Earl Derr Biggers wrote about a real Honolulu detective and created the most famous Oriental sleuth in cinema. The Charlie Chan Franchise had three incarnations: Warner Oland, Sidney Toler and briefly, Roland Winters, all caucasion actors. Oriental actors who made a name for themselves (Anna May Wong, Sessue Hayakawa) were relegated to secondary roles as servants or cliched Asian villians. The laws of California in the 1930's made it impossible for anyone of Asian descent to really succeed--particularly in Hollywood. If a a caucasion married an Oriental, they lost their citizenship. During WWII, Japanese/Americans were shamefully placed in concentration camps, so it is little wonder that the famous Chinese detective was played by other actors.

Oland who hailed from Sweden, when made up, appeared Oriental. He made his fame as fortune portraying Chan (although he had played Asians in prior movies). 20th Century Fox started the Charlie Chan love affair at the movies. The first "Carry On" is unfortunately lost and only a Spanish version remains starring Latino actors. Fox reportedly spent $2,000,000 to restore 8 of these films for a two box set edition (4 films per set).

Both sets are thematic. Volume I is places, and 2 is events. Vol. I. finds Chan in such famous locations as London, Paris, Egypt and Shanghi. Chan in London follows over to him going to Paris to solve the mystery of frauduant bonds purchased by Londoners. "CC In Paris" introduces #1 son Keye Luke for the first time in a rather small role. The scenes between Oland and Luke are always funny. Charlie then goes to "Egypt" where he finds the mummified corpse of an anthropologist. This movie boast an early role by Rita Cansino as an Egyptian servant, who went on to fame as "Rita Hayworth". This movie also features some supernatural elements (a curse on the descretors of the tomb). This is the most interest of the 4 discs in this set. "CC in Shanghai" takes him home to his honorable ancestors when a friend and colleague is shot. This film features Luke more prominently and he was always an asset to the series.

Vol II places Chan in different venues. "At The Circus" shows Chan and his very large family for the first time on screen. It was never repeated until Sidney Toler took over the role in his first outing "Charlie Chan In Honolulu". "CC At The Races" is fair, and "At the Olympics" is the most interesting as the games were held in Nazi occupied Germany. "At The Opera" features screen great Boris Karloff. Volume II is the best of the two box sets starring Oland who passed away in 1938 from complications due to alcohol. He was set to make another movie but it was made into a "Mr. Moto" film but kept Keye Luke in the movie.

Toland of Scottish descent, then took over the role and the pre WWII movies which are unavailable (as are some of the Oland films due to copyright lapse) are the better outings beginning with difficult to find "In Honolulu" where Chan is awaiting the birth of his first grandchild. All of the pre-war films are difficult to find unless you are willing to settle for a homemade and very poor DVD-R copy.

With the onset of the US joining the war, Fox dropped the series. Monogram (a low budget studio) picked up the Chan Franchise successfully. However, the war changed the feelings of Americans toward Orientals. All of the films Toler made during this period featured him working directly for the government and six of the films (and not the best) have been put together as CHANTHOLOGY. The films are cautionary and deal with spies, espionage and governnent weapons with the exception of THE CHINESE CAT and MEETING AT MIDNIGHT. These are the best of the 6 in the set. "Cat" has Chan reopening an unsolved murder that leads to diamond smuggling and "Midnight" deals with his daughter who is at a seance when the medium is murdered.  This movie has some nice little supernatural twists and both are more reminiscent of a "better time". Each film features Mantan Moreland as Chan's sidekick. Unfortunately the African American in movies during this time fell into stereotype, and Moreland and #3 son, Benson Fong provide the comic relief needed for these, at times, ponderous movies.

With Toler's death, Roland Winters took over the role briefly until 1949. None of these movies are available at present on disc.

Now that 3 very visible DVD box sets are available, they have drawn many diehard fans and a new generation to this famous sleuth. It is hopeful that some of the "lost" episodes of this series will also see the light of day on commerical DVD form.

The transfers on all 3 box sets are very good considering this was a "B" series. CHANTOLOGY is issued by MGM and all 6 movies are available separately. The only complaint with these sets, despite the excellent picture quality, the sound is too low and tends to deviate up and down. Apartment dwellers beware of this when you crank up your surround sound system. These expensive sets could become a lease breaker. They all start out loudly in 5.1 Dolby Digital when the "lion roars" or the "trumpets herald (Fox)" then the sound drops to 2.channel Dolby mono. Watch your volume control!

It's good to have part of this great series back again. Let's hope it is just the beginning and not the end of the reissues.