one of the athletes, a poll vaulter, and his girlfriend, all from Honolulu.

As with all the other international Charlie Chan stories, there is a focus on the police chief, this time very much old school, exemplifying German efficiency and courtesy.

There are complications on board the ship with the athletes, the villainous femme fatale (Kathryn DeMille) concealing the invention in a camera and trying to recuperate it from the athlete’s luggage. There are mysterious agents, including the supervisor at the Games Village women’s dormitories.

More and more complications, the finger pointing at the owner and his mysterious behaviour, the revelation of the head of the spy ring and his inviting Charlie Chan to a box at the Olympic Games – giving a chance for some footage, processions of athletes, an American relay with the group cheering on Jesse Owens and the final swimming with Charlie Chan’s Number One Son.

Number One Son gets into all kinds of mixups, undercover detection, getting clues when it is all too late – as well as frequently offering aphorisms with a comment that his father would say something like this. In the Honolulu sequences, there is a little boy son who is emulating his older brother.

Buildup to a confrontation, the would-be owner acting in a sinister way, the actual owner vindicated as well as the athlete, and the villain turning out to be the inventor wanting to make money exploiting the invention by stealing it and selling it.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

CHARLIE CHAN IN PARIS

US, 1935, 71 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Oland, Mary Brian, Thomas Beck, Erik Rhodes, John Miljon, Minor Watson, John Qualen, Keye Luke, Dorothy Appleby.
Directed by Lewis Seiler.

This is a very entertaining Charlie Chan adventure. Charlie Chan arrives in Paris, allegedly on holiday, but actually sent to investigate some accounting difficulties in bonds in a respectable bank. His son, Lee, suddenly turns up on his way to exhibit one of his artworks in Paris but the two are delayed, especially when an Apache dancer (interesting to look back on this performance which seems to be rather chauvinist, to say the least) who has information for Charlie is murdered at the nightclub after her performance.
The plot is fairly complicated. The daughter of the banker is implicated in the murder. There is also an artist, with good sketches, who is in the party of friends entertaining Charlie.

There are more complications when there are further murders – the artist coming under suspicion, and a mysterious veteran of World War I who crops up frequently, straggly hair, oversize hat, begging in the street, causing a rumpus at the bank, seen at the club.

The investigation, father and son and the French locals, leads eventually to an address, a trapdoor, going to the sewers of Paris where there is a pursuit. There is also the discovery of a forgery centre for the bonds and the bank documents.

The twist and ending is more complicated than anticipated, the artist and the bank assistant taking it in turns to be the eccentric character, giving each other an alibi for the different murders.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

JURASSIC PARK 3

US, 2001, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandra Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Laura Dern.
Directed by Joe Johnston.

Jurassic Park 3 has most of the essential ingredients from the previous films. However, with its brief running time and slighter plot, it seems like something of a postscript to the original film and its sequel, The Lost World. It is directed by Joe Johnston who specialised in special effects films ranging from The Rocketeer to the original Jumanji.

Sam Neill was absent from the second film but resumes his central role as Dr Alan Grant, dinosaur expert, assisted by a young archaeologist played by Alessandro Nivola. There is also a connection with the first film when Grant goes to visit Ellie and her family (Laura Dern).

He is approached by an eccentric couple, allegedly millionaires, the Kirbys played by William H.Macy and Tea Leoni. They offer financial inducement for his work so Grand accompanies them with Billy. They fly dangerously low over the dinosaur island and the plane crashes. The motivation for the trip is that the mother is looking for her son gone on holidays to the island and who had disappeared (with the audience seeing the accident as a prologue to the film).

The mother, with a touch of hysterics, and shouting for the son, alerts the dinosaurs to the human presence. The rest of the film, their interactions with a range of dinosaurs, excellent special effects, menace and threats. Some of the crew are killed by the dinosaurs. Grand is separated from the group but finds the lost boy. They discover some dinosaur eggs and Billy conceals some to exploit them.

