Similar to how they filmed a Spanish-language DRACULA this here, translated as THERE WERE 13, is the Spanish version of CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON made on the same sets but with a different cast and crew. It's also one of the CHAN films that was thought lost until a print popped up. It's interesting to watch since for almost the first whole half there's no Chan at all until a fellow named Manuel Arbo appears as the famous detective for the one and only time. It's also of note being the only Spanish version of a CHAN flick made because they figured out dubbing shortly after this. The English version starring Warner Oland(his first in the role of Chan) doesn't seem to exist anymore thanks to a fire.
The plot deals with a jealous ex-lover getting revenge. Pretty typical stuff for this genre.
The 7th CHAN film starring Warner Oland. There would be over 30 to follow featuring a couple of different folks taking over the role. This one involves a knife-throwing trigger-happy killer who's trying to cover up for a bank that's selling fake bonds. If you've seen any of the films in this series you pretty much know exactly what to expect. This chapter is historically important as being the one to introduce Chan's #1 son(Keye Luke and actual Asian!) who would go on to be a regular.
This was considered a lost film until one remaining print of it was found in the 70s. There are still 4 other CHAN films that are missing.
In this Charlie Chan flick(#26 out of a whopping 47!) Mr. Chan(played by non-Asian actor Sidney Toler) along with his #1 son(played by actual Chinese man Victor Sen Yung) break up a spy ring intent on blowing up a ship and blocking a naval fleet heading through The Panama Canal. Lionel Atwill, from a bunch of classic horror films, also appears but doesn't stick around too long. A few mysterious murders take place and, as is familiar to anyone who's seen a couple of these old Chan flicks knows, things get resolved fairly predictably, however, in good mystery fashion, you may not be able to guess the main culprit in this one very easily.
This one was directed by a friend of mine's grandad, Norman Foster, and it was his last Chan movie before moving on to more obscure stuff and eventually television work. He borrowed the plot for this from a 1934 Spencer Tracy film titled MARIE GALANTE which I have not seen and I assume it might be too classy for my taste.
The big-ass list of classic Chan films starring Sidney Toler!:
1. CHARLIE CHAN IN HONOLULU (1938)
2. CHARLIE CHAN IN RENO (1939)
3. CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND (1939)
4. CITY IN DARKNESS (1939)
5. CHARLIE CHAN IN PANAMA (1940)
6. CHARLIE CHAN'S MURDER CRUISE (1940)
7. CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940)
8. MURDER OVER NEW YORK (1940)
9. DEAD MEN TELL (1941)
10. CHARLIE CHAN IN RIO (1941)
11. CASTLE IN THE DESERT (1942)
12. CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE (1944)
13. CHARLIE CHAN IN THE CHINESE CAT (1944)
14. BLACK MAGIC (1944)
15. THE JADE MASK (1945)
16. THE SCARLET CLUE (1945)
17. THE SHANGHAI COBRA (1945)
18. THE RED DRAGON (1945)
19. DARK ALIBI (1946)
20. SHADOWS OVER CHINATOWN (1946)
21. DANGEROUS MONEY (1946)
22. THE TRAP (1946)
Charlie Chan(Sidney Toler) ends up on a ship with someone pretending to be the ghost of a peg-legged, hooked-handed pirate. This fellow whacks a couple of people and Charlie's on the case. Also his #2 son(played by an actual Asian!) falls into the water a lot like a dumbass. This Chan flick, the 28th one in the series, has some horror elements with it's atmosphere to balance out the silly comedy bits. Everyone ends up being a suspect including 'Superman' George Reeves. Not the best or worst of the Chan flicks but a pretty typical one and as a bonus it has a nice short running time. AKA CHARLIE CHAN IN DEAD MEN TELL
Not to be confused with that crazy-ass Shaw Brothers movie, this BLACK MAGIC is actually the 33rd Charlie Chan movie(there were still 14 more to go) and features one of my favorite actors, the great Mantan Moreland(from SPIDER BABY and a bunch more of these Chan films) as the nervous butler character Birmingham Brown. The plot concerns a phony seance where this dude gets shot. You get a skeleton on a wire, a bullet made out of frozen blood, a lady walking right off a building to her death and Mantan doing his eye-poppin' comedic best! AKA MEETING AT MIDNIGHT and CHARLIE CHAN IN BLACK MAGIC
This is the 7th Charlie Chan movie starring Sidney Toler. There were already 17 before that starring Warner Oland and all the ones I've ever seen are pretty similar. They used to play these in the 2am time-slot, in between biker movies, monster flicks and The Bowery Boys, on the local New York channel back in the 80s when TV didn't suck yet and I caught quite a few, although telling them apart is sometimes very difficult. This one uses a wax museum setting which I assume was kinda popular with the couple of 30s "Wax Museum" movies that came out before this and a crazy guy who runs said museum(isn't that always the case?). There's also some gangsters a little gunplay(and blowdart-play) and a guy who wears bandages on his head like The Invisible Man.
Nowadays I'm guessing many people hate these films for having a white-man play the role of an Asian detective but then again many people nowadays vehemently hate everything that doesn't align perfectly with their particular world-view, so who cares? I always found it strange that they did have an actual Asian fella playing Charlie's #1 son Jimmy Chan which to me made ol' Charlie stand out even more as not being authentically Chinese but they cranked out so many of these things that I'd say nobody back then gave a crap either way.
These are great movies to put on late at night if you want something light, comedic and instantly forgettable to fall asleep to and also they are usually only about an hour long which is a good thing.
