Nipsey Russell and Mantan!

At the Apollo Theater, 1955.

Hey, Mister Chan

Well, what do you know? TCM is releasing a Charlie Chan boxed set. I'm a big Chan fan, having spent many insomnia-riddled nights working my way through NY's Ch11 run of all the Chans - Oland, Toler, and Winters (hello, a Swede, a Scot and a Bostonian?) until they finally switched over to Mr. Moto (a German playing a Japanese!) and Sherlock Holmes. These are two other great loves of mine, but we'll save that for later.

Sadly, these are not subtitled (oh, the joy the screengrabs would bring) and there is nary a mention of Mantan Moreland in the writeup - regular readers of The Slammer needn't guess why. I'm sure that TCM did a bang-up job in restoring the Monogram prints but hell.


Chan is one cool Swedish Chinese cat.

King of the Zombies

Mantan steals the show! I saw this when I was a kid and never forgot the "when I was alive" line. I just watched it a few months ago. It also features the incredible Madame-Sul-te-Wan, a groundbreaking black actress who is barely remembered today, sadly.



Mantan, Madame Sul-te-Wan, and Willie Best are all buried near each other in Valhalla Cemetery, North Hollywood. Mantan's grave reads: "Beloved father and grandfather."

Mantan at Baikinange

Mantan Moreland featured at Schadenfreudian Therapy

Mantan Moreland

I am a big fan of the grossly underrated Mantan Moreland. Sure, it's easy to point at the obvious racist sterotypes - but get past that, and marvel at his incredible comic timing, physicality, and how he walks away with every scene he's in. He made the best of what he had ... and one of these days I'm gonna get my hands on that "party record" he made in the 60s. Marky and I pay regular visits to Mantan's grave.

Here's some screengrabs from Cabin in the Sky, where he plays Lucifer Jr's "First Idea Man" (with the forgotten Willie Best as the Second Idea Man.)









I love the cel phone pics - they're much more surreal.