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Enchanted Island
Two 19th-century sailors jump ship only to discover their tropical paradise is a cannibal stronghold.
Release : | 1958 |
Rating : | 4.8 |
Studio : | Waverly Productions, |
Crew : | Art Direction, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Dana Andrews Jane Powell Don Dubbins Arthur Shields Ted de Corsia |
Genre : | Adventure Drama |
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Very best movie i ever watch
Great Film overall
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
"Enchanted Island" is a decent enough film but the terrible ending...well, that ruins much of the good I'd seen in the picture up until then! When the story begins, a crew of a 19th century merchant ship has just landed on Nuku Hiva island in the South Pacific. Despite seeming like a great place to chase the pretty native girls (or, perhaps because of it), the jerk-face Captain orders everyone back aboard the ship...they're heading out! Not surprisingly, the crew is angry as they haven't had shore leave in 14 months! In fact, a fight breaks out and two of the men, Abner and Tom (Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins) run into the interior of the island. Despite hearing that the Typee people are savage cannibals, they're treated pretty well up until the two really spoil everything.The film is based on Herman Melville's first novel and is a modestly entertaining about life among the savages of Acapulco, Mexico where the film was actually made. However, the ending is bad in several ways-- you just have to see it to believe it...and believe me...you WILL hate it as it makes no sense at all. A sad waste because of this.
There was a time in the Hollywood past when major film actresses bound to studio contracts had to play roles exotic women in wigs and dark makeup. Hedy Lamarr was one of the first. In this film Jane Powell is an exotic native girl who is the interest of Dana Andrews once jumping to avoid persecution willing to settle an in an exotic land to merely escape free world punishment. Although widely buzzed as an exotic island of cannibals the people are merely afraid once their identity is discovered armed European men will conquer them and destroy their family life and culture. The construct of cannibalism in the film is escapees ruin their chance of freedom and even survival and must be killed as their security measure. The person who is eaten is not done so for ritual or for sustenance but because as an escapee likely to blow their cover and destroy them they must hide all evidence of his body once they murder him.
Jane Powell and Dana Andrews star in this exotic, south seas story by Herman Melville. Sailor Aber Bedford falls for island beauty "Fayaway". Mean whaler captain Vangs tells the men they have only ONE hour ashore. There's a cheesy fight scene on the beach, when two of the sailors decide to stay on the island, but that's the beginning of the trouble. One of them has an infection from a knife wound, and they have stumbled into the cannibal part of the island. Don Dubbins is "Tom", the wing man. I think part of the charm of this film is that not many people were traveling in the 1940s and 1950s, so seeing a film about "south sea adventures" was extra fun. The story itself is okay. But why would sailors WANT to stay in the village where they could be killed by the natives? They had numerous chances to leave. Run-of-the-mill love story. Boy meets native girl. Boy falls for native. Can this work out, or will their traditions get in the way? Directed by Allan Dwan... he only directed one more film after this one. Pretty good film, mostly for the island adventure theme.
This odd adventure film, set in the tropics and probably shot in Hawaii, stars the horrendously miscast Dana Andrews as a lawless sailor who falls in love with an island maiden, essayed here by whiter than white Jane Powell in an equally turgid performance. I can't comment on the faithfulness of the adaptation, as I haven't read Melville's novel Typee, but Enchanted Island looks cheap (regardless of the colourful locales), is poorly acted, and is thoroughly dull. Even Jorge Stahl's colour cinematography looks like it was shot on leftover stock or 'ends'. A less than satisfactory late career move by director Allan Dwan, Enchanted Island is only for extremely loyal Andrews completists.