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Post by heeeeey on Jan 10, 2019 22:05:43 GMT
I like the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland. I don't enjoy the Toler ones at all, even though he's the original Chan.
I also think his #2 son is more entertaining than the #1 son.
Any fans here?
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Post by teleadm on Jan 11, 2019 17:49:22 GMT
Difficult to say since I've only seen the ones with Warner Oland.
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Post by taylorfirst1 on Jan 11, 2019 20:16:03 GMT
It's been so many years since I've seen a charlie Chan movie, I really can't say.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jan 12, 2019 15:48:00 GMT
I like the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland. I don't enjoy the Toler ones at all, even though he's the original Chan.
I also think his #2 son is more entertaining than the #1 son.
Any fans here?
It was actually Oland who was the original Chan in the Fox series (the first ever Chan was the Japanese actor George Kuwa). While I’m a huge fan of Oland, and his warmth and kindness in the role, I have to say I prefer Toler—admittedly, perhaps, because his movies were the first Chans I saw. He’s more astringent and witty than Oland, qualities I think mesh well with Number 2 Son Sen Yung (“Jimmy”), just as Oland was well paired with No. 1 Son Keye Luke (“Lee”). In the end it’s probably just which version you saw first. What are your favorite entries in the series? My top three at Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (a Toler), Charlie Chan in Egypt (an Oland), and either Charlie Chan at the Opera or Charlie Chan in Paris (both Olands). |
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Post by heeeeey on Jan 12, 2019 17:19:52 GMT
I like the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland. I don't enjoy the Toler ones at all, even though he's the original Chan.
I also think his #2 son is more entertaining than the #1 son.
Any fans here?
It was actually Oland who was the original Chan in the Fox series (the first ever Chan was the Japanese actor George Kuwa). While I’m a huge fan of Oland, and his warmth and kindness in the role, I have to say I prefer Toler—admittedly, perhaps, because his movies were the first Chans I saw. He’s more astringent and witty than Oland, qualities I think mesh well with Number 2 Son Sen Yung (“Jimmy”), just as Oland was well paired with No. 1 Son Keye Luke (“Lee”). In the end it’s probably just which version you saw first. What are your favorite entries in the series? My top three at Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (a Toler), Charlie Chan in Egypt (an Oland), and either Charlie Chan at the Opera or Charlie Chan in Paris (both Olands). I like The Black Camel, even though it's one of the few without his sons. The sidekick was a Japanese actor. A very young Robert Young is in it. |
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Post by Nalkarj on Jan 12, 2019 17:46:09 GMT
I liked Oland’s acting chemistry with Lugosi in that one, heeeeey. One of the few actually based on Biggers’ books (which I’ve never read, for better or worse). |
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Post by koskiewicz on Jan 13, 2019 16:57:58 GMT
Warner Oland is my favorite, though I've seen more Toler/Chan films.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Jan 13, 2019 17:00:10 GMT
Still sporadically watching the entire series in chronological order and I have never seen Sidney Toler in the role yet, but one day I will. Warner Oland I guess, by default.
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Post by telegonus on Jan 15, 2019 9:40:35 GMT
I like the Charlie Chan movies with Warner Oland. I don't enjoy the Toler ones at all, even though he's the original Chan.
I also think his #2 son is more entertaining than the #1 son.
Any fans here?
It was actually Oland who was the original Chan in the Fox series (the first ever Chan was the Japanese actor George Kuwa). While I’m a huge fan of Oland, and his warmth and kindness in the role, I have to say I prefer Toler—admittedly, perhaps, because his movies were the first Chans I saw. He’s more astringent and witty than Oland, qualities I think mesh well with Number 2 Son Sen Yung (“Jimmy”), just as Oland was well paired with No. 1 Son Keye Luke (“Lee”). In the end it’s probably just which version you saw first. What are your favorite entries in the series? My top three at Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (a Toler), Charlie Chan in Egypt (an Oland), and either Charlie Chan at the Opera or Charlie Chan in Paris (both Olands).
Total agreement, Salzmank. 
I've posted nearly the same thoughts and sentiments on other boards over the years. This topic has come up so many times, on various movie sites, including one in particular that I remember focused on the Chan pictures themselves, and very good one it was (I'm not sure if it's still "up", as sometimes older sites changes formats and admins, so it may be still out there on the Web).
To carry the Oland_Toler comparisons further,--and I don't see this as a contest or competition of some kind--I find Oland to to have a way warmer vibe than Toler, whose astringency, as you noted, has its virtues, as his Chan comes across as a somewhat flawed and even edgy character at times; yet these are human traits, too, if not warm and fuzzy ones.
As to the sons, #1, Lee, is quiet and more introspective, and in his dignified aspects very much his father's son; while #2 Jimmy is more outgoing than Lee; also more rambunctious and; a bit of a cut-up, which is to say a bungler, yet with brains and competence on his side as well. Just as the Oland Chan almost had to have a son like Lee , it seems also only fitting that Toler's Chan Jimmy would be the more eager beaver and easy to please Jimmy: the All-American boy-man, with his jazzy lingo.
To wrap this up here, I find Oland's "old soul" Chan more likable than the more sharply written and worldly Toler. Also, Oland's Lee feels like a deeper son for Mr. Oland than Jimmy could have been. Yet these two very different Charlie Chan actors each headlined a very different group of films. Oland's Chans are or often feel like early talkie. They move slower than the later and the faster paced Toler Chan entries, which really bring Chan into the modern world. Toler' Chans are more florid pieces than the darker, earlier Oland pictures.
Big upside for the Toler entries: they present a more modern looking and feeling world than the relatively stately Oland pictures; their stories are more intricately plotted; and they play in more exotic settings. Also, the casts, different for each film (as always) of the Tolers, seem better matched to the films in which they appear. They feature the reddest red herrings of the entire Chan series. Also the acting of even secondary supporting players in these 1938-42 pictures is better than I've seen in this group of movies.
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