#sidney toler

[citizenscreen]

Sidney Toler (April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947)

[oldshowbiz]

[letterboxd-loggd]

Speak Easily (1932) Edward Sedgwick

October 27th 2024

[gatutor]

Hilda Vaughn-Sidney Toler-Victor Sen Yung "Charlie Chan at the wax museum" 1940, de Lynn Shores.

[makeitquietly]

Chet Brandenburg, Sidney Toler, Stan Laurel, director Harry Lachman, Arthur Housman, Charlie Hall and Lee Phelps on the set of Our Relations (1936)

[busterkeatonsociety]

#SaturdayCaptions Don’t leave us hanging - let’s have your captions for this promo pic for “Speak Easily” - Buster Keaton is joined by Sidney Toler & Ed Brophy.

[friendlessghoul]

Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Sidney Toler Speak Easily (1932)

[skjam]

Pulptober 2024 Day 19: Charlie Chan/Pulp with an Asterisk

In fairness, in the original novels by Earl Derr Biggers, Charlie Chan has much less of an asterisk. Mr. Biggers strongly disliked the "Yellow Peril" stereotypes common in American fiction of the 1920s, so he modeled Mr. Chan on Chang Apana, a real life Chinese police officer in Hawaii, as an intelligent, amiable and non-threatening police detective.

The Hollywood movies, which is where most of us get our impressions of Charlie Chan, were a somewhat different matter. Mr. Chan was played by various "white" actors, spouting broken English and fortune cookie sayings. (But still being smarter than everyone else in the room.) His children, on the other hand, were usually played by actors of Chinese descent, most notably Keye Luke as Number One Son.

The Charlie Chan movies I've reviewed on my blog are all from a boxed set of later Sidney Toler movies made on a shoestring at Monogram Studios. They costar Mantan Moreland as cabbie/chauffeur Birmingham Brown, who is very funny, yes, but his character is based on demeaning stereotypes about black people as cowardly and superstitious.

If you can get past the antiquated stereotypes, and the obvious lack of budget, these are fun movies for a lazy afternoon. They're short, so maybe make it a double feature with a John Woo movie?

Movie Review: The Jade Mask

Movie Review: The Jade Mask (1945) directed by Phil Rosen Inspector Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is flying back to Washington, D.C. soon, and

Movie Review: Meeting at Midnight

Movie Review: Meeting at Midnight (1944) directed by Phil Rosen World War Two still rages, but Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) has been given pe

Movie Review: The Shanghai Cobra

Movie Review: The Shanghai Cobra (1945) directed by Phil Karlson World War Two may be over, but Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) is still working

Movie Review: The Chinese Cat (1944)

Movie Review: The Chinese Cat (1944) directed by Phil Rosen Six months ago, Thomas P. Manning, businessman and chess expert, was shot to dea