Meeting at Midnight / Movie

Starring:Sidney Toler
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD

The Charlie Chan Chanthology (The Secret Service / The Chinese Cat / The Jade Mask / Meeting at Midnight / The Scarlet Clue / The Shanghai Cobra)

Average customer rating:

Not great--just very entertaining
charlie chan chanthology
Charlie is my hero
Warner Oland, Why Did You Die?
A Great 6 Pack

The Charlie Chan Chanthology (The Secret Service / The Chinese Cat / The Jade Mask / Meeting at Midnight / The Scarlet Clue / The Shanghai Cobra)
Starring: Sidney Toler , Mantan Moreland , Edwin Luke , Hardie Albright , and Frank Reicher
Director: Phil Rosen , and Phil Karlson
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 1 (Charlie Chan in London / Charlie Chan in Paris / Charlie Chan in Egypt / Charlie Chan in Shanghai / Eran Trece)
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ASIN: B00020X87A
Release Date: 2004-07-06

Amazon.com

Though the Charlie Chan film franchise has earned brickbats for its casting of Caucasian actors as the Asian sleuth, the movies have retained popularity among aficionados of '40s-era B-crime pictures, and the six-disc Charlie Chan Chanthology, all featuring Sidney Toler as Chan, should please that crowd. The Missouri-born Toler starred in 11 Chan pictures for Fox before purchasing the rights to the character from creator Earl Derr Biggers's widow and bringing it to budget studio Monogram, where he starred in 11 more Chans before his death in 1947 (Roland Winters replaced him in six more features until 1949). At Monogram, Chan became a Secret Service Agent (a move calculated to cut down on exotic locations and sets), and comedy was integrated into the plots via Mantan Moreland's chauffeur Birmingham Brown; Benson Fong also joined the cast as Number Three Son Tommy, with occasional appearances by daughter Frances (Frances Chan) and son Eddie (Edwin Luke, brother of Keye Luke, who played Number One Son Lee in the Fox Chans).

Other than that, the six films collected here (the first six Chans for Monogram, and all but five directed by Phil Rosen) are largely indistinguishable from one another save for the murder victims and their demises. In The Secret Service, Chan investigates the death of a wartime inventor; a San Francisco socialite expires in The Chinese Cat; daughter Frances is involved in the murder of a psychic in Meeting at Midnight (a.k.a. Black Magic); another government scientist is killed in The Jade Mask, and death by remote control is the focus of The Scarlet Clue. Director Phil Karlson (Kansas City Confidential) adds some noirish atmosphere to The Shanghai Cobra, which has bank employees dying from apparent snakebites. Dated and controversial as they may be, the Chan films are engaging diversions for vintage mystery fans. No extras are featured in the set. --Paul Gaita

Description

Disc 1: CHARLIE CHAN IN THE SECRET SERVICE Disc 2: THE CHINESE CAT Disc 3: THE JADE MASK Disc 4: MEETING AT MIDNIGHT Disc 5: THE SCARLET CLUE Disc 6: THE SHANGHAI COBRA

Customer Reviews:

Not great--just very entertaining.......2007-07-05

These Sidney Toler Charlie Chans move well-- good dialogue-humor is well done--Sometimes a bit too stereotypical--but it's easy to see why these movies were so popular in their day. All in all they hold up better than I would have expected. Most enjoyable.

charlie chan chanthology.......2007-07-04

Wonderful! Just what I remember it being when I was young....If you remember the Chan mystery series then this is the one, Charlie Chan's children are in these series. The Dvd's came on time and couldn't wait to watch them..my teenage son came home and started watching with me, he was entranced and we had a marathon and watched all of them. Great product!

Charlie is my hero.......2007-07-03

This vendor responded to my purchase very quickly. Well-packaged, no damage. I'm in Chan heaven. Charlie Chan rocks!