After a great deal of menace and chases, they go to the original building from Jurassic Park which helps them survive for a while – and the important thing to find a mobile phone. The solution is that Alan rings Ellie who is able to provide some support and they go to the coast and are rescued on the beach.

In the spirit of the other films – but slighter.

1. The impact of the original novel, the original film? The contribution of the sequel? This third film – a smaller version, a briefer version of the basic story?

2. The popularity of dinosaurs in the cinema audience’s imagination? As if they really existed? The credibility of the plot, the island, the survival of the dinosaurs, the special effects bringing them alive, visuals, sound?

3. The US sequences, home visits, the archaeological digs? The island, the beauty, mountains, see? The musical score?

4. Action, computer graphics, the range of dinosaurs, interactions with the humans, threats and danger to the humans?

5. The prologue, the boat, the hang gliding, the boy, the boat crashing, survival or not?

6. Alan Grant, his experiences on the island in the first film, his visit to Ellie and her family? His not wanting to return? His work, detail, explanations, with Billy? Their knowledge of the dinosaurs?

7. The visit of the Kirbys, the characters, pretending to be millionaires? Their statement of the mission to go to the island, their lies? Their wanting Alan Grant? The money offer? His agreement? Billy accompanying him? The flight, the dangers, wanting more than just a tourist ride? The revelation of truth, the couple, marriage and divorce, the boy being lost and their wanting to find him?

8. The characters of the Kirbys, Amanda and her emotions, unsympathetic, pressurising, her husband, exceeding to her wishes?

9. The crash and the plane, being stranded? The decision to make their way to the coast? Amanda and her shouting, provoking the dinosaurs? The fears?

10. The visuals of the dinosaurs and the interactions? Alan and his being separated, his finding the boy? Surviving? Making their way to the coast? The boy and his courage? Reunited with his parents?

11. The crew, the crash, the threats by the dinosaurs, gruesome deaths?

12. Alan and his stands against exploitation? Finding the dinosaur eggs? Billy taking them, his motivations, Alan being harsh on him, his injuries, the later recovery?

13. Getting to the beach, getting to the headquarters of the old Park, survival, helps, threats? The importance of the phone?

14. Getting to the coast, the phone call to Ellie, a getting help – more than enough, their escaping the island?

15. A slight film in comparison with the others, a kind of postscript for a trilogy?

CHARLIE CHAN IN MONTE CARLO

US, 1938, 71 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Öland, Keye Luke, Virginia Field, Sidney Blackmer, Harold Huber, Kay Linaker, Robert Kent, Edward Raquello, George Lynn, Louis Mercier.
Directed by Eugene forward.

This was the last of the Charlie Chan films with actor Warner Öland. It moves in the same vein as all the others but, offscreen, Öland had difficulties with alcohol as well as touches of dementia and was soon to die. Keye Luke is particularly exuberant in this film, mangling the French.

The film has a number of popular supporting actors at the time, especially Virginia Field and Sidney Blackmer who was to have a long career. Harold Huber is entertaining as the Monaco chief of police (just after being a New York officer in Charlie Chan on Broadway).

Charlie Chan is in Monte Carlo, seemingly on vacation, but sent to investigate double dealings with bonds. He is aided, sometimes not so well helped, by his son (in an amusing scene where Charlie Chan wants waffles and draws the design which the waiter at the hotel interprets as his wanting a crossword puzzle!).

Harold Huber is full of zest as the police chief, wanting to do the best for his visitors only to assign them to a taxi which continually backfires and strands them – where they discover a dead body in a car and, Lee, unable to be clear in French, seems to confess to the murder and the two are arrested.

Sidney Blackmer is rather hard and insistent as the chief banker – and audiences will have him fully in line as the villain, especially for the murder of the courier in the car, and the death of a bartender who had been keeping bonds for Blackmer’s wife who is trying to get them back to save her marriage. It is revealed she is being blackmailed because she had been married to the bartender.

