Charlie Chan Carries On (film) American found dead in a London hotel room. Settings include London, Nice, France, San Remo, Honolulu and Hong Kong. Charlie Chan Carries On (film) Charlie Chan Carries On is a 1931 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Hamilton MacFadden and starring Warner Oland, John Garrick and Marguerite Churchill. It is the very first appearance of Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. Part of the long-running Charlie Chan series, it was based on the 1930 novel of the same title by Earl Derr Biggers. It is now considered a lost film; however, Fox simultaneously filmed a Spanish-language version which was released under
Charlie Chan Biggers's novels is not subservient to white characters, citing "The Chinese Parrot" as an example; in this novel, Chan's eyes blaze with anger at racist remarks and in the end, after exposing the murderer, Chan remarks "Perhaps listening to a 'Chinaman' is no disgrace." In the films, both "Charlie Chan in London" (1934) and "Charlie Chan in Paris" (1935) "contain scenes in which Chan coolly and wittily dispatches other characters' racist remarks." Yunte Huang manifests an ambivalent attitude, stating that in the USA, Chan "epitomizes the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation’s culture." Huang also suggests that