The Chinese Ring

Okay entry for Winters in his debut as Chan, following Sidney Toler's death. Plot is almost line-for-line copy of MR WONG IN CHINATOWN. Byron Foulger nearly steals show as nervous banker, and Louise Currie is gorgeous, but material and pedestrian direction sink production. Watchable, but the nap monster will probably get you.

As Charlie Chan, Roland Winters seems to be struggling to get a handle on the character. His delivery of the Pidgin English seems really forced, even more so when most the Chinese actors in the movie speak English fluently.

As others on here have said, this movie is basically a cookie cutter version of "Mr. Wong in Chinatown", a better movie, in my opinion. All in all it's an OK Charlie Chan movie. It doesn't compare well with some of the early Chan movies.....but it's still Charlie Chan and therefore definitely worth watching.

As Chans go, not the best, but the story itself is fine. Roland Winters is a perfectly good Chan - the role was defined by the time this episode in the series was made, so he basically just had to show up and recite the lines to get the job done. Although Victor Sen Young shows up as Tommy, he plays a very small part in the film - a good thing in my opinion. Birmingham Brown is present as comic relief, but doesn't shine in this one. Sargent Bill Davidson and plucky girl reporter Peggy Cartwright play the clichéd role of battling couple with unfortunate results. After the third or fourth exclamation of "Bill Davidson!" by our intrepid girl reporter, I was ready to strangle her. By the sixth or seventh time, I was ready to strangle myself. You'd think the writers were paid to keep the word count down. Worse, while the two argue in Davidson's office, he grabs her and shakes her in a rage, nearly knocking her off her feet. Of course, that's what men do to women they love, right? Don't worry, it all ends up in a kiss. Good God.

That's what you have to deal with when watching sixty year old movies - sometimes there's a real culture shock.

Winters' debut as Chan is okay, but film is a near line-by-line remake of MR. WONG IN CHINATOWN, and the story wasn't great then. Foulger has meaty part as nervous banker, Ahn looks inscrutable, Moreland rolls his eyes, and Louise Currie is gorgeous, but pedestrian direction and cheapo production sink this for all but Chan fans.

This is exactly the kind of movie that used to get shown late at night on local TV stations, or on weekend afternoons, in the 1970's. I watched all the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies that way. This was the first time that Roland Winters played Chan. I think he was probably trying to decide how to play the character, and didn't want to come off as attempting to Imitate Sidney Toler. He underplays the humor, but it is still there. I think he was trying to be a bit more subtle and low-key about it than Toler was. Mantan Moreland is in this one; he's in all the Roland Winter Chan movies, and he's in 9 of the 11 Toler-Monogram films. He's a fine comic actor and his presence is always an asset. There were so many B-movies of the late 1940's that tried and failed to mix in humor successfully. This is a relaxing way to spend an hour. Nice period clothes, and at one point, I think I saw a beautiful Pierce Arrow sedan, pre-WWII. The movie is well worth seeing. Monogram gets a bad rap from viewers who are always pining for the higher-budget Fox film period. Charlie Chan is always worth watching.