There is another very suave businessman who is also under suspicion. Then there is the bank assistant, very loyal, in love with a British model has recently come to Monte Carlo but lives an expensive lifestyle. There are lies on the part of everyone concerned, sabotaging their alibis, the British model having driven her car, the suspicious businessman ordering and then cancelling a plane from Nice airport, the wife covering up her relationship and her visit to pay money to the blackmailer only to find him dead.

So, lots of interviews, lots of intervention by the Monte Carlo police chief, sorting out the lies of the rest of the suspects and, pleasingly for the audience, the villain and murderer turns out to be the young bank assistant who has been lavish in gifts to his girlfriend and manipulating accounts.

And so, the last Charlie Chan film of Warner Öland.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

CHARLIE CHAN BROADWAY

US, 1937, 70 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Oland, Keye Luke, Joan Marsh, J.Edward Blomberg, Douglas Fowley, Harold Huber, Donald Woods, Louise Henry, Joan Woodbury, Leon Ames, Marc Lawrence.
Directed by Eugene Ford.

This is the second last of the Charlie Chan films starring Warner Oland. Charlie and his son Lee, Keye Luke enthusiastic and making rash judgements as usual, are arriving in New York from Europe and plan to go immediately to San Francisco and home to Honolulu.

They encounter a sinister character on the ship who is searching a woman’s cabin. They come to the woman’s help – and she uses them on their return to port to hide something in their luggage. She has some notoriety, connections with gangsters in the city.

Charlie is to be feted with a dinner by the New York police, the chief played energetically by Harold Huber (who was to portray the police chief in Monte Carlo in the next film). In the meantime, there are two eager journalists trying to get stories and photos, the editor of the paper who seems suspicious in some ways. There are also the gangsters at a club with an exotic dancer who has separated from the sinister man seen earlier and taken up with one of the gangsters.

The woman returning from Europe has a diary and plans to expose the criminals. She is then found murdered. So is the sinister man who was searching. Once again, there are all kinds of clues, many lies, quite a number of suspects.

The film uses the device of having all the characters assemble in one room with Charlie Chan cleverly exposing the criminal – who is rather unexpected, the eager young journalist, played by Donald Woods, who has been blackmailing the criminals and who would be exposed if the diary were to become public.

Not so much the Broadway of the theatre but echoes of the Broadway and the gangsters of writers like Damon Runyon.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK

US, 1936, 70 minutes, Black-and-white.
Warner Oland, Keye Luke, Helen Wood, Thomas Beck, Alan Dinehart, Gavin Muir, Jonathan Hale, Frankie Darro.
Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone.

Quite some open-air action in this episode of Charlie Chan’s mystery solving. It opens in Honolulu, the Chan home, with Charlie demonstrating to the local police how blood drops vary and can help solve crimes (which he uses, of course, in this mystery). However, Lee interrupts and gives information about a sure thing for bets, even persuading his father to risk his shirt tail.

The race they are listening to is the Melbourne Cup, an interesting choice of race venue, but not filmed in Australia at all. However, it brings Australia into the action although the accents of all the cast are either British or American. There is a gambling syndicate involved, racefixing, especially with the Jockey, Frankie Darro, who is in league with a local boss, Gavin Muir. The owner of the horse is a friend of Charlie Chan who is invited by his friend to investigate.

On the voyage to the United States via Honolulu, the owner of the horse is killed, the horse being blamed. Needless to say, Charlie Chan is able to indicate that this is not the case and he is involved with dealing with threatening letters to withdraw the horse from the Handicap in Los Angeles. Charlie and Lee actually try to trick the criminals by creating and delivering false letters. And there is some comedy with Lee dressed as part of the ship’s staff and getting into trouble.

There is a variety of suspects – but, Charlie Chan realises that two horses have been exchanged in fire trouble on the ship. There is a problem with the owner of the champion, bought from Charlie Chan’s dead friend. There is another owner with a rival horse. There are wives and daughters, fiancés, and a stable hand called Snowshoes, played by John Henry Allen, a variation on the Stepin Fetchit kind of mumbling awkward African- American character.

