Friday, December 10, 2010

I Did Not Know Ricardo Montalban was Japanese

Well, part of this blog was to be devoted to things that I determine to be moronic. I have deviated a bit from that theme but today I have something to write about that I found to be highly moronic. Ages ago Hollywood had this thing about oriental actors...They did not want to use them. Look at the old Charlie Chan movies and you will see this. Warner Oland and Sydney Toler both played Charlie Chan and neither of them was a bit Chinese. This leads me to this bit of total moronica that caused me to write this nonsense.
Yesterday I watched an old Hawaii Five-O episode from season one(1968) called 'Samurai", it was about this Japanese man who was targeted by the Bushido because of something he did during World War Two. I will not delve into this but I found it highly moronic that this Japanese gentleman was played by Ricardo Montalban. He did not sound a bit Japanese and you could almost hear his soon to be famous words 'rich Corinthian leather' rolling from his lips. The makeup department did their best to make him look the part but there is only so much stuff you can put around the eyes without them looking comical. Well they exceeded that level and Ricardo looked just plain moronic playing this part. His acting was fine but how can you cast that man, with that trademark voice, as a Japanese character???? He was always a pleasure to watch act but this part was not him. And, of course, Steve McGarrett(Jack Lord), who is my hero, saved the day again. That old series was a classic.
The new version of the series does not interest me as it just flies by to quickly. The decrease in the amount of story time as the result of the increase in the number of ads takes so much away from the story development nowadays. Just compare the old with the new and you will see that. This is your King wishing you a pleasant evening. Have a happy!

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