Charlie Chan nell'isola del tesoro

This worthy addition to the Charlie Chan canon is chock full of the usual genre gimmicks: lightening storms, seances and Confucianism. The inscrutable Sydney Toler travels to the Century of Progress Exhibition in San Francisco to investigate the apparent suicide of a friend. Naturally his "number two son" Jimmy tags along to provide comic relief. Young Cesar Romero plays a skeptical ghost-buster. Pauline Moore is typically shrill and hysterical. There is no sign of Mantan Moreland at all, thank heavens. Director Norman Foster and cinematographer Virgil Miller suffuse everything with ominous gloom. By any standard, this mystery-thriller is a complete success. If you need further chills, it might interest you to know that California's uncaptured Zodiac Killer is believed to have modeled certain elements of his M.O. upon the villain of this film.

The infamous Zodiac Killer might have been inspired by this film. The most probable suspect, who has since passed away, used to love this movie and became obsessed with it. If you watch the film and then read about the Zodiac case, you'll see eerie patterns in the writings of the Zodiac Killer and the character of Dr Zodiac in the film. I can easily see how a young kid could be influenced by the creepy Dr Zodiac and the way he taunted authorities..just like the Zodiac Killer would do decades later with similar phrases. Anyway, the film is easily one of the best in the series and still manages to entertain and frighten a bit. I urge you to view this one!

On a plane headed to San Francisco, Charlie Chan and one of his sons witness the death of a famous writer. The man's death sets the film's plot in motion, as Charlie and company investigate the mysterious "Dr. Zodiac", a grim and extremely intimidating figure who is tall, wears a large mask, and has "psychic" powers.

This is one of the better films in the Charlie Chan series. The story has some really good plot misdirection, consistent with the theme of magic. I correctly picked the killer, but only after a certain plot point toward the end. Up to that point, I was way off in my guess.

But this film is superior to other Charlie Chan films mostly because of the terrific B&W cinematography. The lighting trends toward stark contrasts, with spooky shadows. Some good cross lighting and black curtain effects, together with great close-ups of eyes in the darkness, amplify the suspense. Overall visual styling is more complex, more artistic than in other Charlie Chan movies. The other-worldly persona of Dr. Zodiac combined with the striking visuals give the film real atmospheric character.

I do have a couple of complaints. The suspect pool is not terribly exciting. I would have liked for the existing suspects to have more screen time; also, I would have preferred a larger number of suspects. Second, the way in which the whodunit puzzle is solved is not standard, to say the least. But maybe back in those days, people gave as much credence to mental telepathy as they did to logical deduction.

The film uses San Francisco's "Treasure Island" as a backdrop to the story, which adds some contextual flavor to the film, though unnecessary to the plot. Overall, this is a fine film, one that will appeal especially to die hard Charlie Chan fans.

Before history gets rewritten (incorrectly) on more of these comments, this movie was set at the Golden Gate International Exposition (sometimes erroneously known as the San Francisco World's Fair) which was held in San Francisco on what was known as Treasure Island in 1939 and 1940. (There is still a small museum of Expo artifacts in the horseshoe-shaped Administration Building.) It was not the "Century of Progress Exhibition" as some people have thought. That was the 1933 Fair held in Chicago! The real footage of this Exposition is terrific, especially the aerial views. I think the writers used the backdrop of the Expo to their advantage. The magic show was very entertaining and the clairvoyant was eerie. All in all, this is one of the best of the Chan series.

I recently bought this video on Ebay. I'm told it's hard to find in stores. I recall the Dr Zodiac scenes being frightening as a kid and you know, there are still scenes in this that give me the creeps.

The scene where the female psychic keeps sensing evil (evil looking like two eyeballs illuminated in the darkness) and that nasty looking Dr Zodiac gave me nightmares. I wonder why they don't make a Charlie Chan movie today with some Asian actor finally playing Charlie.