TCM Spotlight: Charlie Chan Collection (Dark Alibi / Dangerous Money / The Trap / The Chinese Ring)

Before I begin, I should state that this is a pre-release review - which,at the time of typing, I suspect also applies to all the other reviews currently attributed to this release on here. With this in mind, I can't pass comment on the quality of the print transfer or whether or not there is Closed Captioning. However, with regards to the films themselves, I've seen two of the titles released in this collection, these being Dark Alibi and The Trap. The latter movie is simply woeful and not even a decent entry in the Monogram series from which all the movies on here derive - this was Toler's swansong playing Chan and, at the time, he was gravely ill with little time remaining - naturally this has an adverse effect on his performance. Dark Alibi, is, however, an entertaining yarn and ranks right up there with any title released on the other Monogram DVD collection i.e 'The Chanthology'. I've only ever seen one Roland Winters Chan movie and that was 'The Goldeneye' (not on this set) - it'll be interesting to reacquaint myself with his portrayal of the character by watching his first performance in 'The Chinese Ring' which is the last title included within this release. Its interesting to note that, with this set, there are still 7 Chan movies still awaiting release on DVD - 5 Roland Winters titles and 2 Sidney Toler - will these ever see the light of day, well, we can only hope....5 star rating given simply because I love these films, even the bad ones (and The Trap is pretty bad) - I'll update once I'm in actual receipt of the product and will then pass comment on print quality and the like.

UPDATE: - I'm now in receipt of this set - print wise, the quality of the films is pretty good, 'The Chinese Ring' is the best (although there are a few brief scenes where remastering has been noticeably neglected). On the flip side, 'The Trap' displays signs of actual print damage. I have a question regarding 'The Trap' that I'd really liked answered - 37 seconds into this film, just as the titles are rolling in front of a backdrop of a beach, something jumps out from the bottom right of the screen for literally a split second. I've paused my DVD and played in slow motion but to no avail! The more I look at this the more alien like it seems! Would someone please confirm what on earth this is - I'm guessing this is a blooper as there seems to be little logic behind its appearance! That aside, each of these movies are just over an hour in length - sadly, these films are light years behind the Twentieth Century Fox films and therefore I'd recommend these titles to die hard Chan fans only. If you're new to the series therefore, please do not judge the series on the offerings of this set. Roland Winters provides a different slant on the character, but frankly, to me, he lacks any believability in the role - his interpretation of Chan is more akin to Peter Sellers' portrayal of Inspector Clouseau - considering Chan is not a comedic character, this is not a compliment. There are no extras whatsoever and with 4 discs in a fold out cardboard case, one would be forgiven for thinking this is rather an expensive set for what you get. However, I still want to see the last 7 titles on an official DVD release and prey that these are released in one set as opposed to the likely two. Maybe the next set could have 4 discs with two films on 3 discs and 1 disc with just the one movie AND some extras. I still rate this 5 stars as I consider the print quality to be better than expected and the presentation case is fairly good too.

Warner is stepping up to the plate, giving us Chan fans a great set with four of the Monogram Studio Chan films never released on DVD. Yes DVD not DVD-R!

The films in this collection are:

Dark Alibi (1946)
Dangerous Money (1946)
The Trap (1946)
The Chinese Ring (1947) (THIS MOVIE STARS ROLAND WINTERS AS CHAN)

Needless to say, I'm DARNED EXCITED! Personally, I think it is a miracle that Warner is getting this set out. 2010 was a big dissapointment overall for classic movie releases. So this is a good thing. In the words of Charle Chan....thank you...so much.

This is Great......about Time...what about Tolers last 2 - Shadows over Chinatown and The Red Dragon.....they are the only ones left not on DVD