Friday, March 17 - Phantom of Chinatown, 1940, 61 minutes, directed by Phil Rosen, starring Keye Luke, Lotus Long, and Grant Withers
Phantom of Chinatown is mistitled, Chinatown barely figures into the story, but the film is historically significant. Boris Karloff had originated the Chinese-American detective Mr. Wong beginning in 1938. When he moved to Columbia Studio, Monogram Pictures replaced him with Keye Luke in their lucrative Mr. Wong series. Luke thereby became the first Chinese-American actor to star as an Asian detective in a film series. He had memorably played Number One Son in the Charlie Chan films opposite Warner Oland, and would go on to greater fame as the original Kato in the Green Hornet film series, and as Mr. Wing in the popular Gremlin films of the 1980s and '90s. (Image used with permission of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc.)
CinemaLit March 2023: Chinatown in the Movies
The Mechanics' Institute Library has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts "Big Read" grant to support community reading programs. The grant showcases a single book through a range of tours, discussions, seminars, and screenings. The honored book is Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown (2020), a remarkable novel exploring immigration and the limitations of Chinese identity in modern America. It's funny and sad, and creatively written to read like a screenplay.
In the spirit of Interior Chinatown, the month of March at CinemaLit will feature "Chinatown in the Movies." Four of our offerings, The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939), Phantom of Chinatown (1940), and -- on zoom -- Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1938), feature characters, by turns nefarious, clever, and heroic, from popular movie serials. Ancient curses, international intrigue, and viral terrorism highlight the twisty plots. These short feature films (except the later and more lavish Face of Fu Manchu), some barely more than an hour in length, were Saturday matinee entertainment on double bills, complete with cartoons, previews, and newsreels. Today they're fascinating glimpses of past social values as reflected in American pop culture, where entertainment, racism, and pluralism intersect.
Our fourth entry in "Chinatown in the Movies" is Flower Drum Song (1961), the splashy Hollywood adaption of a Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical. Stephen Gong, executive director of the Center for Asian American Media, will introduce and co-host Flower Drum Song.
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
El proyecto NEA Big Read es una iniciativa del National Endowment for the Arts (el Fondo Nacional para las Artes de Estados Unidos) en cooperación con Arts Midwest.
Cosponsored by the Chinese Historical Society of America
Matthew Kennedy, CinemaLit’s curator, has written biographies of Marie Dressler, Joan Blondell, and Edmund Goulding. His book Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s, was the basis of a film series on Turner Classic Movies.
“I don't have a favorite film,” Matthew says. "I find that my relationships to films, actors, genres, and directors change as I change over the years. Some don't hold up. Some look more profound, as though I've caught up with their artistry. I feel that way about Garbo, Cary Grant, director John Cassavetes, and others."
“Classic films have historical context, something only time can provide,” Matt observes. “They become these great cultural artifacts, so revealing of tastes, attitudes, and assumptions.”
Mechanics' Institute members Free
CHSA members Free with Promo Code CHSASF
Public $10
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CinemaLit Films
