CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND

US, 1940, 74 minutes, Black-and-white.
Sidney Toler, Cesar Romero, Pauline Moore, Sen Yung, Douglas Fowler, June Gale, Douglass Dumbrille, Sally Blane, Wally Vernon, Donald Mac Bride, Louis Jean Heydt.
Directed by Norman Foster.

This is a very enjoyable Charlie Chan mystery. Sidney Toler seems completely at home in his role as Charlie Chan, having taken over from Warner Oland. Sen Yung has settled into his role as Second Son, Tommy. There is a very good supporting cast of character actors led by Cesar Romero as a famous magician.

Charlie Chan is on a plane with his son talking to an author who is writing an expose of a magician. He is found murdered. His manuscript disappears. There are all kinds of possibilities, especially in making contact with the magician. He is being challenged by a famous spiritualist, Zodiac, a larger than life person, masked, with a special home in San Francisco and an obedient servant.

Charlie Chan and Li magician go to the house for an audience – and then there is the unmasking of the Zodiac, exposing all kinds devices and electrical setups for atmosphere as well as a large reference library for information on clients, his assistant standing in for him at times, exhibitions of mind reading (a theme popular in many of the films at this period and some of the Charlie Chan films). There are various possible suspects including the widow of the novelist and the revelation of some of his former life in prison. There are the police inspectors from San Francisco.
The setting of the film is the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco in 1939 – 1940 and there is some footage of the Exhibition as well as aerial shots of San Francisco.

Most audiences will not be surprised to find that Cesar Romero is, in fact, Zodiac, drumming up audience attention for his own show, the grand finale being a demonstration by Zodiac, threats of death – and Charlie Chan unmasking him.



CHARLIE CHAN FILMS

Charlie Chan was the creation of novelist Earl Deer Biggers, creator of the popular novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (adapted for the stage in the early 20th century and the plot of many films of the same name and variations). Biggers saw the beginning of the popularity of the films of Charlie Chan in the silent era but died at the age of 48 in 1933, just as the series with Warner Land was becoming more popular.

20th Century Fox was responsible for the early Charlie Chan films with Warner Oland and gave them more prestigious production values than many of the short supporting features of the time. After Oland’s death, Fox sold the franchise to Monogram Pictures with Sidney Toler in the central role. They were less impactful than the early films. There were some films later in the 1940s with Roland Winters in the central role.

The films generally ran for about 71 minutes, and similarities in plots, often a warning to Charlie Chan to leave a location, his staying when murders are committed, displaying his expertise in thinking through situations and clues. He generally collaborates with the local police who, sometimes seem, characters, but ultimately are on side.

Warner Oland was a Swedish actor who came with his family to the United States when he was a child. Some have commented that for his Chinese appearance he merely had to adjust his eyebrows and moustache to pass for Chinese – even in China where he was spoken to in Chinese. And the name, Charlie Chan, became a common place for reference to a Chinese. In retrospect there may have been some racial stereotype in his presentation but he is always respectful, honouring Chinese ancestors and traditions. Charlie Chan came from Honolulu.

Quite a number of the film is Keye Luke appeared as his son, very American, brash in intervening, make mistakes, full of American slang (and in Charlie Chan in Paris mangling French). Luke had an extensive career in Hollywood, his last film was in 1990 been Woody Allen’s Alice and the second Gremlins film.

Quite a number of character actors in Hollywood had roles in the Charlie Chan films, and there was a range of directors.

Oland had a portly figure and the screenplay makes reference to this. His diction is precise and much of the screenplay is in wise sayings, aphorisms, which are especially enhanced by the omission of “the� and “a� in delivery which makes them sound more telling and exotic.

There was a Charlie Chan film the late 1970s, Charlie Chan and the Dragon Queen with Peter Ustinov in the central role.