Return of Charlie Chan

[SteveinVa]

There's a guy on ebay offering THE RETURN OF CHARLIE CHAN with Ross Martin as you-know-who, for $12, free shipping.  So I got it!
It's taped off British TV, and is an excellent transfer.  There's a few commercials not edited out, but even those have interest.  No extras, just scene selection.  My disc had volume levels so low I had to crank my system up to the proverbial "11", just one short of "Vesuvius".
I love Ross Martin, and he does a creditable job.  The plot is VERY convoluted, and hard to follow.  Charlie's kids actually are a help, and production values are pretty good.  Others in the cast include the always enjoyable Richard Haydn, and Leslie Nielsen as a Greek shipping tycoon.  This was in his serious days, pre-AIRPLANE, and he's oddly hard to accept.  The women are all forgettably attractive.
Out of 10, maybe a 6.  Much truer to Charlie than DRAGON QUEEN, of course, and Martin is better than Naish, but I can't see myself pulling this one off the shelf too often.  Still, except for the "lost" films, the collection is complete! 

[John Cucinotta]

I've never seen this film, although I heard about it in the past.  I should also try to get a copy, since I would like to see it.  I remember reading that it was not a big hit, and we seldom discussed it on this Board, even in the past when this was a busy site. 

Perhaps it suffered the same fate as the Nero Wolfe movie made in the 1970's with Thayer David in the lead role.  People did not connect with the new actor in the role, and the film flopped.  When Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton played Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in the late 1990's, people connected with them, and the series, although brief, was a success.