![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
OF all of the pre-World War II pop artifacts that have recently been resurrected and recycled
by Clive Donner's ''Charlie
Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen,'' which opens today at the Cinerama I and other theaters, is a looselimbed, immensely
good-natured entertainment that moves easily between parody and slapstick without ever doing damage to the memories of the
character who, in the 1950's and 1960's, gained something of a following as a figure of camp. Peter Ustinov, who
carries on the tradition of the occidental Charlie Chan in this new, big-budget movie, photographed in glorious color, plays
it comparatively straight, more modestly even than Mr. Oland or Mr. Toler, and thus provides the film with a center of gravity
without which the lunatic goings-on would have no point. He is very funny and deserves the year's self-effacement award. The screenplay by
Stan Burns and David Axlerod, based on a story by Jerry Sherlock, is a haphazard delight, which is not to say it offers a
laugh every minute but at least a smile. More important, it has a consistently witty point of view, something lacking in both
''Superman'' and ''Flash Gordon,'' plus an appreciation for screwball characters with absolutely no reason for being or for
doing nine-tenths of what they do. The setting is The principal characters
are Chan's grandson, Lee Chan Jr. (Richard Hatch), a young man who is half-Chinese, half-Jewish and all thumbs; Lee Chan's
exceedingly rich and quite mad maternal grandmother, Mrs. Lupowitz (Lee Grant); Lee Chan's beautiful, adoring fiancee, Cordelia
(Michelle Pfeiffer), and the wicked Dragon Queen (Angie Dickinson), who was sent up the river by Chan many years before for
the murder of Mrs. Lupowitz's husband, Bernie. Also on the scene
and adding to the sometimes hilarious confusion are the late, great Rachel Roberts as Mrs. Lupowitz's unstable maid; Roddy
McDowall as Mrs. Lupowitz's paraplegic butler, an ill-tempered fellow who serves at table from his motorized wheelchair, and
Brian Keith, who gives one of the best comic performances of the season as the police chief. Miss Grant has never
been in better form than she is as the grande dame manquee, a woman whose loathing for Chan is never better expressed than
in her haughty greeting, ''Welcome to At times, Mr. Donner's
work recalls the ebullient slapstick routines of Blake Edwards, but the director, best known for such early films as ''Nothing
But the Best'' and ''What's New, Pussycat?'' also does very well with the parody. Be prepared for a quintessential Chan routine
in which Mr. Ustinov explains what the script calls ''the fork in the teacup'' routine.
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||
![]() |
||||