The Golden Eye (1948)

My first Roland Winters’ Chan film, 13 July 2021

Charlie Chan (Roland Winters) agrees to investigate the strange happenings at an Arizona (or is it New Mexico - I really can’t be bothered to check) goldmine.  Along for the ride are son Tommy (Victor Sen Yung) and chauffeur Birmingham Brown (Mantan Moreland).

I have seen all of the Sidney Toler and Warner Oland Chan films - most multiple times.  But oddly enough, this is my first experience with Roland Winters.  I’m not impressed.  Maybe it’s my personal bias, but he seems all wrong for the role.  Instead of the measured, deliberate Chan played by both Toler and Oland, Winters is too quick in both speech and action.  And, if it weren’t for the yellow-face, I’d swear Winters was trying to pull off some kind of European, maybe Italian, accent.  It was all so distracting.  

As for the film itself, you know you’re in trouble when the credits begin with the words Monogram Pictures and end with the name William Beaudine.  That pretty much says all you need to know.  Honestly, it’s just a bad movie and not really worth dwelling on.  

On a positive note, The Golden Eye doesn’t feature an overdose of Tommy and Birmingham.  Their comedy bits are limited.  And thank goodness because as much as I like Moreland, his Birmingham Brown schtick gets old pretty quick.

Finally, there were two things that bothered me while watching The Golden Eye and both are related to Victor Sen Yung.  First, why is he named Tommy in this movie?  If you’ve seen any of his previous Chan films, you know he’s Jimmy.  Second, in 1948, he was 33 years old - way too old to be playing the bumbling son.  In fact, he’s way too old to be playing Winters’ son.  Winters would have been 44 when this movie was made - a difference of only 11 years.  

3/10