Charlie Chan, Vol. 1 [4 Discs]

"For a long time, fans of the Warner Oland Chalrie Chan films despaired of ever seeing them on DVD from Fox because of the corporate reticence over the character and its more controversial aspects -- starting the 1970's, some Asians and Asian-Americans expressed displeasure over the notion of an actor of European decent portraying a Chinese character, and it was believed that Fox, much more than MGM/UA, which owns the later Sidney Toler Chan movies. But Fox has finally made a concerted effort to release all of their Chan movies on DVD, starting wtih this volume which, oddly enough, doesn't start at the beginning of the film series. It's probably a result of the fact that the earliest surviving Oland Chan movies have some serious matrerials problems, but Fox has chosen to start the DVDs in the middle of the series, with Charlie Chan In Paris, Charile Chan In London, Charile Chan in Egypt, and Charlie Chan In Shanghai, plus Eran Trece, the Spanish-language version of Charlie Chan Carries On, the first of the Chan talkies, in the only edition of the movie that has survived. The transfers are first-rate, and the four principal films look and sound great, about as good as any early/middle 1930's feature films do on DVD, with crystaline full-screen (1.33-to-1) images (Eran Trece looks verty good as well, given its age, although not as good as the main titles, and the English subtitles are especially well devised, tinted in amber for readability). Each movie is accompanied by a featurette devoted to the series, its history, and its origins, which is good as far as it goes but also a little superficial -- later volumes of the Chan movies from Fox would have more and better bonus features delving deeper into the specific films and the substance of the origins on a more serious level, and more accurately. Each movie opens automaticallty on its respective platter to a simple easy-to-use two-layer menu, and the chaptering is reasonably generous as well."