The Charlie Chan Film Encyclopedia
Fictional detective Charlie Chan appeared in more than 40 films, primarily during the 1930s and 1940s. This book provides capsule biographies of the stars and casts of the films, in addition to a detailed filmography and other Chan esoterica (including a section on Chan's proverbs). Berlin, an inventor and author who has written on a variety of subjects, supplies Chan fans with obscure details about the most popular films. He purposely excludes all mention of the Chan films and television series from the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s. Instead, he concentrates largely upon the Warner Oland and Sidney Toler films because they were the two most popular actors to portray Chan and because they starred in more Chan films than any of the other actors. Massive, fact-filled, and entertaining, this is one of the most important Chan movie reference volumes to date. Not only does it present specific filmographies but it has entries on other actors and lots of trivial information about the movies, which sets it apart from two more general references on Chan: Ken Hanke's Charlie Chan at the Movies: History, Filmography, and Criticism (McFarland, 1989) and Charles P. Mitchell's A Guide to Charlie Chan Films (Greenwood, 1999). An exhaustive index and a useful bibliography round out this impressive book. A worthwhile purchase for most popular film collections.-David M. Lisa, Mercyhurst Coll., Erie, PACopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.