There is some excitement at the races, Charlie and Lee being abducted by the syndicate, the syndicate’s plan in the running of the horses, Charlie learning how the photo finish is done… And, the result is unexpected, the buyer of the champion revealed as the murderer, in debt. However, the owner of the rival horse knew of the exchange, did not reveal it so as to gain financially – and then offers to withdraw his stable from the racecourse.

Not bad at all.


CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

CHARLIE CHAN’S SECRET

US, 1936, 71 minutes, Black and white.
Warner Öland, Rosina Lawrence, Charles Quigley, Henrietta Crosman, Edward Trevor, Astrid Allwyn, Herbert Mundin, Jonathan Hale.
Directed by Gordon Wiles.

This is an entertaining entry into the Charlie Chan films, money always playing an important role in most of them but this time the focus on Spiritualism.

The plot concerns the sinking of a ship, the seeming disappearance of a young man coupled with his announced return from the dead. He is wealthy and his surviving means a great difference to relatives, spiritualists and the legal manager of the estate.

The matriarch, played by Rosina Lawrence, a commanding presence, has invited Charlie Chan to help in the investigations. She devotes a lot of her time and wealth to studying Spiritualism, even to having a seance with a professor and Carlotta, his medium assistant. During the seance, the main members of the family as well as the lawyer present, and a knife is thrown at the seeming presence of the allegedly surviving son.

There are two young daughters of the mother, one of them attracted to a newspaper man who finishes up assisting Charlie Chan (his son is not present in this film though there are some verbal references to his American slang), the other daughter engaged to a dashing young man with a moustache! There is also a caretaker who is not only suspicious but bears a grudge because his daughter had been infatuated with the son who was responsible for her death.

A lot of questioning, a lot of mixed motives, a lot of cooperation and standoffishness. Then, suddenly the matriarch is shot through a window. Charlie and the journalist and a lot of time working out where the sniper could have fired from, going to a church steeple and finding a rifle set up with a mechanism for firing connected to the spire bells.

In all the investigations there is the butler, played by Herbert Mundin (a British character actor who was killed in a road accident soon after at the age of 40) and, playing the fearful butler for plenty of laughs. Then a vase is shattered by a bullet when the bell tolls.

The decision is made to have another seance with everybody sitting where they were at the original one, the matriarch appearing. A knife is thrown, as with the previous seance, but it is only an image projected of mother and she appears, alive.

The professor on Spiritualism has been under suspicion and arrested, especially when details of the setup in the house are fraudulent and revealed. However, Carlotta is innocent and she agrees to restage the seance. The caretaker is accused but he is innocent. Ultimately, it is the dashing young man with the moustache who is after the money (though, at one stage, it looked as though it was the lawyer).

Somewhat sympathetic to Spiritualism but also exposing the factory in some detail.

CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN

US, 2018, 114 minutes, Colour.
Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Dominic Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgaard, Colin Firth, Cher, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Jeremy Irvine, Andy Garcia, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Celia Imrie, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies, Omid Djalili.
Directed by Ol Parker.

Actually, the title might have been better with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Before. While the core of the plot takes place in the present, 10 years after the original film, most of this story is in flashback.

We get an initial shock to hear that Donna (Meryl Streep) has died the year before. There are a number of pictures of her in the house on the Greek island, but she doesn’t appear herself until the end of the film, singing a plaintive ballad, but joining in the exuberance of the final credits choreography. Her daughter, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is planning the opening of the home as a hotel, Bella Donna, in her mother’s memory.

So, this is Donna’s story, but Donna back at the end of the 1970s. She is played with exceeding vim, vigour and vitality, as well as charm, by Britain’s Lily James (Downton Abbey, Cinderella, The Guernsey… Literary Society). And we see her first at her university graduation in the UK, the valedictory speaker, but suddenly bursting into song and taking over the whole ceremony, upstaging the vice chancellor at first (Celia Imre) but then she joining in with enthusiasm.

