Charlie Chan at Treasure Island

A lot of people think this was Sidney Toler's best Charlie Chan film. I don't know about that, but it is one of his better ones, that's for sure. It featured a lot of suspense, along with action and humor - a good bit of everything that makes the Chan movies popular among its fans.

Charlie travels to San Francisco to find out if a friend of his really committed suicide or was murdered. Son "Jimmy" (Sen Yung) comes along for the ride, for some help and some humor. The story revolves around the occult, a familiar theme in films back in the '30s and '40s. Charlie provides an a solid challenge to the charlatans who practice the occult and bilk people out of their money believing in that hocus-pocus. While Chan disproves that stuff, there is one case of a woman definitely having mind-reading abilities that our Chinese friend acknowledges.

A very young (and almost unrecognizable the first time I saw this) Caesar Romero plays a magician, and skeptic ghost-buster and something I can't say without giving away the ending. He was a likable guy and a good edition to the movie.

In all, a fun 75 minutes. Now, if we could just get this to come out DVD.