Editing Charlie Chan (section)

== Film, radio, stage and television adaptations ==

=== Films ===
The first film featuring Charlie Chan, as a supporting character, was ''[[The House Without a Key (serial)|The House Without a Key]]'' (1926), a ten-chapter serial produced by [[Pathé]] Studios, starring [[George Kuwa]], a Japanese actor, as Chan.<ref name="Hankexii">Hanke (1989), xii.</ref> A year later [[Universal Pictures]] followed with ''[[The Chinese Parrot (film)|The Chinese Parrot]]'', starring Japanese actor [[Kamiyama Sojin]] as Chan, again as a supporting character.<ref name="Hankexii" /> In both productions, Charlie Chan's role was minimized.<ref>Mitchell (1999), xviii.</ref> Contemporary reviews were unfavorable; in the words of one reviewer, speaking of ''The Chinese Parrot'', Sojin plays "the [[Chink]] sleuth as a [[Lon Chaney]] cook-waiter … because Chaney can't stoop that low."<ref>Quoted in Soister (2004), 71.</ref>

For the first film to center mainly on the character of Chan, [[Warner Oland]], a white actor, was cast in the title role in 1931's ''[[Charlie Chan Carries On (film)|Charlie Chan Carries On]]'', and it was this film that gained popular success.<ref>Balio (1995), 336.</ref> Oland, a Swedish actor, had also played [[Fu Manchu]] in an earlier film. Oland, who claimed some [[Mongols|Mongolian]] ancestry,<ref>Quoted in Hanke (2004), 1.</ref> played the character as more gentle and self-effacing than he had been in the books, perhaps in "a deliberate attempt by the studio to downplay an uppity attitude in a Chinese detective."<ref name="Hanke111">Hanke (1989), 111.</ref> Oland starred in sixteen Chan films for Fox, often with [[Keye Luke]], who played Chan's "{{visible anchor|Number One Son}}", Lee Chan. Oland's "warmth and gentle humor"<ref name="nytimesreview" /> helped make the character and films popular; the Oland Chan films were among Fox's most successful.<ref>Balio (1995), 316.</ref> By attracting "major audiences and box-office grosses on a par with A's"<ref>Balio (1995), 317.</ref> they "kept Fox afloat" during the [[Great Depression]].<ref name="lepore20100809" />

[[File:Dangerous Money (1946) - Sidney Toler 1.jpg|thumb|[[Sidney Toler]] as Charlie Chan in ''[[Dangerous Money]]'' (1946)]]

Oland died in 1938, and the Chan film ''Charlie Chan at the Ringside'' was rewritten with additional footage as ''[[Mr.&nbsp;Moto's Gamble]]'', an entry in the [[Mr. Moto]] series, another contemporary series featuring an East Asian protagonist; Luke appeared as Lee Chan, not only in already shot footage but also in scenes with Moto actor [[Peter Lorre]]. Fox hired another white actor, [[Sidney Toler]], to play Charlie Chan, and produced eleven Chan films through 1942.<ref name="Hanke169">Hanke (1989), 169.</ref> Toler's Chan was less mild-mannered than Oland's, a "switch in attitude that added some of the vigor of the original books to the films."<ref name="Hanke111" /> He is frequently accompanied, and irritated, by his Number Two Son, Jimmy Chan, played by [[Victor Sen Yung]],<ref>Hanke (1989), 111-114.</ref> who later portrayed "Hop Sing" in the long-running [[Western (genre)|Western]] television series ''[[Bonanza]]''.