There are some references to Donna’s mother, a travelling singer, Ruby. Ruby, not invited to the opening of the renovated hotel, turns up and takes control of the whole show. She is played by Cher, a strikingly commanding and glamorous presence.

But, back in the past, Donna has a yearning to go to Greece. And, on the way, she encounters three young men (whom devotees are familiar with from the first film), the three potential fathers of her baby. Harry is a student in Paris. Bill is a sailor from Sweden in Greece. Sam is on a kind of Gap Experience in Greece.

While there are lots of ABBA songs, quite a number of the favourites which have become part of our psyche over the last 40 years, there are a few less familiar songs, some ballads, sung by the young Donna with the young men, some by Sophie to her absent husband Sky, doing a business course in New York (Dominic Cooper).

And, so, the screenplay involves us in the present and the preparation for the opening of the hotel, challenged by devastating storm, Sophie upset that Harry and Bill cannot come, is Sky will be absent… However, thank goodness, Christine Baranski, especially, and Julie Walters turn up as Donna’s old friends, Tanya and Rosie) and contribute to the humour of the interactions, with some Christine Baranski wisecracks.

And while the casting of the three suitors in their young days are credible enough for the older Sam, Harry and Bill, the actresses who portray the younger friends, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa Davies, are spot on. (And Pierce Brosnan singing has not improved – that he does get to do some dancing. Colin Firth is still averse to dancing. And there is a funny joke with Stellan Skarsgaard in a fat suit as his twin brother.)

Not to forget the presence of Andy Garcia. Whether the writers wanted to have Fernando being sung in the new film or whether they wanted to give a back story to Cher and her younger days, they have been planted a plot detail to enable Cher to do a show-stopping rendition of Fernando.

As with the first one, the film is rather slight and, at times, silly. But, this will not matter too much to the potential fans, eager to hear the ABBA songs (yet again), to enjoy the story of Donna and her suitors and, nice climax, Sophie being pregnant and everybody assembling for the baptism.

(And, as a reward for those who sit through the credits, there is a joke, continued from the film, with comedian Omid Djalili at passport control.)

One local enthusiast in a Catholic paper thought that the film was ABBA-solutely wonderful, while an ABC radio reviewer said it was a terrible film – but later added “but you’re going to go out and see it anyway�. And that will probably be it all around the world.

1. The popularity and success in the original film? ABBA songs, the cast – high-powered? The light touch, the Greek islands and the sea? The plot and the focus on Donna, Sophie, the three potential fathers? Sophie and her getting married to Sky?

2. The wait of 10 years for the sequel? Audiences ready? The surprise that Donna was dead? Her pictures in the hotel? People talking about her fondly, Rosie weeping? Sophie wanting the hotel in her honour?

3. The visuals and locations, Greece, the islands, sea? Oxford, the University, the graduation? Paris, the landmarks, the romance? Sequences in Japan for Harry? Sequences in Stockholm and the joke about Bill? Sky in New York and his course?

4. The songs, the lesser known songs, the well-known songs? The occasions for insertion? The teacher song and Oxford? The ballads for the relationship between the young Donna and the men? Sophie and Skye and their separation? The ballad for Donna at the end? The incorporation of the well-known songs and audiences enjoying the repetitions? Of Mama Mia, Dancing Queen…? And the invention of the story of Ruby and the opportunity for introducing Fernando?

5. The situation in the present, the opening of the hotel, Sam and his continued presence and support of Sophie, Fernando and his work, the various members of the staff? Tanya and Rosie to arrive? Harry, Bill and Sky being absent? The storm and the devastation? Sophie’s loss of spirit, Sam encouraging?

