Tonight I watched a very early Charlie Chan movie from 1931, called "The Black Camel", starring Warner Oland as Chan. I had yet to see Oland in the role. If you remember back when I was watching a whole bunch of Charlie Chan movies in Jan/Feb 2017, all of those featured Sidney Toler as the Honolulu Detective. He was a great Chan, but now that I've seen Warner Oland, he's good too, and he was the first, not counting some unsuccessful Chan films made in the Silent era with different and unknown Asian actors alternating as Charlie Chan. As far as the major studio releases go, "The Black Camel" was the second Chan film that was produced. It co-stars Bela Lugosi, which made it a no-brainer to pick up when I was browsing movies at Mid-Valley Libe this afternoon (Mid-Val being one of the few libes that is open on Sunday).
I am trying to watch only horror movies as Halloween closes in, and they don't have to be strictly from the horror genre, just so long as they have the atmospheric tinge. Having Bela in the cast qualified "The Black Camel". He plays a psychic advisor to Hollywood movie stars, one actress especially who uses him the way Nancy Reagan once used her astrologer (and hey, I'm all for it except I prefer to do it myself, whether psychic stuff or astrology or whatever. But you know I'm not a doubter.)
Bela Lugosi was at his peak in 1931, a point I am certain I made about another recently seen Bela role, and I see so many movies that I cannot recall which movie it was from at the moment, but the point is that he was once a very imposing screen presence: tall, serious and sinister, with that one of a kind accent and mesmeric diction. In his later roles he looked drawn and worn out as a result of his heroin addiction, and his acting, though still passable, became somewhat of a caricature.
But in 1931, you can easily see the threatening yet charming charisma that made Lugosi one of the great movie stars of all time. He was a good actor, too. Here, in the Chan movie, he teams with Charlie to solve the murder of a famous actor. Sally Eilers, of Buster Keaton movie fame, plays the dead man's girlfriend and is therefore the prime suspect.
It's good stuff, though the Chan formula is set out from the beginning. The Charlie Chan movies are more about characterization than story. The players interact within an ensemble, like a "Ten Little Indians" scenario, while Charlie and his nincompoop son piece together the plot puzzle. The "Number One Son" is cast in all the movies as comic relief. He is eager to please his Dad, and is relentless for clues but not too bright. Charlie basically tells him to go play on the freeway while he solves the case on his own, or this time with Bela's rather strange form of help.
The Charlie Chan movies are all about fun, which is achieved to differing levels in the seven or eight films I have seen so far. Most are at least a 6.5 out of 10, and I'd call "Black Camel" one of the better efforts, not only because it has Bela Lugosi in his prime as a co-star, but also because Dwight Frye pops up in an important supporting role. I was going, "that's gotta be Dwight Frye", and though he wasn't listed in the credits, I IMDB'd the movie and found him in the unlisted roles at the end of the scroll. I knew it was him, and it "made" the movie. You cannot go wrong if you have Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye in a Charlie Chan film. So Two Big Thumbs Up, then. ////
We had good singing in church this morning. In addition to our anthem (our weekly song), one of our hymns was "I Sing The Mighty Power Of God", which is a favorite of mine, as it has that "ladder climbing" style of melody that sounds very English, as if a schoolboy choir should be singing it.
I was also excited this afternoon to see an FB post from Edwards Air Force Base, announcing that they have worked out a contract to bring back airshows to Edwards as soon as next year. I will keep my fingers crossed, because I haven't been to an Edwards Air Show since 2006, and the last one I am aware of took place in 2009. After that, a budget shutdown took effect, but now it looks like shows may be coming back.
If you like jets, there is nothing like an airshow at Edwards. It is the home of the Air Force Flight Test Center, where the sound barrier was first broken in 1947 by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1, and later it was the place where the X-15 rocket jet flights took place from 1959 to 1968. And those were only the two most famous programs.
In the 1990s, I went to several airshows at Edwards with my Dad and Mr. D, and in 1995 my Mom went with us too. That day we saw both the Stealth B2 and the F-117 for the first time. It was a day that I will never forget, and though I do not believe in war, I do believe in flight, and that is what Edwards is all about. I can't wait to see another airshow there. :)
That's all I know for tonight. See you in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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