Warner Oland, Why Did You Die?.......2007-06-27

These Chan films are from the Monogram series, long after the series, which had begun so brilliantly with Warner Oland at 20th Century Fox 10 or more years earlier, had fizzled. Fox dropped it after a handful of Sidney Toler films (which aren't available yet on DVD). Supposedly Toler bought the rights to the name Charlie Chan from the widow of author/creator Earl Derr Biggers and then sold himself and the rights to Monogram. The films suffer terribly. Toler is a tired old man in ersatz oriental makeup, and cheap, boring, repetitious "comedy" relief is provided in extremis by Mantan Moreland as a cliché blabbering, superstitious black lackey. The stories are so-so, but whatever values there may be are undermined by those two main stars. Benson Fong, as Number Three Son, is generally good -- charming though not so enthusiastic as Keye Luke -- but most of the time he has to play opposite Moreland or, in one pathetic film, a Chinese actress named Frances Chan as his sister of the same name...and she couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag.

There are two more Warner Oland Chan movies that have yet to make it to DVD. It would be nice if Fox would release those along with the early Toler films. But forget these Monogram pot boilers.

A Great 6 Pack.......2007-05-22

I have all of these films with Sidney Toler and Mantan Moreland which I watch in "rotation" in my video collection. Any "TRUE" Chan fan should have 'Chanthology' in their collection as a fan will enjoy these 6 movie classics from the 1940's. For the most part the films are wholesome family entertainment. I highly recommend them.

Average customer rating:

Murder and Black Magic
The other good entry in the WII Chan Series
Suspense
Best Left to Hardcore Fans and Collectors
Originally Released As Black Magic

Charlie Chan in Meeting at Midnight
Starring: Sidney Toler , Mantan Moreland , Frances Chan (II) , Joseph Crehan , and Helen Beverly
Director: Phil Rosen
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Suspense | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Mystery | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Detectives | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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Charlie Chan in The Shanghai Cobra
Charlie Chan in The Scarlet Clue
Charlie Chan in The Chinese Cat
Charlie Chan in The Jade Mask
Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

ASIN: B00020X86Q
Release Date: 2004-07-06

Description

Released in 1944 as Black Magic, this unusually absorbing (Los Angeles Times) mystery was celebrated on the revival circuit, making it one of the best-known films of the series! Filled with fun spiritualist gags, like levitating hankies and gamboling skeletons, Meeting at Midnight is a rendezvous you'll want to experience again and again! When Birmingham (Mantan Moreland) gets a job as a butler for the Bonner family, he doesn't know that they're con artists who specialize in trick séances. But things get really spooky when a murder occurs and Charlie Chan's daughter Frances becomes a suspect! Charlie (Sidney Toler) surmises that nearly everybody has a motivebut even he doesn't yet realize how dangerous these ghoulish swindlers really are!

Customer Reviews:

Murder and Black Magic.......2007-05-16

The film starts with a seance at William Bonner's home. In the dark the medium falls silent; he has been shot. We see the man and woman who work the machinery behind the curtain that creates the special effects. The people around the table are taken in for questioning. Charlie Chan is summoned (his daughter Frances was there); he shows his detecting skills. Nancy Wood explains why she used a false name and attended Bonner's seance. Chan has a lot of work to do. Brown hears some strange sounds (the hidden couple who work the special effects). The people who were around the table are questioned; they all have some secret or scandal. A call brings Chan to see Norma Duncan, but she can not remember a thing.

Chan gets a message about the disappearing bullet; he can keep a secret. Mrs. Bonner seems to be in a trance when she goes to the top floor of a tall building. Chan learns of a drug that allows a person to be hypnotized; there is an antidote. Chan goes to look around, then is captured and hypnotized by that drug. But he has the antidote! Chan almost follows Mrs. Bonner. Then a cablegram arrives for Chan from Scotland Yard. The suspects are gathered for a seance, then questioned. We learn why a bullet wasn't found, and the name of the tricky murderer. [But that seems like an unlikely weapon.]

Houdini and other worked to expose the frauds of spiritualism. After gathering secrets from people they can be blackmailed for money or for their influence. Like in "The Ministry of Fear".