6. The past, Donna as young, the mentions of her mother being absent, singing tours, studies in England, Donna and her friendship with the young Tanya and Rosie? The graduation, speech, turning it into song and dance, the principal joining in the spirit and singing? The three friends and their separation, Donna and her dreams, their support? Going to Paris, the encounter with Harry, his awkwardness, the time together, the night together, the song? His attempt to find her in Greece, his absence? Her going to Greece, her needing a boat to the island, Bill and his skills, the sailing, the experience together? The competition, his sailing away? Sam, touring on the island, his giving her a lift, the time together, the attraction? Discovering that he was engaged? His leaving?

7. Donna, on the island, the ruined building, the audition for singing, charming everyone, having a job, the mother and her letting her have the house, her renovating? Her being pregnant, the effect? Support of her friends? Sophie’s birth? Donna staying, putting on the dungarees and the link between the younger Donna and the older Donna?

8. Harry in Japan, business deals, Japanese efficiency, wanting to go to Greece? Bill, in Stockholm, the award, his increase in size and the fat suit, the joke about this being his twin brother? Arriving in Greece – and the jokes about weathering the years from the passport control officer? Their all being reunited, with Sam? Joy, memories?

9. Sky, his getting back, reunited, Sophie and her pregnancy?

10. The renewal of the celebration and the opening of the hotel? All the songs and dances? The choreography?

11. Sophie and the invitations, tearing up the one to Ruby? Ruby arriving, Cher and her imposing presence, white suit, face and make-up, manner, dominating? The interactions
with Sophie? With Sky? Discovering Fernando? The occasion for the duet with Cher and Andy Garcia?

12. Tanya and Rosie, the characters, comedy, songs and dances, Tanya and wisecracks?

13. Donna reappearing, the impact of Meryl Streep, her song?

14. Everybody in the church, the presence for the baptism, Sophie and her joy, everybody supportive? Donna appearing?

15. The finale, exuberant song and dance, including both Donnas, a climax to the Mama Mia film experience?

BEETHOVEN'S 2nd

US, 1993, 89 minutes, Colour.
Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Nichole Tom, Christopher Castle, Sarah Rose Karr, Debi Mazar, Chris Penn, Ashley Hamilton, Danny Masterson, Maury Chaykin, Jeff Corey, Kevin Dunn, William Schallert.
Directed by Roy Daniel.

Beethoven was a very popular family film, and not only a family film, a family film with a dog, a very large St Bernard dog, Beethoven.

Charles Grodin and Bonnie Hunt as well as the three child actors reprise their roles here as the new family. There are some domestic scenes, the older girl having a touch of romance but being disillusioned, the younger children proving themselves by looking after Beethoven and Missy’s pups. There is a subplot about the owner of a stand in the park who is being divorced by his hyper- haughty wife, Debi Maza doing an enjoyable extreme villain, the touch of Cruella de Ville. She relies on her current boyfriend, a huge slob played by Chris Penn.

While there are the usual family difficulties, and the children keeping the dogs a secret from their parents, they eventually go on a fourth of July holiday to a house in the countryside, go to the fair where Beethoven wins the dog competition, Beethoven and Missy are reunited and there is a climax on the mountainside with the dogs being retrieved and Debi Maza and her boyfriend falling over the cliff into a mud pool and then swept down the rapids. Happy ending for all!

1. The popularity of the first film? Response to St Bernard dogs? To family stories and dogs?

2. Home, family, school, holiday home, town, water? The musical score?

3. The family situation, mother and father, inventions and business, the invention to eradicate bad smells, the company listening, the issue of banks and loans? The three children, the bonds between them? The characters of each, their age? Ryce and her eye on the boys and their attention to her – with a touch of disillusionment? Ted, his awkwardness, not being picked for teams, his attraction to the girl on holidays? Emily, very young – and the touch of the cute?

4. The focus on Beethoven, size, cuddly yet imposing? Role in the family? The encounter with the dog with her bow? The interactions? His being absent, the birth of the pups? Ted and his curiosity about Beethoven, following him, discovering the pups? Getting them and taking them home? The response of the other children? Keeping the pups in the basement, their routine in getting back from school, feeding and caring for the dogs? The puzzle about the teachers and the children’s flu injections?

