Happiness Is a Warm Clue

(NBC, 7/1/1973, 120 mins). Plans to bring Charlie Chan back to TV in this mystery involving the legendary sleuth and a wealthy Greek ship tycoon aboard the latter’s yacht off the coast of Vancouver resulted in this curiously disappointing TV-movie with a stranger history. Filmed on location in late 1970, it premiered on British television in July 1973 and subsequently disappeared, only to resurface six years later (7/17/79) under a new title for its first American showing— tucked away on late night TV. The subsequent title was “The Return of Charlie Chan.”

Production Companies The Charlie Chan Company, Universal Television. Director Daryl Duke. Executive Producer John J. Cole. Producer Jack Laird. Teleplay Gene Kearney. Based on a Story by Gene Kearney, Simon Last. Photography Richard C. Glouner. Music Robert Prince. Editor Frank Morriss. Art Director Frank Arrigo.

Cast Ross Martin (Charlie Chan), Richard Haydn (Andrew Kidder), Louise Sorel (Ariane Hadrachi), Joseph Hindy (Paul Hadrachi), Kathleen Widdoes (Irene Hadrachi), Don Gordon (Lambert), Peter Donat (Noel Adamson), Leslie Nielsen (Alexander Hadrachi), Rocky Gunn (Peter Chan), Virginia Ann Lee (Doreen Chan), Soon-Teck Oh (Stephen Chan), Ernest Harada (Oliver Chan), William Nunn (Fielding), Patricia Gage (Sylvia Grombach), Ted Greenhalgh (Dr. Howard Jamison), Graham Campbell (Inspector McKenzie), Neil Dainard (Richard Lovell), John Guiliani (Giancarlo Tui), Otto Lowy (Anton Grombach), Pearl Hong (Jan Chan), Adele Yoshioda (Mai-Ling Chan).