CHARLIE CHAN WARNER OLAND SET #2

A collection of 4 Charlie Chan movies! All of
these are starring Sidney Toler!! These
are on 4 discs, all in separate containers!!
And all of them have been restored, with
closed captioning!!

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS(1936):

Chan is invited to the circus, given free passes to
him and his family!! The owner has been getting
threats, and would like Charlie's advice!! His name is
Kennie, and he is not a very likable dude!! This is
the first showing of Charlie's entire family, tho'
you can see them all in a picture in a previous
movie(Charlie Chan In Honolulu!!)!! A

SPECIALS ON DISC:

Charlie Chan At The Movies Featurette:
With the input of Rush Glick(Film Historian), Courtney
Joyner(Film Historian/Screenwriter), Scott McIsaac(Film
Historian), Jordana Gainsworth(Daughter Of H. Bruce
Humberstone), Sara Karloff(Daughter Of Boris Karloff!)
they all discuss the four movies in this set!! Very fun!! A

Restoration Comparison

Charlie Chan At The Circus Trailer

A review from IMDb.com:

Rousing entry in the Charlie Chan series is one
of the best. Charlie (Warner Oland) takes his sizable
family to the circus at the invitation of one of the
circus owners, who has been receiving threatening
letters and wants Charlie to investigate. When
the owner is murdered, all clues point to an
escaped gorilla the man was abusive to. But
Charlie's not so sure and gets to work investigating
the murder, with help from "Number One Son"
Lee (Keye Luke).

It's great to see Charlie's wife and all of the
Chan kids. They're so adorable. Keye Luke is
charming as ever, especially when he flirts
with a contortionist. The circus performers
are fun to watch. The two midgets, George
and Olive Brasno, receive prominent billing
right after Keye Luke. I assume they were
well-known at the time. They're both good
actors and I liked their dance number. J.
Carrol Naish also appears and is enjoyable
to watch, as always.

This is a very entertaining movie. Fast pace,
interesting setting, and nice doses of humor
make it a real treat. Probably my second
favorite in the whole series. Oh, and pay
attention to the scene where the characters
Blake and Kinney fight. Blake punches like
a girl! It's hilarious! This one's also got a guy
in a gorilla suit, which is always a win. - utgard14

A friend of Charlie's that races horses is killed,
supposedly by one of his horses!! Charlie doesn't
believe it, and decides to investigate the whole
matter himself!! The investigation quickly changes
venues to the open seas, with Charlie and Number
one son aboard!! And finally the scene changes to
the race track, where everything comes together!!

This has a very interesting explanation of the way
that the racing photo work, very interesting indeed!! A

SPECIALS ON DISC:

Number One Son: The Life Of Keye Luke:
With the input of Vikki Luke(Grand Niece Of Key Luke),
Scott McIsaac(Film Historian), Ken Hanke(Author,
"Charlie Chan At the Movies"), Rush Glick(Film
Historian), they all discuss Keye Luke and how he
progressed from an artist to an actor!! Very fun!! A

Restoration Comparison

Charlie Chan At The Circus Trailer

A review from IMDb.com:

Charlie Chan gets involved in this case when a
good friend is killed. He moves into the horse
racing world. In so doing, he becomes the target
of a crime syndicate that is involved in illegal
betting. Avalanche, the horse that is the favorite,
acts erratically. All sorts of shenanigans take
place on board the steamship bring the horses
to Los Angeles. There are a number of possible
suspects and this offering makes it hard for
the viewer to figure things out. The one thing
that is hard to swallow is that the two favorites
are disguised and switched. I would be that
anyone close to a race horse could tell merely
from its gait that it is a particular horse. This
stretches things quite a bit. Unfortunately, we
once again have a black man acting in the
stereotypical Stepin Fetchitt mode. His name
is Streamline and he has a monkey. While
the monkey is important to the plot, this
man is made to look subservient and
foolish. - Hitchcoc

Boris Karloff, how can this be anything but great?!!
First things first, no, that's not Boris Karloff's voice
singing the opera pieces!!!!! Karloff plays an opera
singer who's lost his memory and is in an asylum!!
But when he sees a newspaper that talks of a woman
returning to the city to do an opera, he goes nuts
and breaks out of the asylum!! Chan is called in to
solve the mystery!!

This also has William Demerest(My Three Sons) in
it as a very bigoted cop!!

The only real drawback to this is the opera part!!
I'm really not a fan!!!! A

SPECIALS ON DISC:

Charlie Chan's Lucky Director:: H. Bruce Humberstone:
With the input of Scott McIsaac(Film Historian), Rush Glick(Film
Historian), Eve Brent(Actress, "Jane"), Jordana Gainsworth
(Daughter Of H. Bruce Humberstone) John M. Sheffield(Actor),
Ken Hanke(Author, "Charlie Chan At The Movies") as they
all discuss the director of these Charlie Chan movies!!
BOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!! C

Restoration Comparison!

