Hell's Island

Looks like Paramount decided to make a version of The Maltese Falcon (1941), in Vista Vision, no less. Frankly, I would have preferred good old b&w for the noir material, but then who's going to leave their new-fangled 1955 TV for more b&w. The plot may be familiar— a ruthless spider woman tricks a fall guy for insurance money– but it's still slickly done. Then too, Payne grimaces appropriately as schemes unfold around him, while Murphy looks the part of a deadly bon-bon. Still, she lacks that inner spider dimension that Mary Astor revealed so tellingly in the original. And what about ex-wrestler Sandor Szabo as what else but a gruesome thug.

I had trouble following all the twists and turns of who did what to whom, but I guess it all got explained in the wrap. Too bad production didn't work in more raw evil since director Karlson can really make you feel it. No this is no Phenix City Story (1955) or Kansas City Confidential (1952), the culmination of Karlson's career, at least in my little book. But the results are still engaging, thanks to Payne, a sensually recumbent Murphy, and a fat guy not named Sydney Greenstreet.

John Payne was engaged to Mary Murphy. She left him for a rich man, so Payne replaced her with a dive into the bottle. Eventually he came out of it as a bouncer in a Vegas gambling casino in a tux. Francis L. Sullivan offers him $5000 to go to a small Caribbean island, where Miss Murphy's husband has a very expensive gem belonging to Sullivan, and is in prison for murdering a man.

It's a color film noir of the beat-them-up variety, complete with Payne waking up in a cell with sharks around... providing a link from melodramas to James Bond. Payne had spent the 1930s and 1940s as a contract player, but as he aged, he moved into more violent roles, with some nice work that kept him in the leading man category, but not quite a major star. He was the first Hollywood figure to be sufficiently interested in James Bond to option one of the novels. His movie career ended in the 1960s and he spent the rest of his career doing high-profile guest shots on TV. He died at age 77 in 1989.

This is a surprisingly good movie for being a B feature with no stars and no special names of attraction to it. Above all, it's a well composed and intriguing story. It's a tropical noir in flamboyant colour and with Francis L. Sullivan as the most interesting character, here in a wheel-chair, leading the hunt for a missing invaluable ruby lost in an air crash on this unidentifiable Caribbean island full of mysteries.

The leading lady, a former mistress of John Payne's, is the spider in the web of the mysteries with a husband locked up for life and imprisoned on another island outside as responsible for the death of the one casualy of the air crash, who had the ruby. Well, let's not proceed any further here, since the story as such with all its intrigues and tunnels, twists and turns cannot be told better than by the film.

The very adequate music adds to the magic of the tropical island and the dame of mysteries and intrigue, and there will be some more casualties before the skies eventually will clear and show what really happened, Francis L. Sullivan making the most striking exit in his wheel-chair.

John Payne teamed with director Phil Karlson in the last of their three collaborations. Not as good as Kansas City Confidential, Hell's Island still packs quite a wallop. And Mary Astor from The Maltese Falcon, Claire Trevor from Murder My Sweet, and Jane Greer from Out Of The Past have nothing on Mary Murphy as one scheming two timing dame.

The ever avuncular Francis L. Sullivan hires Payne who was once involved with Murphy to go to some Caribbean island and check on a ruby that her husband Paul Picerni smuggled into the country. He figures that Payne can get close to her. Picerni is on another island in prison.

Payne and Murphy were supposed to be married, but she threw him over for the high flying and high living Picerni. Presumably when she married him Murphy did not know about the smuggling that allowed him to live the good life in the tropics.

Three murders later and Payne who is still carrying a Statue of Liberty size torch for Murphy starts to wise up. Paul Picerni only has one scene in the film and it's with Payne. He tells him the facts of life and really opens up his eyes, can't say more.

Mary Murphy is probably best known as the good girl that biker Marlon Brando fell for in The Wild One. But as far as I'm concerned Hell's Island contains her career performance.

If you see this fine tropic noir film, I think you'll agree.

We begin with a scene under the opening credits where a man (John Payne) is being held at gunpoint by a man in a wheelchair and his cronies. What's going on? Turns out the one being held up is a former D.A. assistant, now a bouncer, hired to retrieve a missing ruby on a Caribbean island, where he knows his ex-girlfriend (Mary Murphy) is. When he gets there and sees her in a market, she runs away. He finds out that there is intrigue aplenty and his ex is possibly in it up to her neck. Can he trust her?

This was a decent one, the third of three teamings of John Payne with director Phil Karlson. (first was Kansas City Confidential, second was 99 River Street) It uses a lot of familiar elements from other noirs and does so mostly successfully. I found the story kinda bogged down here and there, but is generally solid. Some good action and surprises.

The other two movies I mentioned are better, especially the mighty K.C.C., but this is still worth a look, especially if you enjoy Payne as a tough guy.

As an aside, Mary Murphy sure can walk away!



*the lovely actress, not the incredibly annoying screeching woman on those dance shows!