Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan
Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
Mantan Moreland as Birmingham Brown
As a kid, the Sidney Toler movie version of Charlie Chan was one of my favorite Saturday Specials at the Avalon Theater’s weekly double feature, action serial, and cartoon package. From 1946 to 1952, the Avalon at 75th and Lawndale in Houston’s East End was the second largest theater of the mind that many of us could ever imagine or hope to embrace with our dreams for grand adventure. The “sandlot” remained our largest playground for the muses in those days because, after all, the act of playing the game of baseball in our bare feet was an even shorter hop in the mind to our imaginings of the big league uniforms we would one day wear on our way through the roaring crowds that would be cheering us on to the Hall of Fame.
Those black and white kid movies, always served weekly as one western and one contemporary action or comedy flick, simply oiled the mind to all other possibilities.
I especially loved Sidney Toler’s characterization of the Chinese-Hawaiian detective, Charlie Chan, even though it never occurred to me as a product of my times and culture to wonder why the movie-makers did not simply hire an Asian actor to play an Asian character. My fine-tuner on racism in movie role casting was not so definitive in those days. All I got from Toler’s Chan was the belief that older Chinese detectives must be just about the smartest people in the world.
Charlie Chan usually had one of his many young adult children tagging along with on new cases as a bungling, but bright (sort of) apprentice who often frustrates, but eventually helps wise old Dad to solve a tough case. The son assistant I remember best was called “Jimmy” – who curiously enough, like the rest of Charlie’s kids, was beautifully played by a young Asian actor, Victor Sen Yung.
The other assistant was a fellow they called “Birmingham Brown” – played by the very funny comedic actor, Mantan Moreland – who played the regula role of Chan’s chauffeur, complete with cap and uniform. That casting ruse simply got Brown into the mix. Birmingham’s real job was to portray a man who is reluctantly and fearfully pulled into the job of assisting the Chan family solve their latest murder mystery or other story of broad scale intrigue.
Back in the 1970s, many writers criticized Moreland’s portrayal of Birmingham Brown as a demeaning exposition of Uncle Tomism – one that portrayed black males as fearful and less intelligent, but I refuse to insult the man’s comedic genius with such an overly sensitive judgment. Birmingham Brown was often the only character expressing the real danger of the situations that came along with his involvement with the Chans. As an actor who understood the role of timing in comedy, the man was a master.
My favorite example of a sound byte quote from Birmingham Brown came at the end of one movie in which Charlie and Jimmy Chan are seen driving away from a spooky old mansion in the woods after solving a murder there in spite of constant “ghost” threats from the perpetrator that were designed to scare them away and avoid apprehension.
Somewhere near the end, Charlie and Jimmy Chan have become separated from Birmingham Brown and are driving back to town at about 50 MPH down a two-lane country highway in the dead of night. All of a sudden, as we are looking through the passenger front seat window at Charlie riding and Jimmy driving, we see the look of surprise and wonder on their faces as the top form and face of Birmingham Brown appears on the other side of the car, apparently running along with them at this improbable-for-humans rate of speed.
“Birmingham,” Jimmy shouts, “what are you doing?”
“I’m getting away from them ghosts,” Birmingham answers.
“Don’t worry, Birmingham,” Jimmy adds, “we’re safe now!”
Birmingham suddenly hears a strange howl coming from the nearby woods.
“Feet, don’t fail me now!”
Moreland leaves his iconic exit line as we see him rapidly accelerating in his run beside the Chan auto, leaving the speeding car far behind as he races ahead of them down the highway.
Those were the days, my friends. Movies were one and the same, escapist fun and dream houses for our imaginations.
Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!
Tags: Those Charle Chan movies
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