Michelle Pfeiffer: <i>Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen</i>

Michelle Pfeiffer: Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen

Revisiting and celebrating the work of Michelle Pfeiffer, the best actress of my lifetime.

If you're looking to understand the full depth and breadth of Michelle Pfeiffer's excellence on the silver screen, you could be forgiven for skipping her second film, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen. In terms of Essential Pfeiffer, it's far from it. Still, it's always worth exploring her earliest work, before she became Michelle Pfeiffer, Movie Star, in order to catch glimpses of her unique talents, just beginning to manifest at such a young age.

The best way to describe this movie is “very much of its time”, with all that entails. It’s intermittently funny but sometimes the slapstick style is groan-worthy. Pfeiffer plays Cordelia, fiancé to the bumbling idiot-savant grandson of the famed detective Charlie Chan (who is played by the Russian actor Peter Ustinov—remember, “very much of its time”). Together, Baby Pfeiffer and future hubby literally stumble and careen their way through one misadventure after another—wait til you get to the one where they sing happy birthday to a dog in order to save their own lives! It’s as exciting as it sounds!

Baby Pfeiffer makes the most of a really goofy part in a really goofy movie. She’s plucky and almost always smiling with great gusto. At one point she confidently grabs the reins in an absurdly bonkers horse and buggy race that has to be seen to be believed. Her excellent comic timing, which would become more apparent years later and in better films, is at least hinted at here. Even if it's hard to find many signs pointing towards future greatness in the performance, she’s downright adorable in the film.

So file this one under “so bad it’s good”—okay, maybe not good, but how about intermittently amusing? Yeah, that works. Plus, and I can’t say this enough: Baby Pfeiffer! It's been well documented around here and elsewhere on the interwebs that I love Baby Pfeiffer. This film, bad as it is, offers a sweet yet goofy taste of the young ingénue, just before her ascension into full-blown stardom.

Comments

UnknownAugust 14, 2018 at 10:30 PM
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😘👑🇺🇸Miss Pfeiffer!
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angelman66August 21, 2018 at 4:49 AM
Miss Pfeiffer was indeed beautiful, and she got paired up with 1970s heartthrb Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica! Need to see this.

Of course, it will benLee Grant and Peter Ustinov who steal the show here, I am sure.

Thanks so much for joining the blogathon! Great post on a movie I now have to see!
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Paul SAugust 27, 2018 at 7:48 AM
Baby Pfeiffer is distractingly beautiful, so much so, I'm sure I'd find it very difficult to concentrate on this movie. Although given your opinion of Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen that might not be a bad thing.
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