The other good entry in the WII Chan Series.......2007-04-22

WWII brought out many phobias including anti-semitism, distrust of those of Oriental descent (the infamous story of Japanese/Americans sent to concentration camps in California was a national disgrace). The Chan series during this period adhered to the sleuth working for the government to ease any qualms the movie public may have had. Fox had dropped the series in fear of losing money, low-budget Monogram picked it up and to Fox's dismay, the series continued on successfully. This entry, as with THE CHINESE CAT, does not stick too much with govermental secrets being stolen. Instead it finds Charlie's daughter a possible suspect when a murder is committed at a seance. Mantan Moreland (Birmingham Brown) plays the the sidekick and comic relief again (and stereotyped as most people of color in Hollywood during this era), but that aside--this is a dandy little murder mystery with elements of film noir and the supernatural involved that makes for a very entertaining entry into this rather uptight series made during the war. Originally titled BLACK MAGIC, this is part of the 6 disc CHANTHOLOGY (all the discs are identical to the 6 that can be bought seperately). The lost copyrighted, pre-war films are far superior. Let's hope MGM or some other studio releases them instead of relying on those poorly made DVD-Rs that pop up all the time for sale or auction.

A solid entry in the series considering the time period. And if you are Chan fan, you definitely won't be disappointed with our favorite sleuth!

Suspense.......2006-11-10

Meeting at Midnight was intriguing and suspenseful. Birminghamd and Charlie's daughter adds humor to the mystery that only Charlie's wisdom can solve.

Best Left to Hardcore Fans and Collectors.......2006-10-28

Loosely based on novels by Earl Derr Biggers, 20th Century Fox's Charlie Chan series proved an audience favorite--but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the studio feared audiences would turn against its Asian hero. This was a miscalculation: actor Sidney Toler took the role to "poverty row" Monogram Studios, where he continued to portray the character in eleven more popular films made between 1944 and his death in 1947.

20th Century Fox had regarded the Chan films as inexpensive "B" movies, but even so the studio took considerable care with them: the plots were often silly, but the pace was sharp, the dialogue witty, and the casts (which featured the likes of Bela Lugosi and Ray Milland) always expert. The result was a kindly charm which has stood the test of time. Monogram was a different matter: Chan films were "B" movies plain and simple. Little care was taken with scripts or cast and resulting films were flat, mediocre at best, virtually unwatchable at worst.

Released in 1944, MEETING AT MIDNIGHT (also known as BLACK MAGIC) is often described as one of the best Chan films made at Monogram--but the term "best" is comparative. It is certainly better than such Monogram Chan films as THE TRAP, but it is a far cry from the 20th Century Fox films of the 1930s. Although it has a running time of little more than a hour, it drags; the plot is profoundly unoriginal; the dialogue is not in the least memorable; and the cast, for the most part, is merely marking time.

The story concerns a spiritualist whose seance draws Chan's daughter Frances--who finds herself a witness to murder when the medium dies under very suspicious circumstances. In order to spare his daughter any unpleasantness, Chan agrees to take the case and soon uncovers fraud, strange drugs, hypnosis, wire-rigged skeletons, and a revenge murder plot. It is always nice to see Sidney Toler reprise Chan, but in truth he is less entertaining than Mantan Moreland, who played Chan's nervous servant in the Monogram films; although changing times have led us to look upon his performances as demeaning to African-Americans, he was an expert comic, and taken within the context of the era his performances have a certain innocent likeablity.

Fans of the 20th Century Fox series are likely to find Monogram's Chan a significant disappointment and newcomers who like the Monogram films will probably consider them third-rate after encountering the Fox films. Like other Monogram Chan films, MEETING AT MIDNIGHT is best left to determined collectors. Three stars, and that's being generous.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Originally Released As Black Magic.......2003-05-06

In CHARLIE CHAN: MEETING AT MIDNIGHT Charlie and his daughter are confronted with a phony occult scam operated out of an old haunted house. Produced in the middle of World War II, this film stars Sidney Toler as Charlie and boasts a supporting cast which includes Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown.

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