5. The plot about Regina and her ex-husband, the divorce, the conditions, his presence in the park, his love for Missy, Regina using this as leverage for getting a higher alimony? Her caricature manner – for audiences to hiss the villain! A reliance on Floyd, his being a slob, her pushing him around? The discovery of the pups, her wanting the pups? Her going to the holiday house?

6. The children telling their mother, the secret of the dogs, the meal, the father hearing them, the discovery? His reaction?

7. Going on holiday, the holiday house, the condition of no dogs? The enjoyment of the holiday, Ryce and her crush on the boy, his double dealing, going to visit, the young boy on his bike, friendship? The fair, the dog show, Beethoven winning!

8. The buildup to the confrontation, the pups, Missy and Beethoven, Floyd and Regina, and the children saving the dogs, Floyd and Regina going over the cliff, in the mud, down the rapids?

9. The pups growing up, Beethoven and Missy, the family and the owner, and happy prospects?

MARY SHELLEY

UK/Luxemberg, 2017, 110 minutes, Colour.
Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth, Steve Dillane, Tom Sturridge, Joanne Froggatt, Bel Powley, Ben Hardy, Hugh O' Conor
Directed by Haifa Al- Mansour

Mary Shelley is synonymous with Frankenstein. This seems to be her basic reputation. However, as this film highlights, there is much more to her as a person, her life, relationships, her ideas as well as the greater range and depth of themes in Frankenstein.

This is a period drama, set in the second decade of the 19 century. It is the period of transition from the Enlightenment to the Romantic era. The Enlightenment was personified by Mary’s parents, the writer and thinker, Mary Wollstonecraft, and her father, William Godwin, thinker and novelist. They were concerned with political, economic, intellectual issues, writing, discussing, instilling this search for meaning into their daughter, Mary Godwin.

During the action of this film, Mary moves from the age of 16 to the age of 18, a period of life as a teenager but a period of moving from adolescence to adulthood for Mary herself. Given the household that she grew up in and the influence of her parents, it is not surprising that we see Mary as a writer, writing in her journal, confiding in her half-sister, Claire. However, there is tension between Mary and her stepmother. This means being sent off to Scotland for some time, calming her down as well as broadening her horizons.

But, the important person in her life was the poet Percy Shelley, already published, in his 20s, a public figure. He is an apprentice to Mary’s father and she falls in love with him, with a passion that drives her beyond intellectual thought. In the household, it does not matter that they are not married (although it is a shock when Shelley’s wife, Henrietta, the accosts Mary in the street and she discovers the truth). Mary becomes pregnant but loses her child, part of the financial and accommodation difficulties that they encounter.

But the romantic figure of the time was Lord Byron and paths cross, especially when Claire is infatuated with Byron and begins an affair with him, and becoming pregnant.

The occasion of the drama for this encounter is the performance of the play, Phantasmagoria, a lecturer explaining Galvanism, the role of electricity, current enabling limbs to move – and the question of the scientist electrifying a body to make it live. Mary was interested in the science, in the philosophy, in the nature of life and possibilities of creation. And, as is well known – and was dramatised in the 1980s by Ken Russell in Gothic – the famous night on the Lake Geneva where Byron and Claire, Percy and Mary, were present with Byron’s physician, John Polidori and, to wile away the time, they were to write horror stories. Mary, with her love for ghost stories as well as science, created Frankenstein, the new Prometheus, who was to steal, like his predecessor, life from the gods through the new fire, electricity.

The original novel for this film, the adapter, the director and Elle Fanning as Mary bring a strong positive female, feminist perspective to the story and the storytelling. Mary fails to get a publisher until someone agrees that it can be printed with the author as anonymous and an introduction by Shelley himself. Ultimately, the book is published under her name. Shelley dies. Mary lives another 30 years or more into the 19th century.

