Sidney Toler is "Charlie Chan at Treasure Island" in this delightful 1939 20th Century Fox film. Toler is more energetic here than in the later films, where he fell into ill health. This film also features Victor Sen Yung as Jimmy Chan, Cesar Romero, and Loretta Young's sister, Sally Blane, who had a strong resemblance to her sister.
The Charlie Chan films are rich in history, both in being un-politically correct and in what was going on at the time, since many of the mysteries centered around a famous event. This event is the 1939 World Exposition on San Francisco's Treasure Island. I wonder if planes ever really looked like that - big, comfortable deco chairs that looked like suede rather than leather. As one who travels often, I sighed when I saw them. On the plane is a friend of Charlie's who has recently vacationed in Hawaii and is going home to San Francisco. He's an author, but after he receives an upsetting radiogram, he is found dead, presumably from a heart attack. Charlie doesn't buy it. He thinks it might be murder or suicide. And a purported insurance man absconds with his manuscript. The radiogram had to do with "Zodiac" and as Charlie soon learns, Zodiac is a person, and Charlie sets out to expose him as a fake psychic and figure out why his clients are committing suicide.
Because Hawaii isn't yet a state, everyone has to go through customs, which I found interesting.
Very good mystery, though I had it figured out, having seen so many mysteries in my life. It's entertaining, it's fun, it moves right along. Jimmy Chan and his various disguises is a riot.
The Charlie Chan films are rich in history, both in being un-politically correct and in what was going on at the time, since many of the mysteries centered around a famous event. This event is the 1939 World Exposition on San Francisco's Treasure Island. I wonder if planes ever really looked like that - big, comfortable deco chairs that looked like suede rather than leather. As one who travels often, I sighed when I saw them. On the plane is a friend of Charlie's who has recently vacationed in Hawaii and is going home to San Francisco. He's an author, but after he receives an upsetting radiogram, he is found dead, presumably from a heart attack. Charlie doesn't buy it. He thinks it might be murder or suicide. And a purported insurance man absconds with his manuscript. The radiogram had to do with "Zodiac" and as Charlie soon learns, Zodiac is a person, and Charlie sets out to expose him as a fake psychic and figure out why his clients are committing suicide.
Because Hawaii isn't yet a state, everyone has to go through customs, which I found interesting.
Very good mystery, though I had it figured out, having seen so many mysteries in my life. It's entertaining, it's fun, it moves right along. Jimmy Chan and his various disguises is a riot.