Customer Reviews

Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the first book-length examination of the popular Charlie Chan movie mysteries. The author does a commendable job showcasing the great moments (and not so great moments) from the Chan canon, with interesting biographical information about actors Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters, plus frequent first-person recollections by "number one son" Keye Luke. Author Hanke scores points on several counts: he describes and contrasts the Chan of the books to the Chan of the screen; he has good words for the seldom-discussed Monogram productions of the mid-'40s; he bravely defends the always-maligned Roland Winters, the movies' final Chan; he cleverly uses Charlie's pearls of ancient wisdom as one-line synopses of the films under discussion; and best of all for armchair detectives, he describes each movie observantly and intelligently, without giving away the outcome or the culprit . This is a very helpful "episode guide," with dozens of photographs and lobby cards illustrating the text. Fans of the Charlie Chan series should enjoy this book, which can be enjoyed both for light reading and easy reference.

I finally got a copy of this book, and I can't believe how terrific it is. The primary reason for my disbelief are the one-star reviews this volume has received. "Rather mediocre"--? "Not much help"--? Is there ANOTHER edition out there that I don't know about? I read this book cover-to-cover and I can find no fault with Ken Hanke's superlative coverage. I honestly don't see what the detractors are complaining about. Some whine that Hanke doesn't disclose the identity of the killers. I say THANK YOU. These are MYSTERIES after all, and I admire the fact that Hanke respects the reader enough not to spoil the fun. Speaking of fun, that describes Hanke's writing style--along with scholarly and informative. If anyone asks me to recommend a book on the wonderful Charlie Chan series, this is the one I'll direct them to. It's the Great Volume on the Great Detective.

Compare this book to the Charlie Chan Encycopedia by Howard Berlin, and this book wins out. Hanke gives in-depth information on each Charlie Chan film including a complete synopsis of the story, reviews, commentary, and actually includes a photo from each film, something the Berlin book failed to do. Nor does it wander off the subject as did the Berlin book.
The paperback edition is $35. That may still be a little high, but if you're a fan of the Charlie Chan films, this book delivers the goods and is what you want.

Books on movies are so often just a rehashing of collected facts, but CHARLIE CHAN AT THE MOVIES is something else--it's a fun-filled examination and appreciation of the classic mystery series. There's really nothing like it that I've ever read and the inclusion of personal anecdotes by Keye Luke makes it an essential. The way the author manages to incorporate the story of the film into his critique of the film is a model of how this sort of thing ought to be done! It would be hard to rate this book too highly.

Ken Hanke's book was fine when it had the field to himself, but more recent books such as Charles Mitchell's "Guide to Charlie Chan Films" have really surpassed it. Hanke's book was always rather week as a reference title. If one tried to consult it to try to learn who was the killer in any film, you were out of luck since Hanke oddly left that entirely out. Mitchell wisely included this info in a handy appendix, so you can access when you want, but you can also read the story prior to watching a film without ruimmg the surprize. Why couldn't Hanke have come up with a similar solution. Hanke's book is also filled with errors...Keye Luke is credted with playing a dual role in "The Feathered Serpent" for example when he only played one part. The film "Eran Trece" is mistakenly called a Portugese language film, and so on. Both books have their share of typos, but Hanke has too many factual errors too. It may be time to retire Hanke's book in the light of Mitchell's superb book and the new Chan encyclopedia by Howard Berlin.

Having read the bizarre controversy surrounding the "competing" Charlie Chan books out today, I decided to re-read this book, and I have to say that it's clearly the book to have. The author really manages to capture the spirit of the films he's discussing in a way that leaves the other book in the dust. There are some errors--mostly of the typo kind or by reproducing a factual error from an earlier reference, it seems--but the approach, the enthusiasm, and the style more than compensates. Rather than bore the reader with a typical plot synopsis, the author carefully weaves his criticism into the discussion of the storyline, making for a wonderful reading experiemce. This is probably the single best book I have ever read on a movie series and it will probably remain so!