When Fox decided to produce no further Chan films, Sidney Toler purchased the film rights from the author's widow. He had hoped to film more Charlie Chan pictures independently, to be released through Fox, but Fox had already discontinued the series and had no interest in reviving it. Toler approached [[Philip N. Krasne]], a Hollywood lawyer who financed film productions, and Krasne brokered a deal with [[Monogram Pictures]]. James S. Burkett produced the films for Monogram. The budget for each film was reduced from Fox's average of $200,000 to $75,000.<ref name="Hanke169" /> For the first time, Chan was portrayed on occasion as "openly contemptuous of suspects and superiors."<ref name="Hanke170">Hanke (1989), 170.</ref> [[African-American|African American]] comedic actor [[Mantan Moreland]] played chauffeur Birmingham Brown in 13 films (1944–1949) which led to criticism of the Monogram films in the forties and since;<ref name="Hanke170" /><ref name="Cullen" /> some call his performances "brilliant comic turns",<ref name="Karnick" /> while others describe Moreland's roles as an offensive and embarrassing stereotype.<ref name="Cullen">Cullen, ''et al'' (2007), 794.</ref> Toler died in 1947 and was succeeded by [[Roland Winters]] for six films.<ref>Hanke (1989), 220.</ref> Keye Luke, missing from the series after 1938's Mr. Moto rework, returned as Charlie's son in the last two entries.

==== Spanish-language adaptations ====

Three Spanish-language Charlie Chan films were made in the 1930s and 1950s. The first, ''Eran Trece'' (''There Were Thirteen'', 1931), is a [[multiple-language version]] of ''Charlie Chan Carries On'' (1931). The two films were made concurrently and followed the same production schedule, with each scene filmed twice the same day, once in English and then in Spanish.<ref>Mitchell (1999), 153.</ref> The film followed essentially the same script as the Anglophonic version, with minor additions such as brief songs and skits and some changes to characters' names (for example, the character Elmer Benbow was renamed Frank Benbow).<ref>Mitchell (1999), 153-154.</ref> A Cuban production, ''La Serpiente Roja'' (The Red Snake), followed in 1937.<ref name="Mitchell235">Mitchell (1999), 235.</ref> In 1955, Producciones Cub-Mex produced a Mexican version of Charlie Chan called ''El Monstruo en la Sombra'' (Monster in the Shadow), starring Orlando Rodriguez as "Chan Li Po" (Charlie Chan in the original script).<ref name="Mitchell235" /> The film was inspired by ''La Serpiente Roja'' as well as the American Warner Oland films.<ref name="Mitchell235" />

==== Chinese-language adaptations ====

During the 1930s and 1940s, five Chan films were produced in Shanghai and Hong Kong. In these films, Chan, played by Xu Xinyuan (徐莘园),  owns his detective agency and is aided not by a son but by a daughter, Manna, played first by Gu Meijun (顾梅君) in the Shanghai productions and then by Bai Yan (白燕) in postwar Hong Kong.<ref name="China" />

Chinese audiences also saw the original American Charlie Chan films. They were by far the most popular American films in 1930s China and among Chinese expatriates; "one of the reasons for this acceptance was that this was the first time Chinese audiences saw a positive Chinese character in an American film, a departure from the [[Stereotypes of East Asians in the Western world|sinister East Asian stereotypes]] in earlier movies like ''[[The Thief of Bagdad (1924 film)|Thief of Baghdad]]'' (1924) and [[Harold Lloyd]]'s ''[[Welcome Danger]]'' (1929), which incited riots that shut down the Shanghai theater showing it." Oland's visit to China was reported extensively in Chinese newspapers, and the actor was respectfully called "Mr. Chan".<ref name="China" />

==== Modern adaptations ====
In Neil Simon's ''[[Murder by Death]]'', [[Peter Sellers]] plays a Chinese detective called Sidney Wang, a parody of Chan.

