AMUSEMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1931, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS.

£VRRYBODYB PICTURES. ‘‘CHARLIE CHAN CARRIES ON.” During the filming of the latest story about the noted sleuth, “Charlie Chan Carries On,” Fox picture which will be shown at the Princess Theatre to-night, the author was in freqjuent consultation with Director Hamilton MacFadden, and the latter one day queried Diggers on how he happened to conceive the character “Charlie C'hah,” and whether Charlie had an actual prototype. “No,” said Biggers, “In 1919 I had a couple of plays in rehearsal at the same moment on Broadway and when that job was finished I found myself with a blood pressure that wag trying for an altitude record. In the following spring I was sitting, one evening at the water’s edge at Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, carrying out the doctor’s orders for a long rest.

“Suddenly in the twilight I thought of an excellent why of murdering a man —theswimming ashore from a ship in the harbor trick, that later was to be the backbone of ‘The House Without A Key!’jVhen I got back to the main‘land, however, I devoted myself to short stories for the ‘Post’ for a long . time and it was four years after my return that I decided to do the Honolulu mystery story. . , . . “If ,I r had known before that there were Chinese on the police force over there, I had .forgotten it. But I decided at qnce that a Chinese detective would be, a good idea in ‘The House Without A Key.’, Sinister and wicked Chinese,.were,old stuff in mystery stories', but an amiable Chinese acting on

the side of law and order had, up to that time, never been used. “Meanwhile, in Honolulu, practically all the-characters in ‘The House Without A Key,’ and its sequels had—quite without reason —been connected with real people, and Chang Apana, an old Chinese who had been on the force more than thirty years, was designated as the original of Charlie Chan. But 1 never met Chang until I had written three of the Chan stories, and when I did, 1 found none of Charlie’s characteristics noticeable. The character of Charlie Chan, is entirely fictitious.” Warner Oland, enacts the title role in “Charlie Clian Carries On,” and the cast includes John Garrick, Marquerite Churchill, Warren Hymer, Marjorie White, and-. C. Henry Gordon. Good supports. .Prices 2/6, 1/6, children 6d downstairs.

Arrangements have been made ■ to screen the results of the elections throughout New Zealand to-morrow night.