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Our Gang: Baby Blues with Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Sat, Nov 26 | 3pm | TMT
Our Gang: Baby Blues
“Every 4th child is born Chinese.” This ques- tionable Almanac factoid ignites Our Gang member Mickey’s fears that his unborn sibling will end up being Chinese. What’s he afraid of? Perhaps he’ll learn something from Eddie and Jennifer Lee, two veteran Hollywood movie extras who portray the parents of a boy rescued from racist bullies by the kids in Our Gang. The Lees’ real-life daughters, Faye and Margie, appeared as Charlie Chan’s kids in Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1939). Anti-Asian violence, racial slurs, Confucianism, and white saviorism: it’s all packed into this ten-minute short that, in the end, is a call for tolerance.
DIRECTOR: Edward Cahn.
WRITTEN BY: Hal Law, Robert A. McGowan.
CAST: Robert Blake, Edward Soo Hoo, Eddie Lee, Jennifer Lee. 1941. 10 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP. New DCP courtesy Warner Brothers.
Charlie Chan in Honolulu
Just one of over forty films in the popular Charlie Chan detective franchise, Charlie Chan in Honolulu emphasizes family, with the plot bookended by the birth of a grandchild. A raucous family meal with Chan's kids opens the film, pushing the patriarch to command, “Save football tactics for gridiron!” Audience members who cringe at the sight of yellowfaced white actors might want to wear blinders and earplugs when Sidney Toler appears as Chan, replete with slanted eyes and dubious aphorisms, in order to enjoy some spirited scenes with Victor Sen Yung and Layne Tom Jr. as his all-American sons.
DIRECTOR: H. Bruce Humberstone.
WRITTEN BY: Charles Belden.
CAST: Sidney Toler, Phyllis Brooks, Victor Sen Yung, Layne Tom Jr.
1939. 68 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm.
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