This is considered one of the better one of the Charlie Chan detective mystery series, and I had fun recently watching a downloaded copy.
If you are fans of classic B&W movies, mystery authors getting killed, China Clippers, not one but two stagy-magician types (Rhadini and Dr. Zodiac), pygmy arrows, supernatural and séance debunking, mind-reading demonstrations, blackmailers getting their comeuppance, umpteen pseudo-Confucius sayings (such as “Do not challenge super-natural unless armed with sword of truth”) and red-herrings galore, you’ll enjoy this entry in the series that unfortunately hasn’t been released commercially on DVD.
I was surprised to learn from watching the film that the Treasure Island in the title had nothing to do with Robert Louis Stevenson or Pirate loot. Instead, Treasure Island was and is a real place, an artificial island built in the waters between San Francisco and Oakland California between 1936-1937 from material dredged up from the bottom of the harbour.
Originally built to be an airport for PanAm’s fleet of China Clippers, Treasure Island was also the site of the West Coast’s rival to the New York Worlds Fair, The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE). The Golden Gate Expo, which also ran from 1939-1940 was a big party to celebrate the recent completion of the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge.
I had never heard of the GGIE, and I was amazed at the size and extent of the affair so long ago. In addition to the usual mid-way attractions (both low and lewd-brow) grouped at the ‘GayWay’, there were pavilions from over 23 different nations, many buildings set up by industry, and some pretty spectacular artistic and architectural displays all lit up at night with palm-tree lined boulevards. These include the iconic giant statue of Pacifica (a symbol of oceanic unity), the Reflecting Lagoon, The Triumphal Arch, Towers of the East and the Sun, Court of the Moon, The Pacific Basin Fountain and much more. You can catch a glimpse of this fabulous lost fair from this great site from the Treasure Island Museum Association.
I read about how many city leaders complained about all the nude (and sometimes bizarrely so) statuary, along with such things as “Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch”. And of course fun-goers ran all over the place, getting there by car, ferry boat from either Oakland or San Francisco, or even by plan via one of the flying seaplanes known as China Clippers.
Treasure Island was also for a short while the airport where China Clipper seaplanes bound for Honolulu and Manila departed the US, and it was later confiscated by the US Navy in a controversial airport swap in 1942. The US Navy held onto the base until 1997, and now the city of San Francisco owns the site, which is felt to be somewhat polluted as a result of the Navy occupation. They sometimes use the place for filming movies, and the admin building doubled as the Berlin air-terminal in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
This interesting place would be a great setting for either a vintage pulp murder mystery, or even a contemporary adventure exploring the ruined warehouses and monuments of a by-gone era just off shore from one of the US’s largest cities.
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