In CHARLIE CHAN AT THE MOVIES, the author writes about the films with such obvious delight and wit that the book is nearly as good as watching the movies that are being written about! (Actually, in the case of some of the later movies, it's more entertaining to read about the movies than it is to watch them.)This is the PERFECT encapsulation of the feeling of the films (the author has a knack for picking just the right dialogue to evoke the movies themselves) and the essential companion to any viewing of these classic films.

Pretenders to the crown of Charlie Chandom may be loose in the land, but Ken Hanke's CHARLIE CHAN AT THE MOVIES is still the classic book on the cinema detective. This is far and away the better written book (the jury is out on the Howard Berlin opus). It is also the better illustrated one (four times the photos). It is also the book that benefits from the first-hand input of Keye Luke--and that is no small thing. But the real difference is that Mitchell is clearly more a fan who has written a book, while Hanke is a writer and actual film scholar, who has turned his attention to this particular subject. He's also very obviously a fan, but is better able to place the Charlie Chan series into a larger overview of movies at the time and their place in film history. The Mitchell book--despite its infuriating alphabetical structure--has its place. A Chan fan is going to want anything that comes out on the topic, but it's much more for the purely fan-minded than for those with a serious interest.

It is puzzling of what help this book is to a fan of Chan films. It is so inconsistent. Sometimes it has a cast list, sometimes it only lists actors names but not the roles they play. If one wanted to find a certain Chan quote, there are only a few scatterd within the text. If one wanted to find in which film all the Chan family appears, there is no way to do so. If one wanted to freshen one's memory about the identity of the killer in any one film, Hanke fails you again. Then there are the errors...Keye Luke is listed as playing a dual role in The Feathered Serpent and this is untrue. It even gets the language wrong of the alternate version of Chan Carries on. In conclusion, there are now much better Chan books out there. Treat yourself to one of them. I like A Guide to Charlie Chan Films which is so much more complete and includes every clever Chan saying. All cast lists are complete. This is a much better book, more useful for Chan readers.

Hanke is a fine author and has done a good job in assembling this celebration of the celluloid Charlie Chan. There is a lot of good information, notably interviews with "Number One Son" actor Keye Luke, and a lot of questions such as "Why did Warner Oland, the first Charlie Chan, leave the role?" that viewers have often wondered, get answered. But one can't help feeling that this fine author was rather let down by his small-time publisher. For one thing, there are quite noticeable typos in several places, indicating a careless editor. There are stretches too where it is plain that a painstaking editor might have rendered less awkward a turn of phrase or streamlined an explanation. A good editor might have noticed that in Charlie Chan at the Olympics the German police detective is called Strasser. But there is also an important character, Major Strasser, in the contemporaneous and now extremely famous film, Casablanca. A good editor would have asked Hanke to look into which Strasser came first, did one influence the other, how similar were the characters, etc.

Keye Luke is quoted at length, but very few others render their opinions. The publisher should have paid the author to visit Warner Oland's relatives in Sweden to get the rest of his story, for example. Very little is said about the last years of actor Sidney Toler and the coverage of the final Chan outings, meager as they are, is little covered. Another area in which an editor might have contributed is regarding the controversial nature of the Chan films. The question of racial stereotyping is addressed by the author, but I felt that it could have been explored in more depth. Probably more of the voices which have both criticized and defended the character over the years should have been consulted and/or quoted. This is true for the depiction of African-American characters in a couple of the films as well. Without this deep exploration, Hanke's defense of the films feels somewhat hollow, giving the reader an uneasy feeling.

But most of all, to really be the celebration that it wants to be, this book should have had more, More, MORE! Compared to other books of this type, there should be more photographs, more sections of dialog and definitely more interviews. There should be a short synopsis of each film for handy reference. There should have been a list of Hanke's own Top 10. Which of the films are out on video and which are not? What is the background of original Chan author Earl Derr Biggers and how did he come to invent the character in the first place? How about some fun features like maybe a map of all Charlie's travels or a family tree? This book, although always informative, winds up being a bit dry and although one can't say for sure, it feels to me like it was because the publisher who was unwilling to spend more money on it.

But all in all, it's going to be a great resource for all of Chan's fans. As the great detective would say, "Thank you so much."