A review from IMDb.com:

Given that Boris Karloff is one of my favorite
actors, it's no surprise this is my favorite Charlie
Chan movie. Now, of course since Karloff is here,
we have to start the movie with an atmosphere
akin to that of a horror film. Karloff plays an
amnesiac opera singer named Gravelle. He
regains his memory and escapes from a sanitarium
on a stormy night to go find his daughter, whom
he hasn't seen since she was a child. The police
are desperate to catch Gravelle, so they call in
Charlie Chan (Warner Oland).

Oland is pitch-perfect as always. Keye Luke as
"Number One Son" Lee gets to have lots of fun
running around in costume backstage at the
opera, trying to help his father on the case.
William Demarest plays a police sergeant
jealous of Charlie who makes several bigoted
remarks throughout the movie but comes
to respect the superior detective by the end.
Boris Karloff gives a terrific performance,
which should come as a surprise to no one
familiar with his work. He's the only actor
in the entire series to be able to match Warner
Oland's screen presence.

Fast pace, interesting setting, great performances,
and a particularly nice atmosphere make this an
exceptional entry in the always delightful Charlie
Chan series. I'm not big on opera but the music
written by Oscar Levant for this film is pretty good
and adds to an overall excellent production. As
I said before, this is my favorite Charlie Chan film
and I see by many reviews here I'm not alone. It's
definitely a highlight of the series, with a top-notch
guest star (Karloff) and an exciting story, helped
greatly by the opera backdrop and music. - utgard14

This starts out slowly, but then gets into the meat
of the movie!! The gist of the movie is that there's
an invention which has to do with a remote
controller for airplanes! It gets stolen, and it is
heading to Berlin, where Charlies son is going to
compete in the Olympics as a swimmer!! So
Charlie is headed there too, of course!! A-

SPECIALS ON DISC:

Layne Tom, Jr.: The Adventures Of Charlie Chan, Jr.:
With the input of Lyane Tom(Actor, "Charlie Chan, Jr.",
"Charlie Chan At The Olympics", "Charlie Chan In Honolulu",
"Charlie Chan's Murder Cruise")!! He discusses his
experiences both on and off the camera!! Good
watch!! A

Restoration Comparison!

A review from IMDb.com:

Every four years comes the Olympic Games
which is when the leading capitalist corporate
brands and countries strive for world supremacy,
and the hyped-up media urges the public to
admire athletic junkies beating the clean and
honest. I wonder if the trillions of dollars spent
on it could be better used to try to feed the
hungry and cure the diseased? Give me a
three-legged race at a junior school any day!

Charlie has no such hang-ups about going to
Nazi Germany. He wants to go on fish-hunt
but ends up on man-hunt instead as secret
government McGuffin that enables war planes
fly by remote control is stolen. The trail and
chase to recover it leads from Honolulu to
San Francisco to New York and Berlin – with
swift global communications it was such a
small world after all! At first he's helped by
little Cheeky Chan, but when he gets to
Berlin no.2 son Lee takes over who is
participating at the Games as a swimmer.
The likely suspect is the dame in the white
fox fur but it turns out more complicated
involving gangs of spies and a maze of
sinister characters, and all in Berlin too.
It's intrigue at warp speed, hardly a second
is wasted. Favourite bits: the footage of
the Hindenburg (and its unperturbed
passengers) beating the ocean liner's
passengers to Germany; Charlie's touching
faltering concern for the kidnapped Lee;
the denouement; Lee continually trying
to spout killer aphorisms like his Pop - or
something like that!

Overall imho a good entry in the series
with a slightly different format to those
preceding, and I'd rather watch this than
the real Olympics - no contest. - Gary170459

COMPLETE LIST OF DVDs
LIST OF MOVIE DVDs
LIST OF ANIME/ANIMATION DVDs
LIST OF BOND DVDs
LIST OF DISNEY DVDs
LIST OF ELVIS DVDs
LIST OF MUSIC DVDs
LIST OF STAR TREK/STAR WARS DVDs
LIST OF SUPERHERO DVDs
LIST OF TELEVISION DVDs

TO PHOTO PAGES OF MOVIES:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J-K
L
M
N
O
P-Q
R
S
T
U-V
W
X-Z

ANIME/ANIMATION
ANIME SUPERHERO
BOND
DISNEY
ELVIS
HOLIDAY
MUSIC
MUSICALS
OTHER
SERIALS
SETS #-M
SETS N-Z
STAR TREK/STAR WARS
SUPERHERO
TELEVISION A-B
TELEVISION C-D
TELEVISION E-F
TELEVISION G-H
TELEVISION I-K
TELEVISION L
TELEVISION M
TELEVISION N-O
TELEVISION P-Q
TELEVISION R
TELEVISION Gene Roddenberry
TELEVISION S
TELEVISION T
TELEVISION U-W
TELEVISION X-Z
TELEVISION STAR TREK/STAR WARS
TELEVISION SUPERHERO

There is no music for any of these movies!