Best movie ever!

An Exercise In Nonsense

A different way of telling a story

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Strong entry in the Chan series with Charlie's friend, writer Louis Heydt, mysteriously dying on the flight from Honolulu to San Francisco after receiving a cable that bothered him deeply. Chan's investigation into the death leads him to the eerie black magic and occult world of Dr. Zodiac. The character of Dr. Zodiac is probably the most bizarre adversary in the Chan series. Uniformly good acting from a good cast with Cesar Romero and Douglass Dumbrille standouts. Even Sen Yung managed to tone it down and gave a good performance. I enjoyed some of the magic and revealing how some of the tricks are done. Highly recommended especially to fans of the series.

A nervous mystery writer drops dead mid-flight on his plane ride home to San Francisco. A heart attack? A suicide? His old friend Charlie Chan—also on the flight—thinks not. Once on the ground, Chan begins sorting through the clues and acquainting himself with a rich array of suspects.Douglas Fowley and Cesar Romero lead a colorful cast in this fast-moving mystery featuring blackmail, a bit of knife throwing, professional jealousy, and a couple of psychics—phony or otherwise. Sidney Toler is in good form as Charlie Chan, again assisted by Victor Sen Yung as number two son Jimmy.The plot involves a fortune teller and magician named Zodiac, a large masked figure whose true identity is somewhat mysterious. Romero is a rival magician who would like to unmask Zodiac; Fowley is a reporter who would love to catch a scoop exposing Zodiac as a fake. Adding to Fowley's motivation is his relationship with girlfriend Pauline Moore—a "real mind reader" who he thinks is being corrupted by her employment under the phony Zodiac. Moore is all nerves, impressively edgy, in a small but key role. Sly and sneaky Douglass Dumbrille is also hanging around suspiciously. Is he really an insurance actuary? What exactly is his interest in the manuscript that the murdered writer had finished just moments before his death? Mr. Chan develops a plan but warns it could be dangerous: "Advise caution. To destroy false prophet, must first unmask him before eyes of believers." It all builds to an exciting climax.The spooky atmosphere, a strong plot, and an excellent assortment of characters add up to a top-notch Chan mystery.

"Charlie Chan at Treasure Island" stands up well, thanks mainly to Virgil Miller's superlative lighting. Plotwise, the script is full of holes, and actingwise it's also somewhat less than perfect. True, Pauline Moore makes the best of all Chan's heroines, but Cesar Romero hands in the worst performance of his career, and hammy Douglas Fowley is not far behind. Oddly, it's that very uneven actor, Douglass Dumbrille, who contributes the outstanding male portrayal. He's an obvious red herring but he handles the role with such suavely elegant aplomb, it's no wonder skillful director Norman Foster hands him so many reaction shots. And I loved Gerald Mohr's Dr Zodiac with his eerily deep, Orson Welles voice. Incidentally, in addition to Berry Kroeger and Norman Foster, see who else you can spot in the flying table audience. Isn't that Walter Lang and Edward Kaufman? Associate art director: Lewis Creber. Set decorator: Thomas Little. Music director: Samuel Kaylin. Sound recording: E. Clayton Ward, William H. Anderson. RCA Sound System. The Press Sheet bills Kaufman as "associate producer" and Sol M. Wurtzel as producer.

Maybe the best of the first three Sidney Toler Chans. Here, Chan investigates the killing of an author who was writing a mystery novel that exposed a fake psychic. Taking place at the San Francisco World's Fair at Treasure Island in 1939, Charlie and son Jimmy become assisted by a show magician named Rhadini (Cesar Romero), who himself has been trying put the finger on phony psychics, and who has been attempting to get a suspected Dr. Zodiac on his stage to try and unmask him. This effort benefits from the usual strong pairing of Toler and Yung, but also an added element of spookiness and the macabre through the séance and mind reading sequences featuring Dr. Zodiac. The wrap-up at the end is particularly well-realized and the killer's reveal is one of the most satisfactory surprises of the series. *** out of ****