Elle Fanning is a strong presence as Mary, indicating the intellectual power as well is the emotions. There is an interesting British supporting cast with Douglas Booth the Shelley, Tom Sturridge almost over-romanticised as the narcissistic Byron, Steve Dillane as William Godwin, Joanne Froggatt is his second wife, Bill Powley as Claire and Ben Parker giving an interesting performance as Polidori, subservient to Byron, wanting to write a vampire story, its being published under Byron’s name, his subsequent penury and death.

An immersion into this Romantic period with all its ambiguities of ideas and emotions.

1. Audience knowledge of Mary Shelley? Expectations? In herself, her distinguished parents, her relationship with Shelley? The scenario of the night at Geneva, her writing Frankenstein?

2. The writer, the director, the cast and the female perspective? Performances?

3. Costumes and decor, the 19th century, the move from the Enlightenment to the romantic era, London, the streets, shops, the publishers? The glimpses of Scotland? The home, family? The contrast with the Swiss countryside, Geneva, the mansion, interiors, the storm? The musical score?

4. The title and the focus on Mary? The reputation of her mother, philosophy, liberation, women’s issues? Her personal life, romance, attempted suicide, death after childbirth? Mary and her age, relationship with Claire, half-sister? The clashes with her stepmother, the hostility in the house? Her relationship with her father, admiration for him, his thinking, his books? Life at home, ideas, freedom? Shelley and his presence, apprenticed to Godwin?

5. The portrait of Mary, from age 16 to 18, her poise, her diary and her writing, her loving stories, telling the ghost stories? Sensible and practical? The encounter with Shelley, the romantic involvement, of a teenage girl? Clashes with her stepmother, her father sending her to Scotland, the effect of the welcome of the family, adding to her experience?

6. The relationship with Shelley, romantic, sexual, her focus on Shelley and not wanting sexual freedom? The advertisement for the theatre, the phantasmagoria? The style of its staging, the compere, the influence of electricity and galvanising? Mary and her fascination with a life, the creation of life? The influence on her thinking? The later discussions with Polidori, life, power? All this as a preparation for her novel?

7. Shelley, his age, passion, the touch of the fop, his poetry and reputation? Running away with Harriet, the marriage, the children, the separation? His wanting freedom, freedom and commitment, in love and sexuality? His response to Mary? And a quotation from his poems?

8. Harriet accosting Mary in the street, Mary’s reaction, the children? Confronting Shelley? The later news of Harriet’s death?

9. The introduction of Byron, his reputation, manner, a rake, narcissistic? Claire, the attraction, going to the theatre, the note, the casual relationship, her pregnancy? Byron and his accomplishments, poetry, plays? Adventures?

10. Claire, contrast with Mary, her character, flighty, attraction to Byron, pregnancy, wanting to go to Geneva?

11. Geneva, the exotic company, the holiday, their being bored? Mary and her reaction to Byron? Reaction to Polidori? The issue of stories, Mary and the ghost stories?

12. Polidori as a character, Byron’s dcotor, quiet, wanting to write on the vampire, his being ridiculed? The publication, attributed to Byron, Polidori as penniless, visiting Mary, the discussion, the news of his suicide?

13. Mary, her dreams, the themes of life, electricity, power? Writing the novel, the title and the focus on Prometheus? Science, life, the creation of a monster, the dependence of the monster on the creator and vice versa? Electricity as the contemporary fire? Symbol of loneliness, isolation? The monster and killing? The symbol of Mary and her life and isolation?

14. The visits to the publishers, rejection of the manuscript, of her as a woman, of the theme? The range of publishers? The final agreement, anonymous authorship, the introduction by Shelley?

15. Shelley, his behaviour, his drinking, the note about Harriet’s suicide and the effect on him? His moving away from Mary?

16. Mary, her independence, her father, his organising the gathering for the novel, Shelley announcing the truth, the reconciliation?

17. The information for the aftermath, Shelley’s death, Mary’s longer life and achievement?