shakspryn This is an outstanding Charlie Chan adventure, which succeeds on every level. Sidney Toler gives a first-class performance--his Chan is wise, humorous and compassionate. All the supporting players are good. The plot background is one of a magic show and a creepy psychic in 1939 at the Treasure Island locale around San Francisco.The sets are excellent! The weird-looking psychic lives in a mysterious mansion, of the type which the studios could show so well. The plot is tight and well done. This is absolutely one of the very best of the Toler-Fox Chan films. Toler is totally assured and in control here--you believe he IS Charlie Chan. He owns the part here in a way that really carries the viewer along, for a very enjoyable and adventurous ride!As often with the Chan films, we see some familiar faces among the cast, and they all do well.

MartinHafer This movie is the third Charlie Chan film to star Sidney Toler and is definitely the best of this new actor's Chan movies. That's because even though this film is a bit silly (with all of its psychic mumbo-jumbo), the film is much more interesting and different than the last two films. It helped that the film had support from Cesar Romero as well as the unusual motivations behind a string of suicides.The film is called CHARLIE CHAN AT TREASURE ISLAND because it was set on this brand new island created for the San Francisco Golden Gate Exhibition--a world's fair that was held at the same time as the one in New York. While you see a bit of the exposition in the film, it's really not at all prominent in the movie and film really could have been set anywhere.The plot involves several suicides and Chan's investigation into the connection this has to a psychic. My only complaint about all this is that one person in the film actually did have amazing psychic powers--something that seemed pretty silly to me. However, who the evil psychic was, how he manipulated people to kill themselves and why was all very impressive. Plus, the magic show sequence towards the end of the film was a welcome change from the usual drawing rooms of Chan films. Very entertaining and fun--just what the series needed.

random_ax 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!

jhumlong The movie starts out with Charlie and #2 Son on an ill fated plane trip to San Francisco and the mysterious death of a writer on board. This all leads to several twists in the sub-plot and the entrance of mind reader, the mysterious Dr. Zodiac and his fake spirt world trappings. It is a very good flick and if you enjoyed Warner Oland's Chan, Sidney Toller lives up to his acting especially in this film. The Treasure Island refers to the '39 Worlds Fair exhibit and is part of the plot and includes some very interesting, period photography The ending is very dramatic and I won't spoil it but you "will" like this movie so watch for it, only on Fox Movie Network or TCM, as it is not on VHS.