It took me a very long time to warm up to Sydney Toler's portrayal of Charlie Chan. The first actor I saw play the role was the amazing Warner Oland and seeing Toler in his first few Chan films just seemed wrong. The actor’s affectations were wrong; his manner of speech seemed incorrect and nothing about his face said Charlie Chan to me. I think now that my reaction to him may have been the relative weakness of the first few of his films that I watched. When your first example of someone's performance is a film as padded and weak as CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE (1944) you’re probably not going to think very highly of the performer at the center of the story. Luckily, I did persevere and work my way through more of his movies and found myself discovering that I actually could enjoy him in the role. It's possible that he grew more comfortable as Chan and I somehow perceive that on-screen in the later movies. Or it may just be that I got used to him as I saw more of his work since he played the part in more than twenty films! And also, it could be that later on he had better scripts that didn't make me focus on just how irritated I was at what I was seeing.
But I have to think that one of the major reasons that I enjoy a number of Sydney Toler's Charlie Chan films is the inclusion of the great Mantan Moreland. He truly is a very funny performer and a welcome sight in any movie across his entire career. Having just rewatched the fun DARK ALIBI (1946) I must say that as much enjoyment as I get from the mystery plot it is the scenes of Moreland and his old comedy partner Ben Carter doing their unique back-and-forth patter that stand out. Those guys were an amazing team. Sadly, Mr. Carter passed away just a few months after this movie - his last - came out.
No comments:
Post a Comment