Watch Fair Wind to Java For Free

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Republic Pictures knew how to do two things really well—action and special effects. Both are on showcase display in this south seas epic. Okay, no one expects deep think or character development from the studio of the matinée western, and this 90-minutes doesn't disappoint. For Republic, story was just an excuse to stage barroom brawls and shootouts, anyway. The plot here appears a cut-and-paste job from one of their many Saturday afternoon serials (e.g. a masked mastermind), while the characters seldom rise above stereotype. Still, studio honcho Yates spent what for them was a bundle. He even went out and hired A- list Fred MacMurray to pair up with his hapless sweetie Vera Hruba Ralston. MacMurray, always the professional, gives his sea captain his all, while native girl Ralston has little more to do than get dragged around. I'm still puzzled, however, by handsome John Russell's presence in what seems a tacked-on role. Maybe it was something of a screen test for bigger and better things.Anyway, the Trucolor is gorgeous, the action fast and furious if often mindless, while Krakatoa blows up real good. So, if you want your eyes entertained at the same time your brain takes a rest, be sure to tune in.

Capt. Boll (Fred MacMurray) is sailing in the Dutch East Indies in search of diamonds. A slave girl Kim Kim (Vera Ralston) that he buys holds the key to the whereabouts of the diamonds and she becomes the target of pirates, led by Pulo (Robert Douglas) who are also after the same thing. The film is a race between Boll and Pulo to find the diamonds which are located on Krakatoa. As it happens, this all takes place at the same time as the volcano erupts.Its crap. I challenge the viewer to stay with it without wandering off and daydreaming about better things. There is no interest, drama, tension - its a straightforward plodding adventure. Its slow moving and the acting is terrible. Vera Ralston puts on a terrible accent - I mean, imagine pronouncing the word "volcano" as "volcarno" - that is an accent from nowhere! Also extremely irritating is Wilson (Paul Fix) as a pirate. Why have these false, unfunny comedy characters in stories? They are not needed and they provide no humour. Boll has a troop of comedy pirates with Wilson as the worst offender. He wears a ridiculous ear-ring as well. I'd have pushed him overboard.Robert Taylor's mask is quite effective when we first see it, and the volcano wakes you up in the last 10 minutes, but the film is just a waste of time. The sets are so obviously fake (the speed at which the water moves in the background is so laughably unnatural), the sound quality is poor and the model ships are pushed along at speeds that defy belief. At the end of the film you will be drained and just want to go to bed because you have been so bored for the last hour and a half.

In glorious trucolour! Another Republic storybook masterpiece from the last 5 years of the studio, this is an Indiana Jones pirate/volcano movie before anyone thought of Indie...or Did Spielberg Lucas see this aged 8 are regurgitate it into the 80s as with Star Wars 70s epics from other Republic (serial) adventures of the 40s. Actually, don't Spielberg Lucas owe Republic Studios a lot!!.......FAIR WIND TO JAVA stayed in cinema circulation even after 1960 and was often seen in cinema screens at Kids matinees with other Republic films like TOBOR or the hopeless western botch PAWNEE. The 1969 cinerama sized KRAKATOA EAST OF JAVA (it was west, actually) might have attempted a bigger screen and scope, but this 1953 version with Fred and the pirates - and genuinely beautiful art direction and great modelwork, is a lot more fun. Even Vera the acting wife came out of this one well.

A sort of mini-De Mille picture from Republic studios, A Fair Wind To Java is a fast-moving adventure story set in the south seas. Fred MacMurray is excellent as the hero, really quite at home in the sort of costume picture role one wouldn't expect to find him in. What absurdities there are in the story are offset to a large degree by the actor's surprising moral authority as the humane captain. Vera Ralston is lovely if unexceptional as the heroine. The supporting cast is fine and energetic. As always, the Lydecker brothers provide superb special effects on a limited budget. Overall, a watchable, old-fashioned movie, if a tad anachronistic for the fifties. The ending provides genuine spectacle, and is well worth the wait.