Three of the four movies here are with Warner Oland, with the final one being the first one starring Roland Winters, and as a bonus has Eren Trece, which is the Spanish version of Charlie Chan Carries On. I don't speak Spanish, but it is sub-titled. I'm not a fan of having to read a movie rather than watch it, which is the case here. Still and all, this is an ok movie, however Chan is not seen or heard of until quite late in the movie! As for the other four, the first one is the first one that still exists with Oland(the actual first movie with him in it was Charlie Chan Carries On, of which there doesn't appear to be any existing copies of) sees the sister of a man who's been convicted of murder approaching Chan to help her prove her brother's innocent! I gave this an A. The next movie, Charlie Chan In Paris, has Charlie going to Paris to meet up with a dancer, and things don't go really well here! Another A for Warner! Then we have Charlie Chan In Egypt, in which Charlie is on the hunt for a missing archaeologist which has many twists and turns. This one would have also garnered an A, except there's a character, Snowshoes, that is quite annoying, and honestly, a real insult to the black community! I gave this a B. The last movie, starring Warner Oland, is Charlie Chan In Shanghai, which is about a friend of Charlie's that says he has important information, but before Charlie can find out what, his friend is killed and Charlie himself finds himself a target. This is again quite entertaining! All-in-all, very worth the purchase price! The only issue with this release is that they stacked the disks on one spindle which is the worst way to pack a DVD set! RP

Bottom Line First: Charlie Chan, Vol 1 brings together 4 early Charlie Chan, Warner Orland movies and a re-make of a fifth in Spanish, with a Spanish caste. All filmed in the first half of the 1930's and all decidedly from the B grade part of the old Fox film lot. Never mind the B Grade. Recommendation: this is classic rainy day, family night black and white detective movie entertainment. I am a Warner Orland fan and believe this collection will charm and entertain you and yours for many showings.

Someone seemed to think that every disk needed to contain the same trailer for Charlie Chan in London. That person may want to re consider.

The rest of the 4 short Charlie Chan documentaries were interesting. The first seemed like little more than a pep talk to end the modern day worries about Chan as a stereotype Movie China-man. To some degree his character may have been but a little insight. In one of these movies, the respected international detective is confronted by an obviously out of line Englishman who uses exaggerated piddgin English. The very polite Chan, replies in what the documentary tells us is the deliberate speech of a person carefully translating his words from one language to another. OOn the other hand, Charlie Chan in Egypt gives us Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, AKA Stepin Fetchit (Snowshoes in the movie). I can respect the man for having played white prejudice into regular money making work. I have problems with how degraded was the on screen character's shtick.

The last of the four documentaries was my favorite. I had known that there had been a real Chinese Lawman in the Hawaii PD, Charlie Apana. He was a roughneck officer who carried a bullwhip, of his own making and who did speak pidgin English. He was also respected. In other words he may have been an inspiration for the writer Earl Biggers to create the Chan books, but the living man was not at all like the fictional one.

I had not expected to like Eran Trace, the 1931 re make of Charlie Chan Carries on, but for a change having to follow subtitles did not leave me feeling impatient. I missed Orland, but the flow of the story kept me watching.

This leads me to my final point. Chan rarely solves the mysteries by some kind of impossible concentration of mental powers. He is more inclined to let the murders over extend themselves. This makes some of the resolution happen fast, (the movies rarely run more than 80 minutes) and avoid the classic cheating of hidden clues and last minutes reveals.

The B movie was intended to be fairly direct. For all of his manners and self "“ depreciation the Orland/Fox Charlie Chan movies happen fast enough that they cannot drag.

These are the best of the series, loved them growing up.

Loosely basing the character the legendary police officer Chang Apana (1887-1933), author Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) wrote the first Charlie Chan novel in 1925. His novels, six in all, were immensely popular--and Hollywood soon bought the rights. At least two silent films, which do not survive made; a third film, BEYOND THAT CURTAIN, reduced the character of Chan to a minor role. In 1931, however, Fox studios hit the right mixture of mystery and comedy with CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON, and the result was an immensely popular series of forty-five films made over the course of two decades. These films were staples of afternoon and late night television well into the 1970s, but as time passed pressure groups that considered them politically incorrect forced them from public view.

Even so, the Chan films commanded a large cult following, and the films gradually became widely available in various bootleg editions--so popular, in fact, that 20th Century Fox eventually saw the commercial possibilities. THE CHARLIE CHAN COLLECTION VOLUME 1 is the result, and although it can be faulted in several ways, it is pretty much what Chan fans have dreamed of for the past decade.