In 1980, Jerry Sherlock began production on a comedy film to be called ''Charlie Chan and the Dragon Lady''. A group calling itself C.A.N. (Coalition of Asians to Nix) was formed, protesting the fact that non-Chinese actors, [[Peter Ustinov]] and [[Angie Dickinson]], had been cast in the primary roles. Others protested that the film script contained a number of stereotypes; Sherlock responded that the film was not a documentary.<ref>Chan (2001), 58.</ref> The film was released the following year as ''[[Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen]]'' and was an "abysmal failure".<ref>Pitts (1991), 301.</ref><ref name="Sengupta">Sengupta (1997).</ref> An updated film version of the character was planned in the 1990s by [[Miramax]]. While this Charlie Chan was to be "hip, slim, cerebral, sexy and... a martial-arts master," and portrayed by actor [[Russell Wong]], nonetheless the film did not come to fruition.<ref name="Sengupta" /> Actress [[Lucy Liu]] was slated to star in and executive-produce a new Charlie Chan film for Fox.<ref>Littlejohn (2008).</ref> The film was in preproduction by 2000; as of 2009, it was slated to be produced,<ref>Yang Jie (2009).</ref> but it also did not come to fruition.

===Radio===<!-- This section is linked from [[Mutual Broadcasting System]] -->

On radio, Charlie Chan was heard in several different series on three networks (the [[Blue Network|NBC Blue Network]], [[Mutual Broadcasting System|Mutual]], and ABC) between 1932 and 1948 for the 20th Century Fox Radio Service.<ref>Huang, Yunte; ''Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History'', pp. 265–266; W. W. Norton & Company, 15 August 2011</ref> [[Walter Connolly]] initially portrayed Chan on Esso Oil's ''Five Star Theater'', which serialized adaptations of Biggers novels.<ref>{{cite book|title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio|last=Dunning|first=John|year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195076783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Charlie+Chan+mystery%22&pg=PA149|page=149 }}</ref> [[Ed Begley]], Sr. had the title role in N.B.C.'s ''The Adventures of Charlie Chan'' (1944–45), followed by [[Santos Ortega]] (1947–48). Leon Janney and Rodney Jacobs were heard as Lee Chan, Number One Son, and Dorian St. George was the announcer.<ref>Cox (2002), 9.</ref> ''Radio Life'' magazine described Begley's Chan as "a good radio match for Sidney Toler's beloved film enactment."<ref>Dunning, op. cit., [https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22a+good+radio+match+for+Sidney+Toler's%22+%22film+enactment%22&pg=PA149 (Quote): p. 149]</ref>

=== Stage ===
[[Valentine Davies]] wrote a stage adaptation of novel ''Keeper of the Keys'' for Broadway in 1933, with [[William Harrigan]] as the lead. The production ran for 25 performances.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lachman|first=Marvin|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/903807427|title=The villainous stage: crime plays on Broadway and in the West End|date=2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9534-4|oclc=903807427}}</ref>

=== Television adaptations ===
* In 1956–57, ''[[The New Adventures of Charlie Chan]]'', starring [[J. Carrol Naish]] in the title role, were made independently for TV syndication in 39 episodes, by [[Television Programs of America]]. The series was filmed in England.<ref>Mitchell (1999), 237.</ref> In this series, Chan is based in London rather than the United States. Ratings were poor, and the series was canceled.<ref>Mitchell (1999), 238.</ref>
* In the 1960s, [[Joey Forman]] played an obvious parody of Chan named "Harry Hoo" in two episodes of ''[[Get Smart]]''.
* In the 1970s, [[Hanna-Barbera]] produced an [[animated series]] called ''[[The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan]]''. [[Keye Luke]], who had played Chan's son Lee in many Chan films of the 1930s and late '40s, lent his voice to Charlie, employing a much-expanded vocabulary; Luke thus became the first actual Chinese person to portray Chan on screen. (The title character bears some resemblance to the Warner Oland depiction of Charlie Chan.) The series focused on Chan's children, played initially by East Asian-American child actors before being recast, due to concerns that younger viewers would not understand the accented voices.  Leslie Kumamota voiced Chan's daughter Anne, before being replaced by [[Jodie Foster]].<ref>Mitchell (1999), 240.</ref>
* ''[[The Return of Charlie Chan]]'', a television film starring [[Ross Martin]] as Chan, was made in 1971 but did not air until 1979.