The single greatest fault of the collection is its failure to include THE BLACK CAMEL, the earliest surviving Chan film to star Warner Oland, and one of the few Chan films directly based on an Earl Derr Biggers novel. Although the films have been digitally remastered, and they are easily the best prints to come along in many, many years, the remaster is not "full;" it merely smooths away the worst of the scratches and artifacts. And although the bonuses included are excellent, they are very scant.

Even so, this is Charlie Chan, and he hasn't looked this good in close to five decades. All four films star Warner Oland--and some viewers may be surprised to find that Chan films were a breeding ground for talent, for a number of future stars cut their teeth in Chan films. IN LONDON (1934) finds Chan investigating a murder among the horsey set--and co-stars a very young Ray Milland. IN PARIS (1935; long thought to be a lost film in the series) concerns a bank scandal--and introduces Keye Luke as Chan's "Number One Son." IN EGYPT (1935) finds Chan investing a series of murders amidst archeological digs--and features both a very young Rita Hayworth and the notorious Stepin Fetchit. IN SHANGHAI (1935) finds Chan doing battle with smugglers--and returns Keye Luke to the mix. The scripts are witty, the plots are flyweight but entertaining, and the casts always give a good performance.

Critics of the series complain that white actors played Chinese in "yellowface" make-up; that Chan speaks in pidgen English; that he is a stereotypical "stupid Chinaman" and that he is the butt of racial jokes. These complaints, however, really have little basis in the films themselves. Although he was European, Warner Oland had an Asian heritage and used very little make up for the role--and all supporting Asian characters were played by Asian actors, with Keye Luke a case in point. Chan does not speak pidgen English; in both novels and films he speaks English as a second language and, quite naturally occasionally struggles with it. Although he occasionally adopts the poise of a "stupid Chinaman," he does so to mislead the suspects around him, and when a character repeatedly makes Chan the butt of racial jokes you can be pretty sure he will turn out to be the killer.

Hollywood films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s had a very clear tendency to adopt a "Fu Manchu" mentality: although there was an occasionally sympathetic portrayal, most Chinese characters were either servile or evil. Chan, however, interacts with the "white world" as an equal--and outsmarts them at the end. As such, the films were remarkably advanced for their time and were in fact immensely popular with Asian-American audiences of the day.

All of this said, it is quite true that Charlie Chan films are very innocent in their outlook--but it is this innocence that gives them their charm. Love them or hate them, they are period peices that reflect the niave failings of their day, but which do so without malice and often with considerably appeal. In addition to a trailer for CHARLIE CHAN IN LONDON and three short but interesting "featurettes," the set includes ERAN TRECE, the Hollywood-produced Spanish language version of the lost 1931 Charlie Chan Carries On, available here in a reasonable print for the first time. Recommended for Chan fans everywhere.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I definitely liked the movies. Charlie Chan is enjoyable, and the supporting characters are interesting and well played. In the current world of three-hour features, movies of one hour and fifteen minutes make for a nice change of pace, and my mother who hates long movies enjoyed them. I was glad to have the Spanish-language movie included since it's the only one of the five based on an actual story by the books' author. Oland obviously loves the character and takes the role very seriously indeed.

But I've got to take off a star for value. The features are interesting and informative, but all utilize clips from these 4 films only (in addition to talking heads, locations, etc.) and all have the same commentators--this makes them seem more like commercials for the set instead of real documentaries. I probably wouldn't have gotten that impression if they'd just made an hour-long feature by combining them. To repeat--they are GREAT features, but breaking them up made no sense. This should be a three disc set for less money: one movie plus all the documentaries combined; 2 movies; last movie plus the Spanish-language movie. Sure, four cases mean all four posters for covers--but this is a selling point for the most serious of Chan collectors only. I'm happy that I bought this set--I'll rewatch these movies for sure--but be warned Fox: I'll buy no future sets unless there's more material on each disc and the price comes down a bit.

Check you p.c. sensibilities at the door (I did), and enjoy some old fashioned mysteries from the '30s.

I suggest watching the extras together as one feature before watching any of the films--they provide wonderful context. I like the fact that Chan faced some racism in each film, but more people knew of him and respected him--Chan's the hero, which is refreshing, but racism isn't glossed over either. Stepin Fetchit in Egypt is an unfortuanate stereotype of a southern African American of the time--but it made me want to find out more about the man himself and his career. The films are great for history buffs. Egypt is the worst print, some missing frames and other problems--but I loved the sets, and I loved the stock footage of the Egyptian sights at that time.

The mysteries aren't too bad, the films give a very interesting glimpse into the 1930s, and Charlie Chan is definitely a hero of Asian descent--great stuff, interesting, enjoyable, entertaining. They don't make stuff like this anymore--that's a good thing, enjoy the nostalgia.

This is the first time that I've ever seen a Charlie Chan film, and I'm eagerly awaiting future releases.